Child Language Acquisition Flashcards by Mark Mastin

What are the Grammatical stages?

One-word / Holophrastic
Two word
Telegraphic
Post-telegraphic

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What are the pre-verbal phases?

Vegetative
Cooing
Babbling
Proto-word

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What is the Vegetative stage?

Reflex crying noises.

0-4 months

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What is the Cooing stage?

Open-mouthed vowel sounds.

3-6 months

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What is the Babbling stage?

Repeated consonant-vowel sounds and combinations of these.

6-12 months

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What is the Proto-word stage?

Babbling sounds that seem to match actual word sounds.

9-12 months

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What is the One word / Holophrastic stage?

Single recognisable words.

9-18 months

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What is the Two word stage?

Two-word combinations.

18-24 months

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What is the Telegraphic stage?

Three, four five and six word combinations, gradually expanding.
(24-40 months)

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What is the Post-telegraphic stage?

The same as the Telegraphic stage, but grammatically correct utterances.
(36 months onwards)

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What is the “Fis” phenomenon?

Berko and Brown (1960)

The child says something different to what they mean.

“This is your fis?”
“No, my fis”
“That is your fish?”
“Yes, my fis”

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Cruttendan (1974): Football results.

Intonation used in the first team’s score enabled to predict home win or draw. Children (7-11) were largely unsuccessful and the oldest were still significantly less successful than adults.

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What are the 6 ways of Simplification?

Deletion
Addition
Substitution
Reduplication
Assimilation
Metathesis

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What is Deletion?

Children will often simplify pronunciation by deleting certain sounds such as ….
Final consonants eg ‘ha(T)’
Unstressed syllables eg ‘(BA)nana’
Consonant clusters ‘(S)nake’

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What is Addition?

Children sometimes break up consonant clusters not by deleting them but adding a vowel to separate them. ‘Blue’ to ‘Belu’
Sometimes they add syllables on the end of the word to recreate CVCV pattern. ‘Horsey’ instead of ‘Horse’

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What is Substitution?

Another form of simplification involves substituting harder sounds with easier ones.
R becomes W (Story, Rock)
Th becomes D, N or F (There, That or Thumb)
P becomes B (Pig)

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What is Reduplication?

This is where a syllable in the word is repeated, eg Wee-wee, Night-night.

This often involves the repetition of CV syllable, which is favoured by children.

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What is Assimilation?

This occurs when sounds in a word are made to sound more like neighbouring ones, such as ‘Dog’ to ‘Gog’

What is Metathesis?

This occurs when the sounds in a word are swapped round. For example, ‘Elephant’ to ‘Ephalent’

What four categories did Katherine Nelson suggest a child’s first words can be grouped into?

Naming
Action
Social
Modifying

She found that 60% of a child’s first words were nouns (naming)

What are Overextensions?

Leslie Rescorla

Children’s early words are often overextended to cover more things than the word actually means.

Eg all circular fruit being called an ‘Apple’

What is an Underextension?

Words may have there meanings underextended to cover a narrower meaning.

The child may use the correct label for a banana but not use the correct label when referring to a picture of a banana.

What are the three types of Overextension?

Categorical
Analogical
Mismatch or Predicate Statements

What are Categorical Overextensions?

The most common type. The label is stretched to include other things within a larger category. the hypernym is used for the hyponym.
Eg ‘apple’ for all fruit. It is not until the child understands the hyponym until these Overextensions disappear.

What are Analogical Overextensions?

... Is found in about 15% of Rescorla's cases and is related to the function or perception of the object. A child may call a fluffy scarf a cat because they feel similar.

What are Mismatch or Predicate Statements?

Account for around 25% of Overextensions. These convey some form of abstract information. Eg Doll in reference to an empty cot. This may appear to be mislabelling, but it refers to where the doll can usually be found.

What did Thompson and Chapman (1977) and Hock, Ingram and Gibson find?

They found that children know and understand far more words than they produce.

What are Jean Aitchinson's three stages in a child's acquisition for words and their meanings?

Labelling Packaging Network Building

What is Labelling? | Aitchinson

Associating sounds with objects in the world. Linking words with things. Understanding the concept of labels.

What is Packaging?

Starting to explore the extent of the label. Often the stage during which over/under extensions occur most frequently.

What is Network Building?

Making connections between the labels they have developed. Understanding opposites and similarities, relationships and contrasts.

What are the two different styles Katherine Nelson suggested regarding how children learn new words?

Referential | Expressive

What is meant by Referential?

``` Early words linked to objects. High proportion of nouns and adjectives. Few Formulae No inflections at stage 1 More Telegraphic ```

What is meant by Expressive?

Early words linked to social relationships. Low proportions of nouns and adjectives. Many formulae (What do you want?) Inflections at stage 1

Grammatical Development: | Holophrastic Stage

Not much to say about syntax; a child says a word or they don't. Sometimes a child may group words together, these are known as Gestalt expressions.

What are Gestalt Expressions?

When a child groups two words together. Eg 'wassat'

Grammatical Development: Two-Word Stage (1)

Syntax comes into play, and is like adult syntax. Roger Brown noted that many of the patterns these expressions fall into are linked to the semantic relationship of the words. Many if these utterances may have a wider meaning than the child can express. Relies in context.

Grammatical Development: Two-Word Stage (2)

Other things missing at this stage are inflectional affixes. Eg 's' for plurals, 'ed' for past tenses and 's' to indicate possession. An adult may use intonation and stress to hell a child develop grammatical constructions. (CDR) Bruner

Grammatical Development: Telegraphic Stage (1)

``` Some grammar is still missing. Only relevant information in order to be understood. Child still does not use tense. Other jimmi sinks include: Articles 'a' and 'the' Aux verbs 'is' and 'has' Prepositions 'to' 'on' 'for' ```

Grammatical Development: Telegraphic Stage (2)

Child will use questions, commands and simple statements. Child usually sentences that include inflectional affixes.

``` Asking Questions (Three Stages) David Crystal ```

1) Rely on intonation. 2) Acquire question words such as 'what'. They can't yet use ancillary verbs. 3) word order is manipulated to create longer and more detailed questions, sometimes using Aux verbs.

Negatives (Six Stages) | David Crystal

1) They use words on there own 'no' 2) Combine with other words. 3) Use negatives in middle of an utterance. 4) Increased accuracy of negative words, often contractions 'isn't' 5) Increased range and complexity. 6) Saying no without saying no.

Grammatical Development: Post-Telegraphic Stage

Beyond the Telegraphic stage, the missing words such as determiners Aux verbs and prepositions begin to appear.