Лінгвокультурна зумовленість становлення особистості та "гіпотеза критичного періоду" Е. -Х. Леннеберга
The linguacultural conditionality of making up of personality and "Critical period hypothesis" by E. -H. Lenneberg

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the study of the phenomenon of feral children and the "critical period hypothesis"(CPH) by E. H. Lenneberg. Feral child research helps in developing theories about the language acquisition and enculturation of the individual. It proposes us an explanation, what role does linguaculture play in the process of making up of personality. Myths, legends, and literature depict many stories about feral children reared by wild animals. From Romulus and Remus to Tarzan and Mowgli, the legendary and fictional feral children are often described as growing up with relatively normal human intelligence and skills and an innate sense of culture, coupled with a healthy dose of survival instincts. Their integration into human society is also made to seem relatively easy. These mythical children are also often shown as having superior strength, intelligence and morals compared to "normal" humans. The implication is that because of their upbringing, they represent humanity in a "pure" and "uncorrupted" state, similar to the noble savage ones. Real life examples of feral children, who were isolated from human contact for extended periods, have shown that this scenario was not accurate. Tragically, feral children are not just fictional personages. There are more than 50 cases on record of feral children raised in the wild by everything from leopards and bears to monkeys and wolfs. Several cases were also discovered, in which caretakers had brutally isolated their children and in doing so prevented normal social, linguacultural and mental development. The fate of these feral children either abandoned, locked away by their parents, or stolen by animals was most certainly tragic and pathological. Psychologists and linguists studied their mental and language capabilities at the time of their return to society and monitored their process as they learn spoken native language. Numerous attempts to teach feral children either spoken or sign language have met with very limited success. A number of children have returned from the wild mimicking animal sounds and behaviors and show no interest in human language, they seem to be mentally delayed. Others have learned an extremely limited vocabulary. They lack also the basic social skills that are normally learned by children in the process of enculturation. The impaired ability to learn a natural language after having been isolated for many years is often attributed to the existence of a special critical period, so-called "window of opportunity" for first language learning, and taken as evidence in favor of the "critical period hypothesis" by Eric Heinz Lenneberg. The term refers to the period of the brain’s physical formation more so than the amount of social interaction at that age. The CPH states that a human has a special phase to learn first language. If that period of growth passes without language practice, then the opportunity is lost forever. The biological basis responsible for language development can establish the critical period for the language acquisition, between the age of 18 months and early puberty. Feral children, who grew up surrounded by the extreme social and linguacultural deprivation without the normal condition for language learning, or absolutely without language could not learn their first native language as well as normal people do. The best studied of these cases was language-deprived feral child – Genie (USA). She was kept in the isolation from the normal social linguacultural intercourse by her father, mishandled and brutalized, strapped to a chair all day long. She was found at the age of 13, completely incapable to speak, and after 7 years of rehabilitation and systematic specialist training still lacked linguistic competence. Even after she was not able to produce correct so-called "wh-questions", failed to understand grammar passive constructions and distinction marked by tenses. Her grammar was deficient in both production and comprehension. Her brain scans showed some unusual features – in particular that Genie's brain was dominated by her right hemisphere, a left hemisphere that had never been used for language production lost its capacity. Lenneberg's CPH was not absolutely proven, but it was strongly supported by these studies. It was shown, that language learning process after the critical period may end up in a very limited language usage. One of the central questions of this article, and all of humanitarian sciences, that have to do with humans psychology is: "Is personality a product of genes or a product of linguacultural and social experiences?" Or, in other words: "What makes us human or?" Humanity is in some manner the result of specific upbringing and enculturation. Being human means being brought up by humans as human. Each story of feral children is different, but interesting in its own right. Their very existence is a threat to our self-exploring and mental self-identification. A feral child is the human that is nearly an animal—the familiar that has nearly become the "Other". The study of phenomenon of feral children called into question the firm boundary between human intellect and animal instinct, forcing us to reevaluate the generating influence of linguaculture on our mentality.

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