Language acquisition

The capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of
tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive
vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign. The
human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though the human
language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of
sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion. Evidence
suggests that every individual has three recursive mechanisms that allow
sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms are: relativization,
complementation and coordination. Furthermore, there are actually two main
guiding principles in first-language acquisition, that is, speech perception
always precedes speech production and the gradually evolving system by which a
child learns a language is built up one step at a time, beginning with the
distinction between individual phonemes.