Language Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is language ?
a symbolic system - each word means something, stands for something or refers to something else
combinatorial system: we can combine elements into a number of different ways - and communicate novel messages which nobody has said before
What is the importance of language ?
has beneficial impacts on a childs development - literacy and maths, social (friendships &bullying)
Describe language development as a component of language
Language comprehension (receptive language) - understanding what others say
language production(expressive language) - speaking (or signing) to others
What does phoneme mean?
smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word.
What did Kull (2011) say about phonological development?
Infants with the ability to discriminate sounds of any language, “universal listeners”
What did Werker & Lalonde (1998) say about phonological development?
This ability declines the first year of life between 10-12motnhs of age
Breakdown producing phonology from 0-12 motnhs
0-2 months: non speech noises
2-4 months: cooing,more diverse vowels
4-8 months: more obvious syllable like units
6-12 motnhs: canonical babbling
Breakdown producing phonology from 12-14 months
12-15 months: first words
15- 24 months: complex babbling
What is another name for word learning
Lexical learning
What happens in the first year of life?
Vocabulary development - communicative development inventroy
What is a vocabulary spurt?
where the rate of acquisition of new words is thought to accelerate rapidly
What is overextension?
when a child applies a word to more referents than it actually applies to in adult usage.
e.g. calling all 4 legged animals dog
What is underextension?
Underextension is when a child applies a word to fewer referents than it actually applies to in adult usage.
e.g. A child uses the word “bottle” only for their own baby bottle, not recognizing other bottles as “bottle.”
Processing speed
knowing something(language input) vs processing something(language processing)
Morphology - what does morpheme mean
smallest meaningful unit of language
e.g. pig(s) - here it means more than one
Initial omission of morphemes
initially toddlers omit many morohemes and it gradually decreases up to 3-3.5 years . By 4 morpheme is a sign of language difficulties
morphological rules
morphemes with a particular meaning may occur in regular and irregular forms
What is generalisation in terms of morphological rules?
learning to use a morpheme with a word in a way that is mot rote learned (memorised through repetition)
morphological overgeneralisation
irregular forms of words as if they were regular
e.g., we holded the baby rabits and we patted them
Syntax
the rules for organising words into sentences
Syntax comprehension
18-24 months - understands simple scentences with familiar objects and actions in more complex contexts and with less adult scaffolding
Syntactic production
Syntactic production refers to the ability to form grammatically correct sentences by using appropriate syntax, which is the set of rules that govern how words are combined into phrases and sentences.
Pragmatics
how people use language in social situations, including how they interpret meaning, intention, and implicature (implied meaning).
pragmatic development
Using the right expression to refer to something:
e.g., Choosing between he vs. the dog vs. the spotty dog
- understanding inferences
- talking in different registers
