Development of Language and Symbol Use

Question 1

Language is Generative

Answer 1

Finite set of words can be combined to
generate an infinite number of sentences

Question 2

Phonetic & Phonological development

Answer 2

Knowledge about sounds (phonemes, the elementary
units of sound that distinguish meaning) and how you
can put them together in YOUR language

Question 3

Syntactic development

Answer 3

Learning the syntax (grammar, or rules, or
permissible combinations of words from different
categories) for combining words

Question 4

Semantic development

Answer 4

System for expressing meaning in a language,
beginning with morphemes, the smallest unit of
meaning in a language

Question 5

Pragmatic development

Answer 5

How language is used, which includes understanding
a variety of conversational conventions

Question 6

Language is a species-specific behavior

Answer 6

Only humans acquire a communication system
with the complexity, structure, and generativity of
language

Question 7

Language is also species-universal

Answer 7

Virtually all humans develop language
 Nonhuman primates have been trained to use
signs or other symbols only with concentrated
effort by humans
 Appears to be little evidence that they have
acquired syntax

Question 8

Critical Period

Answer 8

To learn language, children must also be exposed to
other people using language—spoken or signed
 Sometime between age 5 and puberty, language
acquisition becomes much more difficult and ultimately
less successful
 Difficulties feral children (such as Genie) have in
acquiring language in adolescence
 Comparisons of the effects of brain damage suffered at
different ages on language

Question 9

Critical Periods (Adults)

Answer 9

Language capabilities
of bilingual adults
who acquired their
second language at
different ages
Knowledge of English
grammar is related to
the age at which
individuals were
exposed to English
(see Johnson &
Newport, p. 221)
NOT to the total length
of exposure to the
language

Question 10

Process of
Language Acquisition

Answer 10

Requires both comprehending what other people
communicate to you and producing language of your
own
* Infants have language understanding long before they
can actually produce it.
‐ Speech Perception
‐ Preparation for Production
‐ First Words
‐ Putting Words Together

Question 11

Categorical Perception
of Speech Sounds

Answer 11

Adults and infants perceive speech sounds as
belonging to discrete categories (this is categorical
perception)
‐ For example, the two phonemes
/b/ and /p/ occur along same
acoustic continuum
‐ they differ in voice onset time
(VOT): the length of time
between when the vocal cords
start vibrating and when air
passes through the lips.
‐ ba = shorter than 25 msec VOT
‐ pa = greater than 25 msec VOT

Question 12

Categorical Perception
of Speech by Adults

Answer 12

When adults listen to synthetic speech with the VOT systematically
manipulated with step‐wise increases, creating the change over
from /ba/ to /pa/ or vice versa, they switch from perceiving one
sound to perceiving the other suddenly (NOT gradually.
While sound itself can be gradually tweaked (VOT), our
perception of that sound is categorical (either/or)
/pa//ba/

Question 13

Perceptual loss:
Locus of onset (offset?)
(Werker, 1981)

Answer 13

When does perceptual loss take place?
 Hindi contrasts tested on…
 Hindi-speaking adults
 Discrimination
 English-speaking adults
 No discrimination
 English-speaking kids
 No discrimination
 English-exposed 7-month-olds*
Discrimination
*Using the Conditioned Headturn Procedure

Question 14

Learning native language categories

Answer 14

1) Infants can discriminate sounds used in
many different languages at 6 months
2) Sensitivity is gradually lost between 6
and 12 months
3) After 12 months infants can only
discriminate native language contrasts
Use it or Lose it

Question 15

Two Languages Are Better
Than One

Answer 15

Bilingual infants
 Learn in the womb; equal language preference if
exposed prenatally
 Discriminate speech sounds of two language at same
pace of infants learning one
 Are better at using silent talking face to discriminate
unfamiliar languages
 Build two linguistic systems; code switching
 Have vocabularies distributed across two languages
 Perform better on cognitive control measures

Question 16

The Process of Language
Acquisition

Answer 16

Language is acquired by listening and
speaking (or watching and signing).
 Comprehending what other people communicate
 Producing intelligible speech (or signs)
 Paying attention to what other people say or sign

