How human infants deal with symbol grounding

Abstract

Taking a distributed view of language, this paper naturalizes symbol grounding.Learning to talk is traced to -not categorizing speech sounds -but events that shape the rise of human-style autonomy. On the extended symbol hypothesis, this happens as babies integrate micro-activity with slow and deliberate adult action. As they discover social norms, intrinsic motive formation enables them to reshape co-action. Because infants link affect to contingencies, dyads develop norm-referenced routines. Over time, infant doings become analysis amenable. The caregiver of a nine-month-old may, for example, prompt the baby to fetch objects. Once she concludes that the baby uses 'words' to understand what she says, the infant can use this belief in orienting to more abstract contingencies. New cognitive powers will develop as the baby learns to act in ways that are consistent with a caregiver's false belief that her baby uses 'words.'

Rethinking Language Learning: Virtual Worlds as a Catalyst for Change

“…In the sociocultural practice of "doing" art, students coordinate their actions with language; for example, inviting conversation, sharing their perspectives and excitement, and introducing new ideas (Reed 1996;Linell 2009; Cowley 2011; Zheng forthcoming). 3 In first language development, babies, as selfregulatory agents, use their caregivers as a resource to discover verbal patterns that later shape their reasoning and identity (Cowley 2007b(Cowley , 2009b. By the same token, in an L2 or foreign language immersion setting, learners, instead of being passive receivers, can exploit circumstances by using expression to track teachers' or classmates' display while acting to realize values for their partners.…”

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“…collaboration) in languaging is underlined by Raimondi (2019: 19-20), who argues that "the notion of languaging activity is inherently dialogical and radically relational". Building on the biological theory of Maturana (1983) and on the theories of Cowley (2007) and Thibault (2011), which insist on the embodied nature of the languaging activity, Raimondi focuses on dialogicity as being a central aspect of linguistic communication and, in general, of collaborative human activities. According to Raimondi (2019: 24, cf.…”

Research Commentaries on Cangelosi’s “Solutions and Open Challenges for the Symbol Grounding Problem”

“…Infants use external symbols to ground public language into brains and actions. In extended symbol grounding (MacDorman, 2007;Cangelosi, 2007), I argue, people rely on concerting their actions to develop coactional capacities and skills (Cowley & MacDorman, 2006;Cowley, 2007).…”

“…Here too reward and context give a baby control over movement and vocalization. Human symbol grounding (Cowley, 2007) integrates routines with unheard verbal patterns. By 3-4 months babies pick up on cultural norms; by 6-8 months, they share formats (e.g.…”