The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the WorldA child's very first word is a miraculous sound, the opening note in a lifelong symphony. Most parents never forget the moment. But that first word is soon followed by a second and a third, and by the age of three, children are typically learning ten new words every day and speaking in complete sentences. The process seems effortless, and for children, it is. But how exactly does it happen? How do children learn language? And why is it so much harder to do later in life? Drawing on cutting-edge developments in biology, neurology, psychology, and linguistics, Charles Yang's The Infinite Gift takes us inside the astonishingly complex but largely subconscious process by which children learn to talk and to understand the spoken word. Yang illuminates the rich mysteries of language: why French newborns already prefer the sound of French to English; why baby-talk, though often unintelligible, makes perfect linguistic sense; why babies born deaf still babble -- but with their hands; why the grammars of some languages may be evolutionarily stronger than others; and why one of the brain's earliest achievements may in fact be its most complex. Yang also puts forth an exciting new theory. Building on Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar -- the idea that every human being is born with an intuitive grasp of grammar -- Yang argues that we learn our native languages in part by unlearning the grammars of all the rest. This means that the next time you hear a child make a grammatical mistake, it may not be a mistake at all; his or her grammar may be perfectly correct in Chinese or Navajo or ancient Greek. This is the brain's way of testing its options as it searches for the local and thus correct grammar -- and then discards all the wrong ones. And we humans, Yang shows, are not the only creatures who learn this way. In fact, learning by unlearning may be an ancient evolutionary mechanism that runs throughout the animal kingdom. Thus, babies learn to talk in much the same way that birds learn to sing. Enlivened by Yang's experiences with his own young son, The Infinite Gift is as charming as it is challenging, as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. An absorbing read for parents, educators, and anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of that uniquely human gift: our ability to speak and, just as miraculous, to understand one another. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... extinct, spoken in what is modern-day Turkey. Psamtik thus conceded that the Phrygians, speakers of the original tongue, were an older people than 6 THE INFINITE GIFT the Egyptians. No one is sure Yang_Gift_i-278_PTR 5/5/06 2:59 PM Page5.
... extinct, spoken in what is modern-day Turkey. Psamtik thus conceded that the Phrygians, speakers of the original tongue, were an older people than 6 THE INFINITE GIFT the Egyptians. No one is sure Yang_Gift_i-278_PTR 5/5/06 2:59 PM Page5.
Page 6
... sure whether these events actually happened, and of course, if they did, the king's conclusion would not pass a scientific journal's review board. He failed to establish the premise of his cruel experiment: the king apparently assumed ...
... sure whether these events actually happened, and of course, if they did, the king's conclusion would not pass a scientific journal's review board. He failed to establish the premise of his cruel experiment: the king apparently assumed ...
Page 15
... sure of anything, and never learn a language (or a single word). Since we get on just fine, hidden assumptions must reside somewhere in the brain. Unfortunately, for many aspects of human cognition, we have come to know the necessity of ...
... sure of anything, and never learn a language (or a single word). Since we get on just fine, hidden assumptions must reside somewhere in the brain. Unfortunately, for many aspects of human cognition, we have come to know the necessity of ...
Page 19
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Page 37
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Contents
1 | |
11 | |
Silent Rehearsals | 33 |
Wuckoo | 51 |
Word Factory | 73 |
Colorless Green Ideas | 93 |
Twenty Questions | 127 |
The Superiority of the German Language | 175 |
Other editions - View all
The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of th Charles Yang No preview available - 2010 |
The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World Charles Yang No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
acoustic adults American articulatory babbling babies behavior biological brain Cambridge categorical perception Chapter Child Language children learn Chinese Chomsky Cognition COLORLESS GREEN IDEAS complex consonants consonants and vowels Crain Darwin English-speaking environment evolution evolutionary example experience FOXP2 French genes GERMAN LANGUAGE Gleitman guage hear human language infants INFINITE GIFT innate instance Italian Japanese Jusczyk Korean language acquisition language change language learning Latin linguistic means Middle English Milhouse morphology motherese native language natural selection noun phrase Old English parameter parents phonological Pinker Pooh principle pronoun pronunciation prosody psychology rabbit rule Russell sentences Sideshow Bob sounds Spanish speak speakers specific speech speech perception structure suffix syllable talk theory things tion tongue body tongue tip turn TWENTY QUESTIONS universal grammar University Press verb vocal tract vowels Warlpiri Wexler wh-movement word factory word order WUCKOO York
Popular passages
Page 8 - The child who learns a language has in some sense constructed the grammar for himself on the basis of his observation of sentences and nonsentences (ie corrections by the verbal community).