Ch. 8 Vocabulary

Question 1

Innate

Answer 1

Determined by factors present from birth.

Question 2

Innateness hypothesis

Answer 2

A hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language.

Question 3

Imitation theory

Answer 3

Child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.

Question 4

Reinforcement theory

Answer 4

Theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones.

Question 5

Active construction of a grammar theory

Answer 5

Theory of child language which says that children acquire language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

Question 6

Connectionist theories

Answer 6

Theory of language acquisition which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain.

Question 7

Social interaction theory

Answer 7

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction.

Question 8

Linguistic universals

Answer 8

Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.

Question 9

Universal grammar

Answer 9

The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages.

Question 10

Critical period

Answer 10

Age span, usually described as lasting rom birth to the onset of puberty,during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language.

Question 11

Homesign

Answer 11

A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language) that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a sign language is not made available for their communication.

Question 12

Rules

Answer 12

A formal statement of an observed generalization about patterns in language.

Question 13

Identifying sounds

Answer 13

In order to produce spoken language, infants first need to be able to perceive it. In fact, they are able to perceive many distinctions in language much earlier than they are bale to produce them.

Question 14

High amplitude sucking

Answer 14

Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months.

Question 15

Conditioned head turned procedure

Answer 15

Experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditions phase, the infant learns to associate the change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers, first presented at the same time then in succession, such that the infant begins to anticipate the appearance of the visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. During the testing phase when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers after the change in sound, it suggests that the infant has perceived the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.

Question 16

Voice onset time

Answer 16

The length of time between the release of a constant and the onset of voicing that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.

Question 17

Producing sounds

Answer 17

A child’s first vocalization are present at the very beginning of life. within a few weeks after birth, the child begins to coo, producing sequences of vowel like sounds.

Question 18

Articulatory gestures

Answer 18

A movement of speech organ in the production pf speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of the nasal consonant.

Question 19

Babble

Answer 19

A phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally within the first six months after birth.

Question 20

Repeated babbling

Answer 20

The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 21

Canonical babbling

Answer 21

The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 22

Variegated babbling

Answer 22

Production of meaningless consonant vowel sequence by infants.

Question 23

Holophrastic stage

Answer 23

Stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time.

Question 24

Telegraphic stage

Answer 24

A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.

Question 25

Plurals

Answer 25

Recall that the plural morpheme is acquired quite early by children. In fact, it is usually one of the very first function morphemes to appear, along with in, on, and -ing.

Question 26

Overgeneralization

Answer 26

In the study of a child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain context: a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult language.

Question 27

Negative politeness

Answer 27

In face theory, a politeness strategy to accommodate once to desire not to be bothered or to have once independence infringed on.

Question 28

Interrogative

Answer 28

A kind of sentence that expresses a question. In English, interrogative sentences have an auxiliary verb that proceeds the subject.

Question 29

Complexive concepts

Answer 29

A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items (abstract or concrete) that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.

Question 30

Overextension

Answer 30

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning: a child’s application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language.

Question 31

Underextension

Answer 31

Application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word.

Question 32

Relational term

Answer 32

Type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference.

Question 33

Deictic expression

Answer 33

Word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance.

Question 34

Infant-directed speech

Answer 34

Speech used by parents or care-givers when communication with young children or infants. In many western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 35

Child-directed speech

Answer 35

Speech used by parents or care-givers when communication with young children or infants. In many western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 36

Attention getters

Answer 36

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 37

Attention holders

Answer 37

A tactic used to maintain children attention for extended amounts of time.

Question 38

Conversational turns

Answer 38

The contribution to a conversation mad bey one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor onto another speaker.

Question 39

Bilingual

Answer 39

State of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages.

Question 40

Multilingual

Answer 40

The state of commanding there or more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages.