Editing Language acquisition (section)

==As a typically human phenomenon==
The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes [[FOXP2 and human evolution|humans]] from other beings. Although it is difficult to pin down what aspects of language are uniquely human, there are a few design features that can be found in all known forms of human language, but that are missing from forms of [[animal communication]]. For example, many animals are able to communicate with each other by signaling to the things around them, but this kind of communication lacks the arbitrariness of human vernaculars (in that there is nothing about the sound of the word "dog" that would hint at its meaning). Other forms of animal communication may utilize arbitrary sounds, but are unable to combine those sounds in different ways to create completely novel messages that can then be automatically understood by another. [[Charles F. Hockett|Hockett]] called this design feature of human language "productivity". It is crucial to the understanding of human language acquisition that humans are not limited to a finite set of words, but, rather, must be able to understand and utilize a complex system that allows for an infinite number of possible messages. So, while many forms of animal communication exist, they differ from human language in that they have a limited range of vocabulary tokens, and the vocabulary items are not combined syntactically to create phrases.<ref name="=Tomasello, 2008">{{cite book |doi=10.7551/mitpress/7551.001.0001 |title=Origins of Human Communication |date=2008 |last1=Tomasello |first1=Michael |isbn=978-0-262-28507-0 }}{{page needed|date=December 2024}}</ref>
[[File:A boy found in the forests of Aveyron, France, who had been Wellcome V0016558.jpg|thumb|Victor of Aveyron]]
[[Herbert S. Terrace]] conducted a study on a chimpanzee known as [[Nim Chimpsky]] in an attempt to teach him [[American Sign Language]]. This study was an attempt to further research done with a chimpanzee named [[Washoe (chimpanzee)|Washoe]], who was reportedly able to acquire American Sign Language. However, upon further inspection, Terrace concluded that both experiments were failures.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carey |first1=Benedict |date=1 November 2007 |title=Washoe, a Chimp of Many Words, Dies at 42 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=A15 |id={{ProQuest|848158890}} |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/science/01chimp.html }}</ref> While Nim was able to acquire signs, he never acquired a knowledge of grammar, and was unable to combine signs in a meaningful way. Researchers noticed that "signs that seemed spontaneous were, in fact, cued by teachers",<ref>{{cite news |last1=Terrace |first1=Herbert S |title=Nim Chimpsky and Noam Chomsky |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-origin-words/201908/nim-chimpsky-and-noam-chomsky |work=Psychology Today |date=5 August 2019 }}</ref> and not actually productive. When Terrace reviewed Project Washoe, he found similar results. He postulated that there is a fundamental difference between animals and humans in their motivation to learn language; animals, such as in Nim's case, are motivated only by physical reward, while humans learn language in order to "create a new type of communication".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Terrace |first1=Herbert S |title=How Infants Learn to Use Words |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-origin-words/202008/how-infants-learn-use-words |work=Psychology Today |date=24 August 2020 }}</ref>

In another language acquisition study, [[Jean Marc Gaspard Itard|Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard]] attempted to teach [[Victor of Aveyron]], a feral child, how to speak. Victor was able to learn a few words, but ultimately never fully acquired language.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-10-19|title=The Wild Child of Aveyron & Critical Periods of Learning|url=https://thelaymanslinguist.com/2019/10/19/the-wild-child-of-aveyron/|access-date=2020-09-30|website=The Layman's Linguist|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415105559/https://www.thelaymanslinguist.com/2019/10/19/the-wild-child-of-aveyron/|url-status=dead}}{{self-published inline|date=December 2024}}</ref> Slightly more successful was a study done on [[Genie (feral child)|Genie]], another child never introduced to society. She had been entirely isolated for the first thirteen years of her life by her father. Caretakers and researchers attempted to measure her ability to learn a language. She was able to acquire a large vocabulary, but never acquired grammatical knowledge. Researchers concluded that the theory of a [[Critical period hypothesis|critical period]] was {{nowrap|true{{hsp}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}}}Genie was too old to learn how to speak productively, although she was still able to comprehend language.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brogaard |first1=Berit |title=The Feral Child Nicknamed Genie |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201707/the-feral-child-nicknamed-genie |work=Psychology Today |date=10 July 2017 }}</ref>