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The social bases of language acquisition

Publication ,  Journal Article
Tomasello, M
Published in: Social Development
January 1, 1992

A language is composed of conventional symbols shaped by their social‐communicative functions. Children acquire these symbols, both lexical and syntactic, in the context of culturally constituted event structures that make salient these functions. In the acquisition process children rely on cultural learning skills (i.e., imitative learning). These skills emanate from their ability to participate intersubjectively with adults in cultural activities (i.e., joint attention), which underlies their ability to understand the ways adults are using particular pieces of language. The development of communicative competence as a whole, including not only lexical and syntactic skills but also various pragmatic skills, depends largely on feedback about communicative efficacy that children receive from different interactants. This feedback is used by children to make further inferences about the conventional functional significance of particular linguistic expressions. This social‐pragmatic view of language acquisition obviates the need for a priori, specifically linguistic, format constraints on the language acquisition process. Copyright © 1992, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

Duke Scholars

Published In

Social Development

DOI

EISSN

1467-9507

ISSN

0961-205X

Publication Date

January 1, 1992

Volume

1

Issue

1

Start / End Page

67 / 87

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

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Tomasello, M. (1992). The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development, 1(1), 67–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1992.tb00135.x
Tomasello, M. “The social bases of language acquisition.” Social Development 1, no. 1 (January 1, 1992): 67–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1992.tb00135.x.
Tomasello M. The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development. 1992 Jan 1;1(1):67–87.
Tomasello, M. “The social bases of language acquisition.” Social Development, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 1992, pp. 67–87. Scopus, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.1992.tb00135.x.
Tomasello M. The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development. 1992 Jan 1;1(1):67–87.
Journal cover image

Published In

Social Development

DOI

EISSN

1467-9507

ISSN

0961-205X

Publication Date

January 1, 1992

Volume

1

Issue

1

Start / End Page

67 / 87

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1701 Psychology