9.1 Flashcards
Language
A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning.
Grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.
Phonemes
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise.
Phonological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.
Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language.
Morphological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.
Syntactical Rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.
“Deep Structure” of a sentence
The meaning of a sentence
“Surface Structure” of a sentence
How a sentence is structured
Fast Mapping
The process whereby children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure.
Telegraphic Speech
Usually two-word sentences; speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words.
Usually just nouns and verbs
What is Nativist Theory?
Argues that humans are pre-programmed with the innate ability to develop language
Associated with Chomsky
What’s an LAD?
Language Acquisition Device
A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.
Approx. how many human languages are there?
4000
3 major characteristics of language development
Children learn language at an astonishing rate
Children make few errors while learning to speak
Children’s passive memory develops faster than their active mastery
How many words does a child know at age 1, compared to age 5?
Vocabulary of 10 words expands to over 10,000 words over the 4-year period.
This works out to an average of 6 or 7 new words per day
Passive Mastery
Understanding what is being said, without being able to repeat it. This happens before active mastery.
Active Mastery
Being able to repeat or speak what is said
0-4 months language milestone
difference between possible speech sounds, especially in response to speech
4-6 months language milestone
Babbling consonants
6-10 months language milestone
Understands some words and simple requests. Can no longer reliably distinguish sounds that are not used in their native language
10-12 months language milestone
Begins to use single words
12-18 months language milestone
Vocab of 30-50 words (simple nouns, verbs, adjectives)
18-24 months language milestone
Two-word phrases ordered according to syntactic rules. Vocab of 50-200 words.
24-36 months language milestone
Vocab of about 1000 words. Production of phrases and incomplete sentences
36-60 months language milestone
Vocab over 10,000 words. Full sentences, mastery of grammatical morphemes
Genetic Dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence
Proposes evidence that there may be evidence of a genetic basis for grammar
