PSYCH 102 Chapters 9/10 Flashcards
What is the importance of language?
- It is important as it is the way we communicate together as well as demonstrates our complexity as human beings and how we have evolved.
- and because it shows our complexity it also proves the distinction between humans and non-human animals.
What is the definition of Language?
language can be though of as formally (the way it is stated) or can also be thought of as communication (the idea)
What are 3 characteristics for children during the language development process?
- children learn words and grammatical structure, but are unable to catch onto the meaning of words and the context of jokes or tones used when speaking.
- It is said that children make very few errors while learning to speak grammatically but can often make errors with the intent and meaning behind their words.
- Children’s passive mastery develops faster than their active mastery: meaning they may be able to understand a statement but are unable to add to the conversation with something new.
How many languages are there?
4,000
Is it true or false that language is something innate or inborn?
- Its actually neither as it is just a theory that language is innate due to the fact that all languages have a very similar root system from which each language is built upon; thus people believe that since the very first structures are so similar and that while being an infant any language can be taught to you is proof that some parts of language is innate.
- another piece of evidence for this theory is that infants already know how to perceive tones of voices but loose this ability before they reach 6 months of age. (thats a reason why its possible to teach a baby any language when born)
What man was showed in a video during class, where he set up cameras all around his house to observe what influences children’s first words?
His name was Deb Roy and did this for years, something he realized through his observations was that as his son’s communication level began to improve he realized that him and his wife had to be just a bit more ahead in the levels of language to continuously be improving his skills
What do parents do to initiate their children’s first words?
- they manipulate their pitches to be either higher for encouragement or lower for serious lessons
- this initiating Infant Directed speech (so grabbing their attention this way)
- also initiating Segmentation (parents will slower their pace making it easier for the child to understand) - They use a lot of repetition as this:
- highlights important words
- restates a word if it needed correction
- as well as reptetition being used within the enviroment the word belongs to such as Deb Roy constantly framing simple sentences around the word water while in the kitchen - Wait for responses, this helps enforce the standard way that people interact within a conversation and this is often repeated with simple terms such as saying “I love you” to your child and awaiting their response and then repeating it again after they have responded.
- Parents will try to simplify their word choices and sentence structure and even talk as their baby is to initiate more interaction and then build the skills upon that.
What is the definition of Patterned Speech?
this is at the babbling stage of an infants language skills where although no words are being communicated to the the parents the infant understands the meaning of his babbles as well as has emotions towards what he is trying to communicate.
What is the definition of Grammar?
Grammar is a set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.
What are 3 differences between the human language and monkey yelps?
- Its Complex Structure: the ability to express concepts and ideas.
- We use words to refer to intangible items (ex. unicorns or democracy)
- We use words that influence how we organize knowledge in our brains: such as categorization, labeling, as well as using description.
When was language first spoken?
it emerged as a spoken system 1-3 million years ago.
When did language begin to be written?
as little as 6,000 years ago.
What is the definition of Phoneme?
it is the smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than a random noise.
ex. “ba”
What is the definition of Phonological Rules?
is a set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.
What is the definition of Morphemes?
these are the smallest meaningful units of language
What is the definition of Morphological Rules?
is a set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.
What do function morphemes allow us to do?
They allow us to express complex ideas.
What is the definition of Syntactical Rules?
indicates how words can be used to create phrases and sentences. But in order for this to work it must contain one or more noun and one or more verbs
What is the definition of Deep Structure vs. the definition of Surface Structure?
Deep structure is the actual meaning of the sentence whereas Surface structure is how the sentence is worded.
What do both hearing and non-hearing infants do?
They both learn to babble in the same structure: so they learn d&t before m&n
^ this suggests that babbling is also a natural part of the development process.
What is the definition of Fast Mapping?
is the fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure to it.
What is the definition of Telegraphic Speech?
it is speech that is a devoid of function morphemes and consists mainly of content words.
What is the behaviourist point of view regarding language?
The believe that we learn to talk the way we learn any other skill, through reinforcement, shaping and extinction.
What is the Navtivst’s point of view regarding language?
Linguist Noam Chomsky believes language- learning capacities are built into the brain, which simply requires exposure or language to be accessed.
What is the definition of Genetic Dysphasia?
this is a syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite otherwise having normal intelligence.
What is an interactionist point of view of language development?
They believe that although infants are born with an innate ability to acquire language, social interactions play a crucial role in language development.
