《语言学习与语言教学的原则》 笔记及习题(第一语言习得)【圣才出品

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第2章 第一语言习得

2.1 复习笔记

本章要点：

1. Theories of first language acquisition 第一语言习得的理论

2. Competence and performance 语言能力与语言表现

本章考点：

1. 第一语言习得的理论：行为主义，先天主义，功能主义；

2. 相关概念：语言能力与语言表现，语言理解与语言产出；

3. 相关议题：先天还是后天，普遍规律，系统性与差异性，语言和思想，模仿。

本章内容索引：

Ⅰ. Approaches

1. Behavioristic approaches

2. The Nativist approach

3. Functional approaches

Ⅱ. Concepts

1. Competence and performance

2. Comprehension and production

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Ⅲ. Topics

1. Nature and nurture

2. Universals

3. Systematicity and variability

4. Language and thought

5. Imitation

Ⅰ. Approaches（理论）

1. Behavioristic approaches（行为主义理论）

The behavioristic approach focuses on the immediately perceptible aspects of

linguistic behavior and the relationships or associations between those responses

and events in the world surrounding them.

行为主义理论关注语言行为的即时的显而易见的方面，以及这些反应和周围事件之间的

关联。

(1) Skinner’s theory of verbal behavior（斯金纳言语行为理论）

Skinner’s theory of verbal behavior was an extension of his general theory of

learning by operant conditioning. Operant conditioning refers to conditioning in

which the organism (in this case, a human being) emits a response, or operant (a

sentence or utterance), without necessarily observable stimuli; that operant is

maintained (learned) by reinforcement (for example, a positive verbal or nonverbal

response for another person). According to Skinner, verbal behavior, like other

behavior, is controlled by its consequences.

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斯金纳的言语行为理论是他对操作条件学习理论的扩充。操作条件是指有机体（这里指

人）在无刺激时做出反应或操作（一个句子或一句话）的条件；操作通过强化（如，他人的

积极言语或非言语反应）来维持。根据斯金纳的这一理论，言语行为和其他行为一样，由结

果来控制。

(2) mediation theory（中介理论）

In an attempt to broaden the base of behavioristic theory, some psychologists

proposed mediation theory. In mediation theory, meaning was accounted for by

the claim that the linguistic stimulus (a word or sentences) elicits a “mediating”

response that is self-stimulating.

为了拓宽行为主义理论的基础，一些心理学家提出中介理论。在中介理论中，语言刺激

（一个词或句子）引出一个自我刺激的“中介”反应，由此产生意义。

Jenkins and Palermo (1964) claimed that the child may acquire frames of a

phrase-structure grammar and learn the stimulus-response equivalences that can

be substituted within each frame; imitation was an important if not essential aspect

of establishing stimulus-response associations.

詹金斯和巴勒莫（1964）认为，儿童可能习得短语结构框架，学习每个框架中可以被

替代的等效刺激-反应；模仿是建立刺激-反应连接的重要条件，若非必要条件。

However, behavioristic theories still left many questions about language

unanswered.

但是，还有许多语言问题是行为主义理论没有解答的。

2. The Nativist approach（先天主义理论）

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The term nativist is derived from the fundamental assertion that language

acquisition is innately determined, that we are born with a built-in device of some

kind that predisposes us to language acquisition-to a systematic perception of

language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of

language.

先天主义一词基于这样一个说法，即语言的习得是先天决定的，我们天生有一种内部机

制，它能使我们习得语言，能使我们系统地感知周围的语言，从而建构一套语言的内部系统。

(1) a language acquisition device (LAD)（一种语言习得机制（LAD））

Chomsky (1965) claimed the existence of innate properties of language to

explain the child’s mastery of his native language in such a short time despite the

highly abstract nature of the rules of language. This innate knowledge, according to

Chomsky, is embodied in a “little black box” of sorts, a language acquisition

device (LAD). McNeill (1966) described LAD as consisting of four innate linguistic

properties: 1) the ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in the

environment, 2) the ability to organize linguistic events into various classes which

can later be refined, 3) knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is

possible and that other kinds are not, 4) the ability to engage in constant evaluation

of the developing linguistic system so as to construct the simplest possible system

out of the linguistic data that are encountered.

乔姆斯基（1965）认为，语言存在固有属性，这可以解释为什么儿童能够在短时期内

习得母语，尽管语言规则在本质上是高度抽象的。这种固有的知识体现在某种“小黑盒子”

中，即一种语言习得机制（LAD）。按照麦克尼尔（1966）的描述，LAD由四种固有的语

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言特征组成：1）能区分口语和环境中的其他声音；2）能将语言事件组织成多种今后可以

完善的类别；3）知道只有某类语言系统是可能的，其他类别是不可能的；4）能持续地评

价正在形成的语言系统，以便在所遇到的语言材料中构建出最简单的有效的语言系统。

(2) Universal Grammar (UG)（普遍语法）

Positing that all human beings are genetically equipped with language-specific

abilities, researchers are now expanding the LAD notion into a system of universal

linguistic rules which has come to be known as Universal Grammar (UG). UG

research is attempting to discover what it is that all children, regardless of their

environmental stimuli (the language (s) they hear around them) bring to the

language acquisition process.

研究者假定人类先天具有特定的语言能力，将LAD的概念扩展成一套普遍的语言规则，

并称之为普遍语法（UG）。普遍语法研究旨在探究所有儿童习得语言的过程，不论他们受到

怎样的环境刺激（他们所听到的周围的语言）。

(3) the generative framework（生成框架）

Research has revealed that the child’s language, at any given point, is a

legitimate system in its own right. Before generative linguistics came into vogue,

Jean Berko (1958) demonstrated that children learn language not as a series of

separate discrete items, but as an integrated system. The generative model has

enabled researchers to take some giant steps toward understanding the process of

first language acquisition. The early grammars of child language were referred to as

pivot grammars.

研究发现，无论怎么看，儿童的语言都是一个合理的系统。在生成语言学开始流行之前，

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让·贝尔科（1958）证明，儿童学习语言时不是把语言当作一系列独立的不连续的东西，而

是把语言当作一个整体系统。生成模式使研究者加深了对第一语言习得的理解。儿童语言的

早期语法被认为是支点语法。

In general, approaches within the nativist framework have made at least three

important contributions to our understanding of the first language acquisition

process: 1) freedom from the restrictions of the so-called “scientific method” to

explore the unseen, unobservable, underlying, abstract linguistic structures being

developed in the child; 2) systematic description of the child’s linguistic repertoire

as either rule-governed or operating out of a parallel distributed processing

capacities; and 3) the construction of a number of potential properties of Universal

Grammar.

总的来说，先天主义理论明确了三点：

1）从所谓的“科学方法”中挣脱出来，探索儿童所形成的看不见的、难以观察的、潜

在的、抽象的语言结构；

2）将儿童的全部语言变体系统地描述为受规则支配的或是依靠并行分布式处理能力进

行运作的；

3）构建了普遍语法的许多潜在特征。

3. Functional approaches（功能主义理论）

As Lois Bloom (1976:37) summarized, there have been two main thrusts in

attempts to explain how children learn to talk. On the one hand, it was proposed

that the course of language development depends directly on the nature of the

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