Language Acquisition

Question 1

Phonetics

Answer 1

The sounds of a langauge

Question 2

Phonology

Answer 2

The sound patterns of a language

Question 3

Morphology

Answer 3

Rules of word formation

Question 4

Syntax

Answer 4

Howards combine into phrases and sentences

Question 5

Innateness hypothesis or Nativist

Answer 5

The Innateness hypothesis argues that our ability to acquire language is innate. Children must be born with the capacity for language development.

Question 6

Universal Grammar

Answer 6

Universal Grammar refers to the set of structural characteristics shared by all languages

Question 7

Receptive language stage

Answer 7

Associating sounds with facial movements and learning word boundaries in speech (0-4 months).

Question 8

Productive language stage

Answer 8

Babbling in multilingual sounds and gestures (4 months).

Question 9

Babbling stage

Answer 9

Sounds more like parents’ or household’s language (10 months).

Question 10

One word stage

Answer 10

Understanding and beginning to say many nouns (12 months).

Question 11

Two words stage

Answer 11

Adding verbs and making sentences but missing words (18-24 months).

Question 12

Full sentences stage

Answer 12

Speaking and understanding complex sentences (24+ months).

Question 13

Theoretical linguistics

Answer 13

Theoretical linguistics is the branch of linguistics that inquires into the nature of language or languages without regard for practical application

Question 14

Imitation

Answer 14

Children imitate what they hear. The theory is based on an empirical or behavioral approach

Question 15

Reinforcement

Answer 15

Children learn through positive and negative reinforcement. Very little evidence to support.

Question 16

Connectionist Theory

Answer 16

Claims that exposure to language develops and strengthens neural connections

Question 17

Critical Period Hypothesis

Answer 17

There’s a critical time in development during which a language can be acquired like a native speaker

Question 18

Sensitive Period Hypothesis

Answer 18

A period of development begins and ends gradually, but there is a maximum period of sensitivity.

Question 19

Pragmatic Cues

Answer 19

social context in which language is

Question 20

Intentionality

Answer 20

Children draw inferences about a word’s meaning from what is being done as the word is used.

Question 21

Infant-directed speech

Answer 21

A distinctive mode of speech used in talking to infants and young children.

Question 22

Associationist theory

Answer 22

Language development occurs as the result of the gradual strengthening of connections that matter.

Question 23

Word

Answer 23

Arbitrary symbol used to refer to some thing

Question 24

Lexicon

Answer 24

Dictionary of words

Question 25

Function Words

Answer 25

Words that are not meaningful by themselves but give structure to language (articles).

Question 26

Comprehension vocabulary

Answer 26

Words that infants understand

Question 27

Fast Mapping

Answer 27

The way in which children quickly form an idea of the meaning of an unfamiliar word they hear in a familiar and highly structured social interaction.

Question 28

Code switching

Answer 28

the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation

Question 29

LAD Language acquisition device

Answer 29

The hypothetical tool in the human brain that lets children learn and understand language quickly. Theory developed by Noam Chomski.

Question 30

Competence

Answer 30

Linguistic competence is concerned with the child’s grammar, linguistic input and construction of the grammatical structures

Question 31

Performance

Answer 31

Performance deals with the nature of child’s rule system; the psychological processes the child uses in learning the language, and how the child establishes meaning in the language input

Question 32

Structure dependency

Answer 32

This principle of universal grammar states that language is organized in such a way that it crucially depends on the structural relationships between elements in a sentence

Question 33

Parameters

Answer 33

Determine the ways in which languages can vary

Question 34

Head

Answer 34

Specifies the position of the head in relation to its complements within phrases for different languages. English is a headfirst language because head of the phrase always appears before it’s complements whilst Japanese is a head last language.

Question 35

Surface structure

Answer 35

Surface structure represents the physical properties of language

Question 36

Deep Structure

Answer 36

The deep structure represented the core semantic relations of the sentence

Question 37

Economy of derivation

Answer 37

The principal stating that movements only occur in order to match the interpretable features with an interpretive all features

Question 38

Economy of representation

Answer 38

principle that grammatical structures must exist for a reason

Question 39

Transformations

Answer 39

A rule that takes an input typically called the deep structure and changes it in some restricted way to result in a surface structure

Question 40

Cognitive theory

Answer 40

Language acquisition must be viewed within the context of a child’s intellectual development. Linguistic structures will emerge only if there is an already established cognitive foundation

Question 41

Input Theory

Answer 41

Learners progress in their knowledge of the language when they comprehend language input that is slightly more advanced than their current level

Question 42

Motherese

Answer 42

Simplified and repetitive type of speech with exaggerated intonation in rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies