Module 6 - Language Development

Question 1

define language

Answer 1

• strucutred, rule-based ssystem of communication using symbols to communicate meaning

Question 2

what are the 4 key points of language?

Answer 2

1) language is symbolic: able to create an image of what the word/sound/action represents. only what what symbol represents is what matters, it is all arbitrary
2) language expresses meaning: interpreting meaning from a message, context/tone/attitudes all alter how we decode the meaning
3) language is generative: able to generate an infinite number of sentences that are completely interpretable by others (if you never heard the sentence, still able to generate an image/meaning of the words)
4) language is structured/rule-based: grammar is a known thing by all, and never necessarily simplicity learned about how to use it, but we still all know how to properly use it

Question 3

what is the difference between comprehension and production?

Answer 3

comprehension: understanding what other people say, sign, or write

production: speaking, singing, or writing to others

Question 4

define receptive vocabulary

Answer 4

what words you’d understand if you encountered them
- not always equal to your productive vocab
- develops first

Question 5

define productive vocabulary

Answer 5

what words you can spontaneously use yourself
- not always equal to your receptive vocab

Question 6

define generativity

Answer 6

the capacity for language to generate an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas
- this unique property of language is not found in other species

Question 7

are animals able to produce generative language?

Answer 7

• there is no element of generativity found in the way animals communicate
• they use impressive and cool ways to talk such as predator-specific calls
• can not generate an infinite number of ideas, communicate is more specific
• communication does not equal language (specific to humans)

Question 8

define phonemes

Answer 8

the elementary units of sound in a language
- varies dramatically across languages
- only around 40 phenomes in English
- around 200 across all languages
- languages draw the line between different sounds

Question 9

define phonological development

Answer 9

the aquisition of knowledge about the sound system of a language
- ex. learning the b and p are different
- what sounds does my language use?
- in what order do chains of phonemes typically occur?
- bulk of this learning occurs in the first few years of life

Question 10

define morphemes

Answer 10

the smallest units of meaning in a language
- words are made up of one or more morpheme
- ex. dog is one morpheme = 1 meaningful unit
- suffixes and prefixes are also meaningful units
- ex. dogs is two morphemes

Question 11

define semantic development

Answer 11

learning the system for expressing meaning in a language
- semantic = study of meaning (word learning, modifiers of language)

Question 12

define syntax

Answer 12

rules for how different kinds of words can be combined in a way that will make sense to another person speaking the same language
- knowing the difference between the dog bit the cat and the cat bit the dog

Question 13

define syntactical development

Answer 13

process of learning to udnestand and later follow, the syntactivcal rules of ones language
-intuitive and effortless
- doesn’t requires a teaching to learn about how to do this properly

Question 14

define the theory of universal grammar

Answer 14

set of highly abstract, unconscious rules that are common to all human languages (Chomsky)
- there are superficial differences but at a fundamental elve, they all have same innate concepts (ex. vers, tense, objects, etc.)
- we are able to generate sentences that make sense grammatically but mean nothing

Question 15

who learns language?

Answer 15

only humans learn language, anything has just has a way of communication, but language is specific to humans
- animals do not exhibit many of the key characteristics of human langauge

Question 16

who is Kanzi the bonobo?

Answer 16

• learned how to use lexigrams (pictographic systems that represent a meaning/word) as researchers attempted to teach his mother, Matata
• estimated to have a symbolic vocab of over 300 words
• however, he uses far fewer symbols spontaneously or regularly (not using it the same way humans would)
• he can follow verbal instructions (combining the use of objects)
• his understanding os syntax is unclear (likely is very limited)

Question 17

senstive periods of language

Answer 17

time during which language develops readily and relatively effortlessly (native langauge
- birth up to age 7/8
- can learn multiple languages at same time without drastic drawbacks
- after this window, it just becomes much harder and wont be able to achieve the same level of amstery with other languages (second language)

Question 18

define infant-directed speech (IDS)

Answer 18

• warm, positive emotionality
• higher pitch, slow enunciation
• accompanied by exaggerated facial expressions
  -doesn’t occur in all cultures
• draws their attention to speech
• clearly contracts phonemnets
• improves word recognition
• even if kids don’t have IDS< they still learning language nonetheless

Question 19

define categorical perception

Answer 19

humans perceive sounds as belonging to different categories
- bilabial sounds: made using the lips
- voice onset time (VOT): time between air passing and vocal cords vibrating

Question 20

how did they measure speech perception in infants?

