Chapter 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use Flashcards
(18 cards)
What are symbols?
Symbols are systems for representing our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge and for communicating them to other people.
What is comprehension?
Understanding what others say (or sign or write).
What is production?
Speaking (or writing or signing) to others.
What is generativity?
The idea that through the use of the finite set of words and morphemes in humans’ vocabulary, we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express and infinite number of ideas.
What are phonemes?
The elementary units of meaningful sound used to produce languages.
What is phonological development?
The acquisition of knowledge about the sounds system of a language.
What are morphemes?
The smallest units of meaning in a language, composed of one or more phonemes.
What is semantic development?
The learning of the system for expressing meaning in a language, including word learning.
What is syntax?
Rules of a language that specify how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on) can be combined.
What is syntactic development?
The learning of the syntax of a language.
What is pragmatic development?
The acquisition of knowledge about how language is used.
What is metalinguistic knowledge?
An understanding of the properties and function of language- that is, an understanding of language as language.
What does it take to be able to learn a language?
A human brain, and hearing (or seeing) language being practiced by other humans.
Why were Koko the gorilla and Washoe the chimpanzee’s communications not considered legitimate language?
Because they contained little evidence of syntactic structure.
What is the critical period for language?
The time during which language develops readily and after which (sometime between age 5 and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful.
What is infant- directed speech (IDS)?
The distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very young children.
What is bilingualism?
The ability to learn two languages.
What is prosody?
The characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody, intonational patterns, and so forth with which a language is spoken.
