Ch 1 - Intro

Question 1

Chomskyan View

Answer 1

Documented languages to figure out the “rules” of their grammars.
Universal (mental) grammar–in a language module, separate from other cognitive functions

(Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker)

Question 2

Domain-General Cognitive View

Answer 2

Language knowledge is a vast amount of learned patterns.
Children learn associations, not rules.
Children use general intelligence and pattern-learning abilities to learn language ->not a separate module
Motivated to learn language because they want to communicate

(Michael Tomasello, Jean Piaget, Jenny Saffran)

Question 3

Language

Answer 3

Systematic and conventional use of sounds (signs, or written symbols) to communicate or express oneself.

Question 4

Communication

Answer 4

Directing others’ attention and sharing information with others

10mos+

Question 5

Phonology

Answer 5

The sound system of a language

Question 6

Lexicon

Answer 6

The mental dictionary

Question 7

Grammar: Morphology (inflectional)

Answer 7

System of rules for combining the smallest units of language into words

• s
• ed
• ing

Question 8

Grammar: Syntax

Answer 8

Building phrases out of words, and sentences out of phrases.

Question 9

“Wild children”

Answer 9

No (or very limited language)

Question 10

Normative studies (1920s-50s)

Answer 10

Timelines of typical development.

Question 11

Behaviorism

Answer 11

Behavior changes in response to consequences of prior behavior.

Its theory of language from B. F. Skinner

Question 12

Language acquisition: Chomskyan

Answer 12

Innate, universal, and language-specific grammar allows children to acquire language

Question 13

Language aquisition: Domain-General Cognitive

Answer 13

Domain-general abilities allow children to acquire language

Question 14

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 14

Takes language input from environment and learns language with help of UG

Question 15

Universal Grammar (UG)

Answer 15

innate language knowledge that allows the LAD to function and is not specific to any language

Question 16

Nativism (nature)

Answer 16

Knowledge of language is innate

Innate knowledge is specific to language (UG)

Question 17

Interactionism (nuture)

Answer 17

Some innate capacities enable language development

Question 18

Modularity hypothesis

Answer 18

Language, and the innate capacity to learn language, are accomplished by a module that is separate from other mental functions

Question 19

Domain-general cognitive skills

Answer 19

Understanding that mental states can be shared.

Capacity for symbolic representation

Question 20

Connectionism

Answer 20

Regularities are represented in the brain as different patterns of activation
Knowledge = learned regularities

Question 21

Statistical learning

Answer 21

Counting the frequency with which one stimulus is followed be another

> phonological sequences, grammar, word order

Question 22

Rules

Answer 22

Execute on an abstract category (different items may be substituted)

e.g. Past tense = VERB + -ed

Question 23

Associations

Answer 23

Patterns are learned from experiencing actual items