Answer 20

• study where infants were sucking on pacifiers that was recorded to determine levels of excitement
• babies were able to know the difference between b and p sound
• dishabituation: knowing that the two sounds were different
• uses 1 and 4 month infants
• they are actually better at differentiation phonemes than adults

Question 21

what was the remarkable finding from the Werker and Lalonde study?

Answer 21

• present baby with stimulus (sound of d) and they would eventually habituate to it
• then change in stimulus and babies would notice the difference
• for the other condition, the change in stimulus would be a non-English phoneme
• by 12 months, babies didn’t notice the difference between english and non-english phenomes
• at 8 months, were able to tell the difference between the 2 stimulus
• perceptual narrowing

Question 22

define perceptual narrowing

Answer 22

as children develop, they become more finely tuned to the important categories in their language. But in doing so, we lost ability to detect differences, other than, between those categories
- 8 months just notice everything as they haven’t fully only focused on their native language

Question 23

what is the problem with word segmentation in infants?

Answer 23

words ar distint whne written down but can run together when spoken.

how do infants identify individual words from these continuous strong of sounds?

Question 24

what are the 3 solutions to word segmentation?

Answer 24

1) attend to prosodic cues
2) attend to distributional properties of speech sounds: certain sounds are more likely to occur together, infrequent pairings are a cue that they are 2 different words (statistical learning)
3) using contextual cues and other known words to direct their attention: an important cue used very early is their own name

Question 25

define prosody

Answer 25

the characteristic rhythm and intonational patterns in a spoke language
- in English, its often at the beginning of words, where we put the stress

Question 26

what are some of the precursors to production of speech?

Answer 26

start with simpling vocalizations: after birht is crying then eventually, then at 6-8 weeks will grow into cooing, grunts, etc.
- babbling: repetitive production of speech/signs early in language development (6-10 months)
- other signs are gestures, pointing, joint attention, gaze following, turn-taking

Question 27

define first words

Answer 27

• figuring out what words map onto which things in the world
• begin in the first year
• but only start to produce it in their first 10-15 months
• holophrastic period
• overextension

Question 28

define holophrastic period

Answer 28

window in which children use single words to communicate whole ideas

Question 29

define overextension

Answer 29

using a newly learned work more generally than one should

Question 30

how do kids grow thier vocaulary?

Answer 30

• by 18 months, kids can have an average of around 50 words
• lots of variability
• after 18 months, word learning increased very rapidly
• vocabulary spurt: point in development where exponential growth of vocab suddenly occurs, not all universal

Question 31

define fast mapping

Answer 31

rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the contrastive use of the familiar and unfamiliar word
- knowledge that in one language, each word only represents one object
- harder for babies learning multiple languages as they know that there are different words for the same thing

Question 32

define cross-situational word learning

Answer 32

using repeated co-occurrence across situations to map new words to their referents
- creating a large amount of evidence to confirm their word mapping to know that a specific words goes along with the object
- statistical learning

Question 33

define pragmatic cues

Answer 33

using social information to learn words
- ex. eye gaze, expression of emotion

Question 34

define syntactic bootstrapping

Answer 34

using the grammatical structure of whole sentences to determine the meaning of new words
- occurs as early as 2 years old

Question 35

first sentences

Answer 35

• telegraphic speech
• overregularization

Question 36

define telegraphic speech

Answer 36

early sentences are often only 2 words featuring only the core elements of the intended communication
- ex. eat cookie, daddy sit
- word order reflects emerging knowledge of syntax

Question 37

define overregularization

Answer 37

using newly learned grammatical rules/modifiers in new or irregular circumstances where they aren’t entirely correct
- ex. look mooses, i eated a cookie