Chapter 10: Language development

Question 1

What is the difference between nativism and empiricism?

Answer 1

Nativism: many skills are hard-wired in the brain at birth
Empiricism: no built-in core knowledge, all knowledge from learning and experience

Question 2

What are 4 important aspects of language?

Answer 2

1. Symbolic system: meaningful
2. Rule-governed system: regularities/grammar
3. Productivity: finite number of units can yield infinite possible combinations
4. Communication system

Question 3

What is meant when said that language is a pragmatic system?

Answer 3

The abilities to communicate effectively and appropriately in a social context

Question 4

What are 5 points Steven Pinker makes?

Answer 4

1. Language is universal
2. Languages conform a universal design
3. Children pass through universal series of stages in acquiring language
4. If children don’t have a common language, they’ll develop one of their own
5. Language and intelligence are doubly separable in disorders

Question 5

What are 4 abilities that develop in the pragmatic system?

Answer 5

1. Turn taking (mother-infant interaction, imitation)
2. Initiating interactions
3. Maintaining conversations
4. Repairing faulty conversations

Question 6

What are proto-conversations?
What is the difference between proto-imperatives and proto-declaratives?

Answer 6

Proto-conversations = interactions between adults and infants in which the adults vocalize when the infants are not vocalizing

Imperative: infant points to object and alternate gaze between object and adult until they obtain the object

Declarative: infant uses pointing or looking to direct an adult’s attention toward an object –> desire shared experience

Question 7

What is a mirror neuron?

Answer 7

Neurons that fire when an individual executes a motor act and when they see another individual performing the same motor act

Question 8

What are 3 important aspects of maintaining conversations?

Answer 8

• Adding relevant info
• gain listener’s attention
• knowing when it’s your turn to speak

Question 9

What is meant with repairing faulty conversations?

Answer 9

Repairing miscommunications by revising the original message in a clear and effective way

Question 10

What is phonology?

Answer 10

Part of language concerned with perception and production of sounds in language

Question 11

What is speech stream?

Answer 11

Undifferentiated series of words that are produced when we communicate

Question 12

What is the function of motherese/infant-directed speech?

Answer 12

Motherese has higher pitch and more exaggerated pitch contours and is more rhythmic.

Children learn how to divide or segment speech stream into meaningful units

Question 13

What is a phoneme?

Answer 13

Smallest unit of speech that can affect meaning

Question 14

What is categorical perception and is this already there in young infants?

Answer 14

Perceptually discriminable stimuli are treated as belonging to the same category.
–> Innate mechanism for interpretation of sounds (from 1 month infants measurable)

Question 15

What is the development direction of the ability to discriminate possible phonemes?

Answer 15

It diminishes with age. After 6 months, an infant can’t discriminate non-native phonemes

Question 16

On what two things does children’s acquisition of phonemes of native language depend?

Answer 16

1. Innate predisposition for categorical perception of sounds
2. Experience with native language

Question 17

What are the 5 phases of maturation of speech production?

Answer 17

1. Reflexive vocalizations (birth-2m)
2. Cooing/laughing (2-4m)
3. Babbling/vocal play (4-6m)
4. Canonical babbling (6-10m)
5. Modulated babbling (>10m)

Question 18

What are reflexive vocalizations?

Answer 18

First sounds produced by infants, such as cries, coughs, burps and sneezes

Question 19

What happens in the phase of cooing and laughing?

Answer 19

Start of laughing and combining sounds with one another

Reciprocal cooing between infant and parent helps infant to learn that communication involves taking turns

Question 20

What happens in the phase of babbling and vocal play?

Answer 20

Controlled vocalizations, control of vocal cords, lips, tongue and mouth

Question 21

What happens in the canonical babbling phase? What is the alternative name of this babbling in deaf children?

Answer 21

Vowels and consonants are combined in a way they resemble words

In deaf children: manual babbling: learning to sign

Question 22

What happens in the modulated babbling phase?

Answer 22

Intonation patterns and variety of sound combinations.

Learning in acquisition of intonation patterns of native language

Question 23

On which 3 things does the capacity to produce language depend?

Answer 23

1. Hereditary/environmental factors
2. Maturation
3. Experience

Question 24

What is syntax? Explain the difference between the s- and d-structure (Chomsky)?

Answer 24

Syntax = knowing how words and morphemes combine to form larger units (phrases, sentences)

s = surface structure: actual spoken sentence (different in all languages)

d = deep structure: abstract representation of a sentence (universal in all languages)

Question 25

What is the difference between a phoneme and a morpheme?

