Learning first words

This video lecture is a part of the course 'An Introduction to English Linguistics' at the University of Neuchâtel. This is session 23, which addresses the topic of language acquisition, specifically theories of word learning.

[@wondererasl]

Thank you so much, Martin! I learned a lot from your lectures.

[@grzegorzsmolira9244]

Explaining the noun bias.
Languages differ one from another in almost all aspects with 2 important exceptions: all have nouns and verbs. On this bases, it should be recognised that verbs and nouns are the original parts of speech, that emerged in the time immemorable with the first human words. As the child learns nouns first, it seems that the nouns were earlier, before verbs, and afterwards the rest was created.
I heard that in my language, which is highy inflected (Polish) children learn the declination of nouns first, and after that the conjugation of verbs. If this is true for other languages, I believe this is the explanation. The noun was first, for naming objects, situations and activities. Then, the verb appeared. By combining verbs and nouns a broad tool for communication was invented. Due to Chomsky, the first language learning is rather conditioned by instict. This way, it all seems to be logical: they learn nouns first.

[@Starkilla1694]

In linguistics, the general idea is that the biss towards nouns is due to them being mostly observable objects and therefore the child has a easier time to map the word correctly. It is also thought that nouns are the structural basis for other word categories such as adjectives or verbs

[@grzegorzsmolira9244]

@@Starkilla1694 True and logical. However, it is still consistant with what I have written (lg learning based on instinct rather than on anything else, ergo: the first humans joined words with "mostly observable objects and therefore they had an easier time to map the word correctly").