Question 17

Speech Perception

Answer 17

Prosody: The characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody,
intonational patterns, etc., with which a language is spoken
Categorical perception:
The perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories
Voice onset time(VOT):
The length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating
Word segmentation:
The process of discovering where words begin and end
in fluent speech
Distributional properties:
The phenomenon that, in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others

Question 18

Categorical Perception of
Speech Sounds

Answer 18

This research reveals
an early-emerging
ability that is
experience-
independent. Infants
can discriminate
between speech
sounds they have
never heard before.

Question 19

Word Segmentation

Answer 19

Distributional properties: in any language, certain
sounds are more likely to appear together than
others.
 Infants can identify patterns in the speech
surrounding them.
 They then focus on sound patterns that make a
difference in their native language and lay the
groundwork for becoming native listeners and native
speakers.
 Just after birth, infants can use predictable sound
patterns to identify words from speech streams.

Question 20

Preparation for Production

Answer 20

Babbling
 Producing syllables made up of
a consonant followed by a vowel
(“pa,” “ba,” “ma”) that are
repeated in strings (“mamama”)
 Produced as sounds (or hand
movements (for learners of sign
language)
 Produced during early phases of
language developmen

Question 21

First Words

Answer 21

Early word recognition
 Linguistic experience
support skilled rapid
word comprehension.
 Infant word
understanding exceeds
word production; same
understanding occurs in
toddlers with autism.
 Parents underestimate
this comprehension
competence.
 Older children use
context to aid word
recognition.

Question 22

Language Development and
Socioeconomic Status

Answer 22

Number of words children know related to
number of words they hear linked to their
caregivers’ vocabularies
 SES related to language children hear
 Seminal research: fewer words spoken in families on
welfare; more in professional families
 Recent research: estimates exaggerated
 SES-related differences
 Averages vary in amount of parental input, quality of
input, and physical environment, including school
context

Question 23

i-Babies: Technology and
Language Learning

Answer 23

Passive viewing does not
appear to support learning;
infants do seem able to learn
when they can actively engage
with another human, even via
screens.
 Live video chat is the only
acceptable use of technology
for infants younger than 2
years of age.
 Adult device usage can detract
from adults’ responsiveness to
children’s needs and from
opportunities to provide
learning experiences.

Question 24

Cross-situational word learning

Answer 24

Determining word meanings by tracking
correlations between labels and meanings across
scenes and contexts

Question 25

Syntactic bootstrapping

Answer 25

Strategy of using the grammatical structure to infer meaning

Question 26

Putting Words Together

Answer 26

First sentences  Most children combine words into simple sentences by end of 2nd year  Telegraphic speech: short utterances that leave out non-essential words; generally two- word utterances

Question 27

Grammar

Answer 27

Mastery of regularities of language  Increasing ability to recognize patterns and generalize to novel words

Question 28

Overregularization

Answer 28

Speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular

Question 29

Conversational Skills

Answer 29

Private speech  Speech directed to self, rather than another person (Vygotsky)  Collective monologues  Conversation between children involving series of non sequiturs; content of each child’s turn has little or nothing to do with what other child has just said  Narratives  Descriptions of past events that have the basic structure of a story and can be produced by 5 years of age

Question 30

Later Development

Answer 30

Development of language skills beyond ages 5 or 6 years  Accomplishments in sustaining a conversation  Complex grammar mastered by school-age children  Appreciation of multiple meanings of words  Better comprehension of words  Approximate vocabulary achieved by age  6-year-olds: 10,000 words  5th-graders: 40,000 words  College students: 150,000 words

Question 31

Chomsky and the Nativist View

Answer 31

Noam Chomsky countered Skinner’s behaviorism and proposed humans are born with universal grammar.  Proposed set of highly abstract, unconscious rules that are common to all languages  Hard-wired set of rules governing grammar in all languages (nativist)  Many surface differences in languages  Similar underlying structures in all languages