A2 Key Terms

Question 0

Archaism

Answer 0

An old fashioned word or phrase that isn’t used in modern day english

Question 1

Amelioration

Answer 1

When a word develops a more positive meaning over time

Question 2

Babbling

Answer 2

The production of short vowel/consonant combinations by a baby acquiring language

Question 3

Behaviourism

Answer 3

A theory of language acquisition that suggests that children learn language through a process of imitation and reinforcement

Question 4

Bidialectism

Answer 4

The ability of speakers to switch between two dialect forms, the most common being between standard english and a speaker’s regional variety

Question 5

Blending

Answer 5

When parts of two of words are combined to make a new one

Question 6

Borrowing

Answer 6

When words from one language fall into common usage in another q’s q result of contact

Question 7

Broadening

Answer 7

When a word that has quite a specific meaning becomes more general over time ( also known we generalisation, expansion or extension)

Question 8

Child-directed speech

Answer 8

The way that carers talk to children - usually in a simplified and/or exaggerated way

Question 9

Clipping

Answer 9

When a shortened version of a word becomes a word in its own right

Question 10

Cluster reduction

Answer 10

When a child only pronounces one consonant from a consonant cluster

Question 11

Cognitive theory

Answer 11

A theory of language acquisition that suggests that children need to have developed certain mental abilities before that can acquire language

Question 12

Conversion

Answer 12

When a word becomes part of a different word class in addition to the original one

Question 13

Cooing

Answer 13

The earliest sounds children are able to make as they experiment with moving their lips and tongue

Question 14

Critical period hypothesis

Answer 14

A theory popularised by Lenneberg (1967) which states that or a child does not have any linguistic interaction before the ages of 5-6, their language development will b be severely limited

Question 15

Deletion

Answer 15

When a child misses out consonants in words

Question 16

Descriptivsm

Answer 16

The attitude that no use of language is incorrect and that variation should be acknowledged and recorded rather than corrected

Question 17

Overextension

Answer 17

When a child acquiring language uses a word too generally to refer to different but related things

Question 18

Pejoration

Answer 18

When a word develops a more negative meaning over time

Question 19

Phonemic contraction

Answer 19

When a baby stops making certain sounds, and just makes the sounds it hears from the language its caregivers use. (10 months)

Question 20

Phonemic expansion

Answer 20

When a baby starts to make lots of different sounds in the babbling stage. Happens before phonemic contraction.

Question 21

Plosive

Answer 21

A consonant sound in English produced by completely stopping the flow of air from the lungs and then releasing it. E.g p,b,t,d,k

Question 22

Presciptivism

Answer 22

The attitude that language should have a strict set of rules that must be obeyed in speech and writing

Question 23

Porto-word

Answer 23

A combination of sounds that a child uses that actually contains meaning, rather than just being a random utterance like during the cooing and babbling stages.

Question 24

Sans serif typeface

Answer 24

A typeface where there aren’t and fine strokes attached to the tops and bottoms of letters.

Question 25

Serif typeface

Answer 25

A typeface where fine strokes are attached to the tops and bottoms of letters

Question 26

Simplification

Answer 26

When a child learning to speak drops consonants or consonant clusters to make words easier to pronounce, or swaps them for others that are easier to produce

Question 27

Standardisation

Answer 27

The process by which grammarians and prescriptivists attempted to structure and influence English usage according to what they believed constituted ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ usage of the language.

Question 28

Substitution

Answer 28

When a child replaces a consonant in a word that it’s one that’s easier to say

Question 29

Telegraphic stage

Answer 29

The stage of language acquisition at which children begin to create three or four word utterances containing mainly subjects, verbs, objects and complements

Question 30

Th-fronting

Answer 30

When a speaker replaces the th sounds with f sounds

Question 31

Underextension

Answer 31

When a child uses words in a very restricted way

Question 32

Zone of proximal development

Answer 32

Vygotsky’s (1978) theory that when caregivers help children with verbal responses, they provide a model that the child can copy and apply when they are in other situations