Language Flashcards
(33 cards)
In what way is language hierarchical, componential and compositional?
Hierarchical – there are multiple levels of analysis, each of which builds on the other – e.g. phonology, morphology, syntax
Componential – each level contains a finite set of units
Compositional –these units are combined productively with a finite set of rules
2-month-olds ______, 6-month-olds _______ and 12-month-olds pronounce their _____ ______.
2-month-olds coo, 6-month-olds babble and 12-month-olds pronounce their first words.
Native-language-specific babbling begins around…
10 months
When infants are born they can already recognise the _______ of their own language and prefer ______ to _________.
When infants are born they can already recognise the prosody of their own language and prefer speech to non-speech. Measured by rate of sucking.
Discriminating ________ phonemic categories is easy; Discriminating ________ phonemic categories is hard.
Discriminating across phonemic categories is easy; Discriminating within phonemic categories is hard.
How does infants’ phonemic perception change across the first year of life?
In first half of first year they show categorical perception across all world’s language sounds. By 10 months, only discriminate phonemic contrasts relevant to their language.
From 12-18 months, kids learn about one word per ____
After 18 months this rapidly accelerates to about one word per ___.
From 12-18 months, kids learn about one word per day.
After 18 months this rapidly accelerates to about one word per hour.
At age 2, kids have ____-_____ words. By age 7 they have from ______-______ words.
At age 2, kids have 100-2,000 words. By age 7 they have from 5,000-20,000 words.
What words are chosen by kids at 18 months?
2-word combinations of most important content words. e.g. Daddy work.
What’s the difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes?
Inflectional morphemes change number and tense –e.g. -s, -ed. Derivational morphemes change word category – e.g. destroy -> destruction.
What is the pattern whereby kids learn irregular words?
First they say correctly via imitation – e.g. teeth. Then they overgeneralise morphemic rules –e.g. tooths.
Kids can do complex pragmatics – e.g. metaphor, irony, sarcasm –by around age __
Kids can do complex pragmatics – e.g. metaphor, irony, sarcasm –by around age 8.
How does the distinction between simultaneous and componential expression tell us whether a new sign language is bona fide?
Language divides meaning into components to recombine them to generate more meanings. For a language to be complete it must be componential.
The first generation of the NSL sign language used simultaneous expression (e.g. ‘the ball rolled down the hill’ is a downward rolling gesture). The second generation used separate gestures for ‘down’ and ‘rolling’. This suggests a full systematic linguistic structure.
Why must there be a universal grammar, according to Chomsky?
Reinforcement learning and sensorimotor learning mechanisms cannot account for the abstract syntactical rules that generate human language, e.g. recursion
What specifically is in universal grammar?
Structured representations with abstract syntactic categories. e.g. sentences are composed of NP+VP, VPs are composed of Vs and NPs.
What is a phrase?
A group of words that form a functional/structural unit.
How can you tell what’s in a phrase?
Pronomial reference.
Give a piece of evidence that structure dependence is an ‘innate schematism’?
Children never make mistakes forming questions:
‘The boy who is smoking is crazy’ ->
‘Is the boy who smoking is crazy’?
They understand that ‘the boy who is smoking’ is a NP that cannot be split up.
What’s an early abstraction account of how kids acquire syntax?
There are abstract notions of agents and patients and an innate bias to link event roles to nouns. Each semantic role needs a noun. Generally, agents come before a verb and patients after. Then these cues can be used to learn novel verbs, e.g. the frog is gorping the bear.
In Gertner et al. (2006). ‘The frog is gorping the bear’. Children look longer to the frog as causal actor (between two pictures). To learn the new verb, the kids must demonstrate…?
A link between abstract syntax (word order and agency) and semantics (the meaning of ‘gorping’).
What evidence is there for a genetically driven maturational sensitive period?
Deaf children not exposed to sign language before puberty never learn language.
What is the statistical learning hypothesis of language?
Children track the transitional probabilities between sounds, words and phrases, and how they are distributed more globally, to learn grammatical categories and phrase structure rules.
What is a transitional probability?
The probability that after X, Y will occur.
How was it demonstrated that infants can use transitional probability to infer word boundaries?
Kids given string of syllables, some of which co-occurred consistently. E.g. bidaku. Then tested repetitions of bidaku against repetitions of novel sequence, e.g. kupado. Infants showed novelty preference to ‘kupado’.
