Chapter 10: The development of language

Question 1

proto-conversation

Answer 1

interactions between adults and infants in which the adult tend to vocalise when the infants are not vocalising, or after the infant has finished vocalising

Question 2

proto-imperative

Answer 2

occurs when infants point to an object and then alternate their gaze between the object and the adult until they obtain the desired object

Question 3

proto-declarative

Answer 3

occurs when infants use pointing/ looking to direct the adult’s attention toward an object

Question 4

speech stream

Answer 4

undifferentiated series of words that are pronounced when we communicate

Question 5

phoneme

Answer 5

smallest unit of speech that can affect meaning

Question 6

categorical perception

Answer 6

where perceptually discriminable stimuli are treated as belonging to the same category

Question 7

reflexive vocalisations

Answer 7

first sounds produced by infants, including cries, coughs, burps and sneezes

Question 8

babbling

Answer 8

first types of controlled vocalisations produced by infants typically between the ages of 4-6 months

Question 9

canonical

Answer 9

usual, normal, natural state of things; canonical babbling refers to babbling sounds made by the infant around 6-10 months, when vowels and consonants are combined in such way that they sound like words

Question 10

manual babbling

Answer 10

manual equivalent of vocal babbling which is found in deaf children and hearing children learning to sign

Question 11

modulated babbling

Answer 11

final period of babbling and language play, which appears from around 10 months on and is characterised by a variety of sound combinations, stress and intonation patterns, and overlaps with the beginning of meaningful speech

Question 12

syntax

Answer 12

manner in which words and parts of words are related to produce grammatical sentences: the production of sentences is governed by grammatical structures and rules

Question 13

s-structure

Answer 13

syntax of a sentence; however, one s-structure can have more than one meaning
in order to understand the intended meaning of a sentence, one must examine the d-structure

Question 14

d-structure

Answer 14

abstract representation of a sentence, or the actual meaning that the sentence is trying to convey

Question 15

overregularisation

Answer 15

when a previously applied rule is applied in the wrong situation; e.g. saying thinked rather than thought

Question 16

overgeneralisation

Answer 16

creating a new verb by treating a noun as if it were a verb

Question 17

comprehension

Answer 17

in language development, the language children can understand, distinguished from production, which is the language they can produce; comprehension almost always exceeds production

Question 18

overextension

Answer 18

extending the meaning of a word too broadly; e.g. using the word bird to refer to birds, aeroplanes and hot air ballons

Question 19

underextension

Answer 19

extending the meaning of a word to too few instances, as when a child restricts their use of a word such as duck to situations in which the child is playing with a toy while in a bath, therefore failing to refer to the animals in the park as ducks

Question 20

semantic system

Answer 20

a system that categorises words in relation to their meaning