Table of Contents
Semantic Rules--Language Content
The Child must determine which referents belong within a Symbol's umbrella of meaning.
Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device and Classical Conditioning Theory may explain Symbolic Acquisition.
B. F. Skinner proposed a theory of Operant Conditioning to account for Language Acquisition
Vygotsky suggests that much can be learned through the Context of language.
Motherese is a technique parents use to facilitate language development, but the big gun is READING to your child.
Although it has potential for good, Television is now the Evil Empire against Language Development.
Symbols can have two types of meaning--Denotative and Connotative.
The Human sentence is subject to the constraints of Semantic Rules.
Each Word in a sentence is like a piece of a puzzle and must match the other pieces in order to fit correctly.
If words that do not match are combined in a sentence, the overall meaning may be sacrificed
Pragmatic Rules--Language Use
Pragmatics addresses the question, ÜIs the communication doing what we intended it to do?S
There are three factors in a verbal communication: Locution. Illocution, and Perlocution.
When Locution, Illocution and Perlocution are out of balance, serious miscommunications can occur.
Pragmatic rules help us coordinate the structure of the utterance with the context of the message.
Pragmatically, the message must be coordinated with the non linguistic context--Non Verbal and Paralinguistic cues.
Non Linguistic Contextual cues can totally change the Locutionary content of a linguistic message.
Pragmatically, the linguistic message must be balanced internally with an array of verbal rules of discourse.
Ignoring the verbal rules of discourse can result in a loss of friends.
One of the most important Verbal aspects to be considered is Lexical Selection.
Words selected incorrectly relative to the situation can loose their intended communicative impact.
Sometimes, the external context is so subtle we fail to even recognize it. I think this was nicely described by Dr. Deborah Tannen, Ph.D., in her book, That's not what I meant!
Gender cultural differences provide a subtle contextual background that can cause communication disasters.
Pragmatic Rules can make a good communication, but they do not necessarily make a good person.
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Author: Ed Hall
Email: ehall@csun.edu
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