ao1 Flashcards
(13 cards)
overextension
When a word is used more broadly to describe things with similar properties, other than the specific item to which the word actually applies (eg any round fruit may be an ‘apple’ or rats, squirrels, and rabbits are all ‘mice’).
hypernym
An overarching (category) noun which encompasses many other nouns
Superhero is a hypernym for Batman and Spider-Man
underextension
When a word is used in a limited way which does not recognise its full meaning (eg. knowing the word banana for one in real life but not for a bunch of bananas or a picture of a banana).
Kitty might mean the family cat, but not other cats.
hyponym
A noun with a narrower meaning which is part of a hypernym (category member)v
batman
content word
Content words are words that have meaning. They can be compared to grammatical words, which are structural. Nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs are usually content words. Auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, and prepositions are usually grammatical words.
virtuous error
Errors in morphology that have some underlying logic to demonstrate that learning has taken place (eg. I runned, Three mens).
proto words
‘Made up’ words that a child will use to represent a word they cannot pronounce (eg. ‘rayray’ for raisin’). These are not true first words as they have no semantic content.
syntactic inversion
Reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, learnt when forming a question (eg. ‘I can eat the cake’ (S;MAV;V;O) becomes ‘Can I eat the cake?’ (MAV;S;V;O)).
‘On the mat sat the cat. ‘ Inverting the sentence draws the reader’s attention to the mat (the object) instead of the cat (the subject). It takes the reader by surprise because it’s not what they expected.
positive reinforcement
Encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by rewards and praise
negative reinforcement
Stopping a child from repeating a mistake through correction, punishment, ignoring or a denial of wants (eg. being told off for forgetting ‘please’)
Universal Grammar
All human languages posses similar grammatical properties which the brain is hardwired to be able to decode and use
Continuing Development
3-5 years
Following features of language develop with great speed:
Connecting words or conjunctions, for example, and, because, as, so.
Number words
Words connected with emotions
Family terms (auntie, brother)
Colors
Contrasting concepts (antithetics)
Broadening of vocabulary improves distinguising hypernyms (categorical words) from hyponyms (words within categories)
Say words with three or more syllables (elephant)
Children are prone to making virtuous errors at this stage (runned, eated). They apply regular grammatical endings to words with irregular form. See Barko Wugg test.
Able to speak appropriately in different situations such as family and plygroup.
Start to use question forms and negation.
Able to use auxillary verbs like ‘do’, ‘have’, and ‘be’.
Can handle more complex utterances with two or more parts.
They start to understand that some words may have more than one meaning and although they inevitably mix things up, their fluency is increasing.
## Start to understand idiomatic expressions. However, complete understanding of idiomatic aspects are not learnt till much later in life.By the age of 5:
Children can converse effortlessly in majority of situations
Understand and articulate complex language structures and sentences
Use conditional tense, for example, ‘if it stops raining we could go to the park)
Understand abstract ideas as well as idioms.
take part in conversations even though it may be for egocentric reasons.
Telegraphic stage
2-3 years
stage 4
During this stage, a child will primarily communicate with content words (verbs, nouns, adjectives) and some pronouns such as ‘me’ and ‘mine.’
Although many function words are missing at this stage, children obey the word order and structure of their language. Considering the English word order (SVO), English speaking children are expected to produce phrases similar to the following sentences:
“Want more ice-cream.”
“Mommy go bye-bye.”
“He go play.”
Children begin to express themselves using their limited vocabulary. This often causes overextension
Overextension gives way to underextension
Child’s utterances become longer and more grammatically complex and complete utterances emerge although some parts may be missing.
words have greater purpose than identification
Though SVO is still generally followed, auxillary words such as ‘is’, prepositions such as, ‘to’, ‘from’, ‘under’, determiners such as ‘a’, ‘the’, inflections such as suffixes to show the tense and person are omitted (ed, ing) are omitted.
sound combinations such as ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘j’, and ‘ph’ are still discovered where children cannot say polysyllabic words, They abbreviate words, for example, banana becomes nana.
They can understand two clause commands such as ‘pick up teddy and bring him here’ as well as antithetics like ‘hot and cold’.
much more engaged in language and household activities like meeting a visitor.
