Language Flashcards
The word used to represent an object is not constrained by any characteristics of the thing itself, allowing the word chosen to be completely arbitrary.
Arbitrary Association
Infants begin cooing at around 12 weeks, making sounds that combine consonants with ‘oo’ and ‘ah’ sounds.
Cooing
Words that children can actually speak.
Expressive Vocabulary
When children learn the meaning of a word after only 1 or 2 encounters with it.
Fast Mapping
Refers to the rules that govern how we put words together to form a sentence. Differences in grammatical rules between languages are common.
Grammar
When a child uses a single word to indicate the meaning of an entire sentence.
Holophrastic Phase
When people talk to infants, they tend to speak in a higher pitch and exaggerate changes in pitch and use of rhythm. The exaggerated changes in pitch used in infant-directed speech help 6-7-month-olds discriminate between different vowel sounds, possibly helping them learn the categories of vowel sounds that are present in their native language.
Infant-Directed Speech
An innate mechanism of language acquisition proposed by Noam Chomsky.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
In oral languages, morphemes are the smallest units of sound that contain information. In a sign language, morphemes are units of signs rather than units of sound.
Morphemes
Also called Word Spurts. A rapid expansion of vocabulary seen between the ages of 18-24 months.
Naming Explosion
An exception to the arbitrary nature of language where the sound of the word is associated with its meaning. The sounds of the words are not set arbitrarily but attempt to imitate natural sounds to reflect their meaning.
Onomatopoeia
Errors that involve using a fairly specific word for a broader set of related items.
Overextensions
Syntactic errors that involve using a grammatical rule too broadly.
Overregularizations
The process where one loses the ability to distinguish between contrasts in sounds not used in one’s native language.
Perceptual Narrowing
The smallest unit of sound in a language.
Phonemes
The skills that allow children to communicate appropriately and effectively in a social situation, such as taking turns during a conversation.
Pragmatics
Language is designed to use a small number of components to produce and understand a wide range of symbols. Language has a limited set of rules that can be used to combine a limited set of symbols in infinite ways.
Productive
Words that children can understand but may not yet speak. Receptive vocabulary develops well before expressive vocabulary.
Receptive Vocabulary
The infinite combinations of symbols are constrained by the rules of each language. For example, each oral language has its own set of rules about which phonemes can occur in succession.
Rule-Governed
The idea that language may influence how we perceive and experience the world.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Refers to the meaning of a word. Semantics can also refer to the fact that we are able to understand different meanings for a word depending on the context in which it is presented.
Semantics
Begins between 18-24 months. Infants use short phrases that contain only the most crucial information they are trying to communicate, much like those that would be used if you were sending someone a telegram.
Telegraphic Speech
Consistent letter-to-sound correspondence, so that a given letter will always make the same sound.
Transparent Orthographies
Where a general term is used for only a very particular instance of an item. Less common than overextensions.
Underextension
