11. Linguistic chapter 13 Flashcards
What is acquisition?
The process by which humans acquire the ability to comprehend and produce language. During the first two or three years of development, a child requires interaction with other language-users in order to bring the general language capacity into contact with a particular language. We know that a child must hear language (Genie) and Cultural transmission (acquired in the environment).
The child must be physically capable of sending and receiving sound signals. All infants make “cooing and babbling” noises during their first year but deaf infants stop after about six months- the child must hear the language in order to speak it. A crucial requirement is interaction with others via language. A boy with deaf parents was exposed to tv & radio but did not acquire an ability to speak or understand English- he did learn American sign language by the age of three.
What is input & care speech?
Infants are under normal circumstances helped in their language acquisition by the typical behavior of older children and adults in their environment who provide language samples called input. We don’t address little creatures as in normal adult-adult conversation, rather we might say “oh goody, now daddy push choo choo”. The characteristically simplified speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with young children incorporates a lot of forms associated with “baby-talk”. Simplified words like (tummy, nana) or simple sound syllables for the things in the child’s environment (choo-choo, poo-poo, pee-prre, wa-wa). The frequent use of questions, exaggerated intonation, extra loudness and a slower tempo with longer pauses. This style is also known as “care speech”.
How can caregiver speech help with structual organization?
Caregiver speech is also characterized by simple sentence structures and a lot of repetition and paraphrasing with reference largely restricted to the here and now. The pretend as if it were a two-party conversation and the child is processing/working out a system of putting words and sound together, then it may serve as a good clue to the basic structural organization.
Mother: Look!
Child; (touches pictures)
Mother. What are those?
Child; (Vocalizes a babble sting and smiles)
Mother. Yes, these are rabbits
Child; (Vocalizes, smiles, looks at mother)
Mother: Yes, rabbits
What is the acquisition schedule?
All normal children develop language at roughly the same time, along much the same schedule. We can say the same thing for sitting up, crawling, standing, walking, using the hands and other physical activities. It would seem that the language acquisition schedule has the same basis as the biologically determined development of motor skills and the maturation of the infant’s brain. At one month an infant is capable of distinguishing between “ba” and “pa”. During the first three months, the child produces smiles in response to a speaking face, and starts to create distinct vocalization.
What is cooing?
The earliest use of speech-like sounds has been described as cooing. During the first few months the child becomes capable of producing sequences of vowel-like sounds; particularly high vowels similar to “i” and “u”. By four months of age they develop the ability to bring the back of the tongue into contact with the palate which allows the infant to create velar consonants “k” and “g”. By the time they are five months old, babies hear the difference between the vowels “i” and “a” and distinguish between syllables like “ba” and “ga”.
Tell me about babbling 1?
Between six-eight the child is sitting up and producing a number of different vowels and consonants as well as combination ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga. This sound production is described as babbling. Around 9-10 months the consonants and vowel combinations sound produced and combinations as ba-ba-da-da. Nasal sounds become more common and certain syllable sequences such as ma-ma-ma and da-da-da are interpreted by parents as versions of “mama” and “dada” and repeated back to the child.
Tell me about babbling 2?
When they pull themselves into a standing position during the tenth and eleventh month they become capable of using their vocalizations to express emotion and emphasis. This stage has a more complex syllable combination (ma-da-ga-ba) called attempted imitations. At twelve months old they are producing distinct gestures that accompany their vocalization suggesting a connection between physical and vocal organs. Linguistic developments have variations so statements such as “by six months- by the age of two” are general approximations.
What is the one-word stage? Holophrastic?
By 12 and 18 months children produce recognizable single-unit utterances and this period is called the one-word stage- single terms are used for objects such as “milk” “cookie” & “cat”. Their pronunciation however is “spoon” pronounced as [pun] and “what’s that” as [Asae] so single-unit is more accurate than one-word. Single form functioning as a phrase or a sentence is called holophrastic. Holophrastic utterances seem to name objects but they may also be produced in circumstances that suggest the child is already extending their use. An empty bed may elicit the name of a sister who normally sleeps in the bed even in the absence of that person, but the child isn’t ready to put the forms together in a more complex phrase and can only refer separately to Karen & bed.
What is the two word stage?
By 18-20 months the child’s vocabulary moves beyond 50 words and two distinct words are used together. By the time the child is two combinations such as baby chair, mommy eat, cat, bad- will usually have appeared. The adult interpretation is tied to the context so baby chair may be an expression of possession= this is baby´s chair. A request= put baby in chair or a statement= baby is in the chair. Depending on different circumstances the baby also receives feedback confirming their utterance worked as a contribution to the interaction.
What is telegraphic speech?
By 2-⅖ the child begins producing a large number of utterances classified as “multiple-word” speech. Telegraphic speech is characterized by strings of words (lexical morphemes) in phrases & sentences such as this shoe all wet, cat drink milk and daddy go bye-bye. Clearly some sentence building capacity has developed and correct word order. Inflections (-ing) and preposition (in, on) also appear. Meaning, their child’s vocabulary is expanding rapidly while increasing their physical activity- jumping and running.
What is the acquisition process?
Many would think that the child is being “taught” the language as the child’s linguistic repertoire but a more accurate view would have the child actively constructing from what is said to them and around them, possible ways of using the language and the child’s linguistic production appears to be mostly a matter of trying out construction and testing whether they work or not. It is not possible for children to learn language through instructions. Certainly, children imitate what adults say and they are in the process of adopting a lot of vocabulary from the speech they hear (the input).
What is the argument against imitation?
Evidence against imitation comes from studies of the structure used by young children. Children may repeat words or phrases, but not the sentence structure. It is likely that the children understand what the adults are saying but they have their own way of expressing what they understand.
Adult; The dogs are hungry - Child; dog hungry
Adult; The owl who eats candy runs fast -Child; owl eat a candy and he run fast.
What is the evidence against children learning through corrections?
It is also unlikely that adult “corrections” are a very effective determiner of how the child speaks. Even when the correction is attempted in a subtle manner, they will continue to use a personally constructed form, despite the adult´s repetition of what the correct form should be. Word play also seems to be an important element in the development of the child’s linguistic repertoire. They test different words and phrases.
-Child; My teacher “holded” the baby rabbits and we patted them.
-Adult; Did you say your teacher “held” the baby rabbits?
-Child; Yes
-Adult; What did you say she did?
-Child; She “holded” the baby rabbits and we patted them.
-Adult; Did you say she “held” them tightly
-Child; No, she “holded” them loosely.
I go dis way….way bay…..baby do dis bib…All bib bib…dere.
How do children develop phonology?
Some of the first consonants seem to be based on what the infants can see, hear and feel. There are visible clues in the adult´s use of the lips when producing the bilabial sounds [p, b, m, w]. Infants also hear a “pop” force in adult pronunciation of the plosive consonants so in addition to [p, b] and in addition get to know the stops [t,d,k,g]. Another sensory experience felt by a child held in an adult ́s arms when air pushed down and out through the nose making nasal sound [m, n]. Fricatives [f,s,h & j] are also uttered by children between one and two.
By the age of four. English speaking children produce alveolar “sh/sheep” “ts/cheap”. “D3/jeep” & “L, R, ng”. Beyond four-five “th, dh, 3” appear.
How do children develop morphology?
By the age of 2-⅖ the child is starting to produce inflectional and functional morphemes. First to appear is the -ing form later followed by prepositions. Next comes the marking of regular plurals with the -s form. At this point overgeneralization occurs and says “foots & mans”. Thereafter irregular plurals such as men & feet appear next- sometimes overgeneralized feets & mens. Then irregular past tense, possessive inflection- ́s and then finally regular past tense -ed sometimes overgeneralized walkeded & wented.
