Study Guide: Human Capacity for Language and Morphology

Overview

This study guide brings together two central themes in the pack: the human capacity for language and the structure of morphology, the study of words and their meaningful parts. Denham and Lobeck present language as a uniquely human cognitive system that is acquired naturally by children and structured by rule-governed patterns rather than simple imitation.

The Human Capacity for Language

Children acquire language rapidly and systematically from the language around them. Their development follows recognizable stages, and their so-called “mistakes” often show that they are actively constructing grammatical rules rather than merely copying adult speech. This supports the view that humans are specially equipped for language acquisition.

The chapter also distinguishes first language acquisition from second language acquisition. First language acquisition is a natural developmental process, while second language acquisition is shaped by factors such as age, social context, and prior linguistic knowledge. Topics such as interlanguage, bilingualism, and misconceptions about bilingualism show that multilingual ability is a normal and important part of human language capacity.

Language Creation and Development

Evidence for the human language faculty also comes from the emergence of pidgins and creoles. These phenomena show that humans do not simply repeat input but can develop structured linguistic systems. The chapter uses such cases to argue that language creation reflects underlying human capacities for grammar and pattern building.

Language and the Brain

Denham and Lobeck connect language to the brain through neurolinguistics, the study of the brain mechanisms underlying language. Evidence comes from people whose language is impaired despite otherwise typical cognition, as well as from people with cognitive impairments who still show notable language abilities. These contrasts suggest that language is not just a by-product of general intelligence.

The materials also discuss lateralization, especially evidence that the left hemisphere plays a major role in language. Research involving brain injury, split-brain studies, and imaging methods such as PET scans, MRIs, and EEGs helps researchers investigate how language is processed in the brain.

Morphology: Words and Parts

Morphology is the study of word structure. It examines how words are built from smaller meaningful units called morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that carries meaning or grammatical function.

• Free morphemes can stand alone as words.
• Bound morphemes must attach to other forms.
• Roots provide a word’s core meaning.
• Affixes attach to roots or stems, including prefixes and suffixes.

A major distinction in morphology is between derivational and inflectional morphology. Derivational morphology forms new words or changes word class, while inflectional morphology marks grammatical information such as tense, number, or comparison without creating a new lexical item.

Why Morphology Matters

Morphology helps explain how speakers know the internal structure of words and how they can produce and understand new forms. It also connects to language acquisition: children show awareness of morphological patterns when they extend rules to forms they have not memorized individually. This reveals that word formation, like syntax and other aspects of grammar, is rule governed.

Key Takeaways

• Humans possess a distinctive capacity to acquire language.
• Children’s language development is systematic and reveals active rule formation.
• Language ability is related to specialized brain organization and is studied in neurolinguistics.
• Morphology studies the internal structure of words and the morphemes that compose them.
• Free and bound morphemes, roots, affixes, and derivational versus inflectional processes are foundational concepts for analyzing word structure.

Sources: [Denham and Lobeck: The Human Capacity for Language](material:59); [Denham and Lobeck: Morphology, Words, and Parts](material:58)