Language development

Question 1

psycho-linguistics

Answer 1

interrelated study of language and psychology. Concerned with psychological and neurobiological factors facilitating language production and comprehension.

Question 2

phonology

Answer 2

the basic units of sound (unique to each language), and the rules for combining them. Most basic sound unit is a phoneme.

Question 3

morphology

Answer 3

How meaningful words are formed from sounds and the rules governing this. In English, this includes eg adding “ed” to form past tenses, “S” for plurals etc.

Question 4

semantics

Answer 4

How meanings are derived from words and sentences.
The smallest unit giving meaning is a morpheme= a single word which gives meaning eg dog. Abound morpheme (eg s) cannot stand alone but alters meaning when added to a morpheme eg dogs.

Question 5

Syntax

Answer 5

the rules of a language specifying how words must be combined, in order to give meaning.
eg Garfield bit Odie,
Garfield Odie bit,
Odie bit Garfield.

Question 6

pragmatics

Answer 6

knowledge of how to use language to communicate effectively. Requires sociolinguistic knowledge, knowledge of non-verbal cues, and knowledge of audience.

Question 7

sociolinguistic knowledge

Answer 7

culturally specific rules of a language specifying how language should be used in a specific social setting.

Question 8

Empiricist view

Answer 8

Language is learned. ie requires exposure. eg. Japanese children learn Japanese and French, French.
This view held by Learning Theorists and this is part of the “nurture” argument..

Question 9

Nativist view

Answer 9

Language development is biologically programmed, involving highly specialised linguistic processes which are most efficient during childhood. This is the “nature”argument. Points out that there are linguistic universals (irrespective of which language, children tend to babble, form sentences etc at similar ages).

Question 10

Interactionist view

Answer 10

The middle ground. Language develops through a complex interplay of biological programming, cognitive development and unique environment.

Question 11

Language Acquisition Device

Answer 11

Noam Chomsky, Nativist, proposed the LAD as an inborn device of humans which contains universal grammar, activated by verbal input. Argues that without this, language is far to complicated to learn.

Question 12

Language-Making Capacity

Answer 12

Nativist Dan Slobin proposed that there was not an innate knowlefge of language, but rather an innate set of cognitive and perceptual abilities, highly specialized for language learning.

Question 13

Aphasia

Answer 13

Loss of one or more language functions due to brain damage.

Question 14

Broca’s Area

Answer 14

In the lower part of the Left Frontal Lobe (90% of right-handeds and 70% of left-handeds).Damage here results in impaired speech production but not impaired comprehension.

Question 15

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 15

Located in the Left Temporal Lobe. (95% of right-handeds and 60% of left handeds)Damage hear results in language comprehension problems but speech production is ok.

Question 16

Sensitive Period Hypothesis of Language Acquisition.

Answer 16

Erik Lenneberg. Complete language acquisition only possible if learnt prior to puberty, Learning second language as adult is much harder. If left brain damaged, right can takeover prior to puberty (adults require far more extensive therapy, with poorer result). Cases where people not exposed to language until after puberty have learnt much semantics yet unable to master syntax.

Question 17

Creole

Answer 17

A true language, which has evolved from a pidgin (hybrid) language.

Question 18

Connectionism Theory

Answer 18

Thorndike. Learning is achieved when an individual can form associations between a stimulus and response.

Question 19

Motherese

Answer 19

Short, simple, high-pitched, repetitive style of speech directed at children. also called Child-Directed-Speech.

Question 20

Negative evidence expansion

Answer 20

Parental response to incorrect grammar with an extension eg “Doggie go”parent responds “yes the doggie is going away”

Question 21

Negative evidence recast

Answer 21

parental response to incorrect grammar eg “Doggie eat “and respond with “What is the doggie eating?”or “yes the doggie is hungry”etc.

Question 22

Pre-linguistic phrase

Answer 22

first 10-13 months.Period before uttering first words. Can discriminate between different intonational patterns and often match vocalise.

Question 23

cooing

Answer 23

vowel-like noises begin at 2 months, likely heard when baby alert, fed and content.

Question 24

babbling

Answer 24

by 4-6 months, vowel-consonant repetitions eg dadada but has no meaning. Deaf infants whose parents use sign, will “babble “experimentally with their hands.

Question 25

vocables

Answer 25

unique vocalisations that a pre-linguistic child uses to reliably represent objects, events or movements

Question 26

declarative gesture

Answer 26

preverbal gesture of communication, infant directs another’s attention to an object by pointing or touching it.

Question 27

imperative gesture

Answer 27

pre-verbal gesture used by infants to get others to fulfil his desires eg tug at pants leg to be picked up.

Question 28

receptive language precedes productive language

Answer 28

many words are understood well before they are used

Question 29

holophrastic period

Answer 29

infants utter single word phrases which may be interpreted by close companions as a whole senence (holophrase) of meaning eg “awa”= “I want “.

Question 30

naming explosion

Answer 30

occurs in latter part of second year. Phenomenal acquisition of new words (mostly for objects)

Question 31

multimodal motherese

Answer 31

motherese accompanied by explanatory action

Question 32

referential style

Answer 32

early linguisitic style of toddlers, use words mainly to label objects

Question 33

expressive style

Answer 33

early linguisitic style of toddlers, use words mainly to call attention to feelings and regulate social interactions. Many Asian cultures’infants use this style more often, and also more frequent in non-first born Western toddlers.

Question 34

fast-mapping

Answer 34

process of acquiring the meaning of a word after hearing it only a few times

Question 35

overextension

Answer 35

young child’s mistake of using a fairly specific word for a broader set than adults would eg using car to refer to all motor vehicles

Question 36

underextension

Answer 36

young child’s tendency to use a word for a smaller set than an adult would eg use “lollies” to refer only to mints etc.

Question 37

processing constraints

Answer 37

cognitive biases or tendencies which lead an infant to favor one interpretation (of a new word’s meaning) as opposed to another.

Question 38

object scope constraint

Answer 38

may assume new word applies to whole object as opposed to part of it.

Question 39

mutual exclusivity constraint

Answer 39

may assume that a new word can only apply to a new object and that an object cannot have 2 names

Question 40

lexical contrast constraint

Answer 40

learn by comparing new words with lists of current ones, in order to learn suborder classifications etc. eg when know “dog”, may then learn cocker spaniel as a dog with specific appearance.

Question 41

syntactical bootstrapping

Answer 41

infer word meaning from clues eg of sentence structure

Question 42

telegraphic period

Answer 42

18-24 months. Combine words into simple sentences, but like telegrams, have the bare essential words only.

Question 43

grammatical morpheme

Answer 43

prefixes,suffixes,auxiliary verbs etc which alter a sentence’s meaning

Question 44

over-regularization

Answer 44

sometimes extend a new grammatical rule into incorrect areas eg I brushed my tooths.

Question 45

transformational grammar

Answer 45

rules of syntax allowingstatements to be turned into questions, negatives or imperatives etc.

Question 46

illocutionary intent

Answer 46

the real meaning or intent of words (not always same as exact statement)

Question 47

referential communication

Answer 47

being able to adjust one’s communication for further clarification when initially misunderstood. 3-5 year olds are starting to learn this.

Question 48

later syntactic development

Answer 48

5-8 year olds are adjusting previous syntactical errors and using more complex sentences

Question 49

morphological knowledge

Answer 49

knowledge of the meaning of morphemes , which make up words.