Editing Language acquisition (section)

{{Short description|Process in which a first language is being acquired}} 
{{Redirect|Language learning||Language learning (disambiguation)}}
{{Linguistics|Subfields}}
{{Human growth and development}}

'''Language acquisition''' is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend [[language]]. In other words, it is how human beings gain the ability to be aware of language, to understand it, and to produce and use [[word]]s and [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]]s to communicate.

Language acquisition involves structures, rules, and representation. The capacity to successfully use language requires human beings to acquire a range of tools, including [[phonology]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[syntax]], [[semantics]], and an extensive [[vocabulary]]. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in [[sign language|sign]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Pichler |first=Chen |date=2015 |title=Language Learning through the Eye and Ear Webcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7yWp5PbYi0&list=PLlrnGYHaVvTh0bCf_tssC2OOncCoShsTb&index=13 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/national-resources/learning/learning-opportunities/webcasts/language-learning-through-the-eye-and-ear-webcast.html |archive-date=15 December 2020 |access-date=17 December 2023 |website=Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center |publisher=[[Gallaudet University]]}}</ref> Human language capacity is [[language processing in the brain|represented in the brain]]. Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called [[recursion]]. Evidence suggests that every individual has three recursive [[Mechanisms of mindfulness meditation|mechanisms]] that allow sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms are: ''relativization'', ''complementation'' and ''coordination''.<ref name="Lightfoot, 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Lightfoot |first1=David |title=Language acquisition and language change |journal=WIREs Cognitive Science |date=September 2010 |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=677–684 |doi=10.1002/wcs.39 |pmid=26271652 }}</ref>

There are two main guiding principles in first-language acquisition: [[speech perception]] always precedes [[speech production]], and the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built up one step at a time, beginning with the distinction between individual [[phoneme]]s.<ref>{{cite book|author= Fry, Dennis|year=1977|title=Homo loquens, Man as a talking animal|url= https://archive.org/details/homoloquensmanas00fryd|url-access= registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages= [https://archive.org/details/homoloquensmanas00fryd/page/107 107]–108|isbn=978-0-521-29239-9}}</ref>

For many years, linguists interested in child language acquisition have questioned how language is acquired. Lidz et al. state, "The question of how these structures are acquired, then, is more properly understood as the question of how a learner takes the surface forms in the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules and representations."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lidz |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Waxman |first2=Sandra |last3=Freedman |first3=Jennifer |title=What infants know about syntax but couldn't have learned: experimental evidence for syntactic structure at 18 months |journal=Cognition |date=October 2003 |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=295–303 |doi=10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00116-1 |pmid=12963265 }}</ref>

Language acquisition usually refers to '''first-language acquisition'''. It studies infants' acquisition of their [[First language|native language]], whether that is a spoken language or a sign language,<ref name=":0" /> though it can also refer to '''[[Simultaneous bilingualism|bilingual first language acquisition]]''' (BFLA), referring to an infant's simultaneous acquisition of two native languages.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bergman |first=Coral Rhodes |date=1976 |editor-last1=Keller |editor-first1=Gary D. |editor-last2=Teschner |editor-first2=Richard V. |editor-last3=Viera |editor-first3=Silvia |title=Bilingualism in the Bicentennial and Beyond |publisher=Bilingual Press |pages=86–96 |chapter=Interference vs. independent development in infant bilingualism |isbn=978-0-916950-01-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Genesee |first1=Fred |date=1989 |title=Early bilingual development: One language or two? |journal=Journal of Child Language |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=161–179 |doi=10.1017/S0305000900013490 |pmid=2647777 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de Houwer |first=Annick |author-link=Annick De Houwer |date=1990 |title=The Acquisition of Two Languages from Birth |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780511519789}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de Houwer |first=Annick |author-link=Annick De Houwer |date=1996 |editor-last1=Fletcher |editor-first1=Paul |editor-last2=MacWhinney |editor-first2=Brian |title=The Handbook of Child Language |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |chapter=Bilingual Language Acquisition |isbn=978-0-631-20312-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hulk |first1=Aafke |last2=Müller |first2=Natascha |title=Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics |journal=Bilingualism: Language and Cognition |date=December 2000 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=227–244 |doi=10.1017/S1366728900000353 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Paradis |first1=Johanne |last2=Genesee |first2=Fred |title=Syntactic Acquisition in Bilingual Children: Autonomous or Interdependent? |journal=Studies in Second Language Acquisition |date=March 1996 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1017/S0272263100014662 |jstor=44487857 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Serratrice |first1=Ludovica |last2=Sorace |first2=Antonella |last3=Paoli |first3=Sandra |title=Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax–pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English–Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition |journal=Bilingualism: Language and Cognition |date=December 2004 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=183–205 |doi=10.1017/S1366728904001610 }}</ref> This is distinguished from ''[[second-language acquisition]]'', which deals with the acquisition (in both [[Language acquisition by deaf children|children]] and adults) of additional languages. On top of speech, reading and writing a language with an entirely different script increases the complexities of true foreign language [[literacy]]. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits.<ref name="Friederici 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Friederici |first1=Angela D. |title=The Brain Basis of Language Processing: From Structure to Function |journal=Physiological Reviews |date=October 2011 |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=1357–1392 |doi=10.1152/physrev.00006.2011 |pmid=22013214 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=An invitation to cognitive science|last1=Kosslyn|first1=Stephen M.|last2=Osherson|first2=Daniel N.|publisher=MIT Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-262-65045-8|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=613819557}}{{page needed|date=December 2024}}</ref>