Answer 25

Phoneme = smallest meaningful part of a sound Morpheme = smallest meaningful part of a word

Question 26

What are the 5 points of Chomsky's arguments for innate language knowledge?

Answer 26

Poverty of stimulus argument = 1. Requirement ability to connect d- to s-structures 2. Children hear s-structure, d-structure is innate 3. Language input is complex 4. Children receive little feedback about grammar 5. Children acquire language quickly

Question 27

What is universal grammar?

Answer 27

Human languages share fundamental similarities and these are attributable to innate principles --> Deep down there's only 1 language --> D-structure is innate! Experience provides info about s-structure

Question 28

What is overregularization? Up to what age does this occur? For what claim is this evidence?

Answer 28

When a previously learned rule is applied to the wrong situation (e.g. thinked) --> Up to age 7 --> Evidence that language learning isn't based on conditioning

Question 29

What is the balance between comprehension and production of speech in children's development?

Answer 29

Comprehension begins in early infancy Production begins later

Question 30

What's the difference between overextension and underextension?

Answer 30

Overextension = extending word meaning too broadly (e.g. bird for everything that flies) Underextension = extending word meaning too little (e.g. forgetting duck in bath is the same word for the birds in the park)

Question 31

What is overgeneralization? What is the difference with overregularization?

Answer 31

Overgeneralization = creating new verb by treating a noun as a verb (ballereening) Overregularization: learned rule is applied in the wrong way

Question 32

Which scientist provided a lot of evidence for Steven Pinker's claim: languages conform to a universal design?

Answer 32

Chomsky with his poverty of the stimulus argument, d-/s-structures and universal grammar

Question 33

What are 3 criticisms on the universal design of language point of view?

Answer 33

1. Languages are too diverse and don't show universal design 2. Parents are language role models --> sophisticated words have influence on children's later vocabulary 3. Constructivists don't agree on the innate knowledge/predisposition for learning a language

Question 34

What is the whole object constraint? Name an example

Answer 34

Assumption that children believe that words refere to whole objects rather than parts E.g. pointing at an elephant 'that's an elephant' --> child understands you point to the entire animal

Question 35

What are the 4 systems of language development?

Answer 35

1. Pragmatic system (social) 2. Phonological system (sound) 3. Syntactic system (grammar) 4. Semantic system (meaning)

Question 36

What are transitional probabilities? What is it used for in infants and what type of learning is this?

Answer 36

The probability that a syllable is followed by another specific syllable Co - ver (high probability) Co - lo (low probability) Infants use it to distinguish between different strings of syllables This is statistical learning, which is a general learning mechanism non-specific to language

Question 37

What is the role of the semantic system?

Answer 37

It categorizes words in relation to their meaning. Semantic relations help to organize the semantic system and grow vocabulary

Question 38

What is the mutual exclusivity constraint? Give an example

Answer 38

Assumption that children believe that there is a one-to-one correspondence between words and meanings The animals that are dogs have no other name, and dogs can't be other animals

Question 39

When do the one-word and two-word phases start and what are they? What happens after this?

Answer 39

One-word: 10-18m --> Single word utterances often starting with people based words Two-word: 18-24m --> Use of 2 words that convey the most meaning --> The kid knows which 2 words, because they are most stressed in adult speech After 24m the syntactic knowledge develops quickly

Question 40

What is MLU and how does it develop after 24m?

Answer 40

Mean length of utterances --> increases from 24m onward

Question 41

Do parents correct bad grammar of a child?

Answer 41

No, they often ignore it or reinforce it

Question 42

On which 4 aspects does a child's interpretation of a new word depend on?

Answer 42

1. Existing semantic system 2. Existing world knowledge 3. Level of cognitive skills 4. Selective attention

Question 43

What are, according to Kuczaj, the two strategies children use when faced with gaps in semantic or conceptual system?

Answer 43

Reflecting interrelationship of language and cognitive development: 1. Acquiring a new word: construct new scheme 2. Acquiring a new concept: attempt to attach a known word to a new concept, if nothing matches, find a new word

Question 44

What are two aspects concerning language of Williams syndrome? What is the biological basis of Williams syndrome?

Answer 44

1. Low IQ (mean=56) 2. Good at language, impaired spatial/number cognition Microdeletion on chromosome 7

Question 45

What is SLI?

Answer 45

Specific language impairment - Normal/high IQ - Impaired language

Question 46

What do SLI and Williams syndrome tell you about the relationship between language and intelligence?

Answer 46

There is double dissociation. You can have high intelligence and poor language, and also other way around

Question 47

Why will dogs and cats never speak?

Answer 47

- Lack of cognitive ability to recombine and decompose sounds - Different FOXP2 gene