心理语言学 论文.doc

The Story of Girl GenieIf someone from birth to grew up always live alone and not have language contact with others, in that way, what kind of language ability will he have? This problem is very difficult to answer, because real life almost touch no such practical example.In the 13th century, emperor of the holy Roman Empire Fayed Fiercepicked a few newborn babies, and commanded to breastfeed and bath them as usual, but prohibited to spoke to them, even a lullaby also prohibited. By doing this, he wanted to know what kind of language would these babies grow up to speak. However, the problem not got a answer, because these children later all dead.In the year 1970, a 13-year-old girl named Genie was discovered in a suburb of Los Angeles. Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She could not straighten her arms or legs, could not chew, had no bladder or bowel control, and did not speak.This discovery aroused the strong interest among psychologists, linguists, neurologists and other experts studying brain development. Over the years, they posed a tangle of questions about how people learn to speak. Do people learn language from their environment or are they born with an innate ability to speak? Can people learn a language at any time in their lives or must they learn to speak when they are young? Genie seemed to present them with a natural experiment for answering these questions, they are anxious to know Genies level of intelligence at that time, anxious to know whether her senses can be developed or not, and so on. Without a doubt, this girls research was valuable. Susan.Curtiss, a language department graduated student of University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA), bying the guidance of her tutor V.Fromkin, spent nearly seven years to study the development of the language abilities of Genie. In 1977, Curtiss finished the research results and published a book titled Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day Wild-Child , caused widespread concern in academia. In her work, we clearly understand the process of Genies language study. Genie learned many words in the seven months of freedom. In July 1971, Curtiss started investigating her system of language and knowledge, she found that Genie can recognize about one hundred words and begin to learn to talk. Despite the best efforts to train her, but she doesnt like normal children that way. She never ask any questions, also dont know anything about grammar. Her language develops unusually slow. After the children achieved the level of connecting two characters in several weeks, their language usually develops so rapid and the erupt that is unable to record and describe.But this explosive development has not appeared on Genie, after four years, she only then started to group the words. Although Genies language didnt get normal development, she was still got some language after the discovery. This phenomenon retorted Harvard University linguists LenebergEs theories which put forward in 1967 that language can only be learned in the period of two years old to adolescence. Within the seven years from 1971 to 1977, Genies intelligence quotient has increased from 38 to 74. However, even in the 20 years old, her hearing memory (left hemisphere task) was in 3 years old level. Her visual memory (two hemispheres end) can only reach 6 to 12 years old childrens level.Mentally retarded might be not from birth, it could be been injured or the retardation a result of brain being deprived of good nutrition and stimulation. I think, learning process is the most important to children, in the process of brain development, if dont use your brain thinking it would let your brain activity lopsided. It is sad that Genie couldnt express her feelings, couldnt let others understand what dose she thinking about, just like a baby, only can communication