Lecture 7 - Language development Flashcards
(38 cards)
Define language
- Symbolic communication
- rule goverened
- conventional (same rules agreed upon)
- Arbitary (no reason why particular sounds mean particular things(
- have to learn rules and their exceptions
- Social, inellectual
- not always spoken - written/ gestured
Define Phonology
About sounds
- phonemes = smallest unit of sound within a language
- Speech is just a continuous stream of phonemes
- Languages distinguish, but we can make 100s
What did Chomsky & Halle (1968) say
- Rules govern combination
- ‘Cant produce’ - some sounds we physically cant make
- ‘Aren’t produce’ - some sounds are language specific
Define Orthography
- Letters - about how we write down the language we wish to communicate
- Graphemes = smallest unit of written text
- Letters correspond to phonemes, but it is not 1 on 1
- Hanna etl al (1966) - ‘s’, ‘c’, ‘ss’, ‘sc’, ‘x’, can all be pronounced as s
- Some rules are exclusively orthographic - silent letters, or adding an -e
- 44 phonemes + 26 letters to produce these sounds
Define semantics
About meaning
- Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit
- ‘s’ makes something plural, ‘ed’ makes it different tense
- Dog = free noun, can stand on its own
- Dogs - the s in dogs = plural suffix, needs to be with something else
- Words can have multiple meanings (e.g. roll)
- Phrases/ sentences:
• require syntax/ grammar for meaning
• Need to learn these rules
• Syntax = order
• culture appropriate
Define pragmatics
Non-linguistics
- considers the communicative function of language
- About adjust to the context of language (speec/ writing? and who you’re talking to)
- acknowledgment of social conventions (like turn taking)
- Involves perspective taking (what reader/ listener already knows, so what to fill them in with)
- Intonation (pitch) and prosody (tone, rhythm stress)
Outline the pre-linguistic stage in newborns of language development
- Newborn
- reflexive vocalisation
- first sounds
- crys, grunts, hiccups, general innate noises - 1 month
- can discriminate all phonemes, but loses this ability by 12 months
- dont need to recognise all phonemes
- Can produce different cries for different messages
- hungry/ sad/ tired - 2-3 months
- coo, smile, laugh
- combining vowels and social smiles
- helps spoken language dev
Outline the pre-linguistic stage: 4-6 months
- babbling - consonant-vowel combos
- precursor for speech - teaches control of vocal chords, mouth, tongue, lips
- Universal (even in deaf), similar sounds at similar ages
- Echolalia - repeating sounds of others
- Pragmatics - joint attention (follow another persons gaze) and turk taking (adult has to do work)
- Bateson (1978) found most adults wont talk over babbling child - turn taking
Outline the pre-linguistic stage: 6-9 months
- babbling gets more sophisticated
- canonical babbling - getting more word like, e.g. dadda
- reduplicated babbling - repeating over and over
Outline the pre-linguistic stage: 9-12 months
•Modulated babbling - more conversational, learning about intonation, prosidy
• Meaningful gestures, like pointing (8 months)
• Start to understand simple instructions, like ‘no’ or ‘stop’
• By 1 year, babies know
- making a sound brings a response
- turn taking
- can make different noises
- listen to others voices
What did Reddy (1999) find about the 9-12 months language dev
Looked at communicative interactions
- found infant begins taking active role
- moves from dyadic (one infant to another thing) to triadic intreaction (infant to 2 other people/ objects)
Outline first word: 1-2 years
- Learn comprehension before production
- Phonologically consistent forms: ‘moo’ = cow
- First word around 1 year
- intially slow vocab dev, 1-3 words a month
- 18-24 months = 10-20 words a week
- 6 years = 15,000 words
What did Dromi (1999) and Nelson (1981) find about 1st word
1st word fell into predictable semantic categories - often objects that can be acted upon (e.g. ball)
or
familiar actions/ behaviours (“uh oh”)
Outline grammar development: 2+ years
- Holophrases - child communicates with a single word or gesutre - saying milk and point to the milk = give me the milk
- happens around 12- 18 months (Tomasell (1995)
Outline 2/ 3 word utterances: 2+ Years
• 2 word utterances - adults have to decypher meaning, contexnt is important
- no grammar/ tense
- 1.5-2.5 years (Bloom, 1998)
• 3 word utterances (2-3 years) - logical errors lead to knowledge of grammar, over using the rule
-
Outline sentences stage of language dev: 2+ years
- Holophrases
- 2/ 3 word utterances
- playing with language, like rhyming (around 3/4/5)
- 4-5 can reliably apply rules, have knolwedge of most grammatical constructions
What do nativists like Chomsky and Pinker argue?
- Language is only human, seen in virtually all humans
- are cross-cultural similarities, like universal grammer, or babbling
- We have ‘language acquision drive’ - in buil mechanism to decypher language/ grammar and help us learn a langugae
- Innate drive to learn language
- in deprivation studies, children can still babble/ talk even after not being exposed to it
What do behaviourists like Skinner argue?
- Humans have different languages, dialects, accents
- imitation (like echolalia) and reinforcement is important
What are ‘for’ nativistis?
√ - there are universal properties of language - children go trhguh same stages, make same mistakes (even deaf)
√ - Pidgen languages - simplified version of language appearing spontaneously
√ - Brain areas related to language areas
What are ‘againsts’ nativistis?
X - understates complexity of language
X - languages are different, e.g. masculine, feminine - dont apply for english
X - Complex language components are hard to learn, why dont we have them immeditely from birth
X - impossible to prove we have this innate ability
What are the fors for behaviourists?
√ - Env evidence - we speak accent dialect of our social group
√ - More a parent talks to baby in early years, better language dev
- push chair facing mother = greater speech, quicker development
What are the againsts for behaviourists?
X - understates dev achievement - very complex, cant just say we imitate
X - can produce language they havent heart
X - Adopted children dont have one on one interaction but still develop language fine
X - too much emphasis on role of parents
What are the conclusions of this debate?
- interactionist approaches
- We have innate disposition to learn language
- this is facilitated by env/ behaviours
Define literacy deveopment
Literacy = ability to read and write
Written language:
- develops after spoken language
- Not always acquired easily
- requires explicit education
- dev requires matching written to spoken
- need exposure and support
