Chapter 6 Flashcards
Comprehension
required to develop language skills; refers to understanding what others say.
Production
refers to speaking.
______ are combined to form words.
sounds.
_____ are combined to form senetences.
words
generativity
refers to the idea that we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas
phonemes
elementary units of meaningful sound used to produce languages
phonological development
knowledge about the sound system of a language
morphemes
smallest units of meaning in a language
semantic development
the learning of the system for expressing meaning in a language, including word learning.
syntax
rules in a language that specify how words from different categories can be combined.
syntactic development
the learning of the syntax of a language.
pragmatic development
the acquisition of knowledge about how language is used.
Language is
- species specific
- species universal
species universal
language learning is achieved by typically developing infants across the globe.
species specific
only humans acquire language in the normal course of development.
Pitch detection of speech
is involved in the right hemisphere.
For_____ handed individual, language if primarily represented and controlled by their
____ hemisphere.
right; left
Broca
speech production
Wernickle
language development
Broca’s aphasia
a syndrome in which speech production abilities are impaired.
Wernickle’s aphasia
a syndrome in which comprehension of heard speech is impaired
critical period for language
the time during which language develops readily.
- between age 5 and puberty
What does research say about bilingualism?
- improves aspects of cognitive functioning in childhood and beyond.
- better measures of executive functioning & habituation.
- greater cognitive flexibility
- delay the onset of AD.
Infants show preference for _____ rather than ________.
speech; artificial sounds.
infant-directed speech (IDS)
- preferred by infants.
- the distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very young children
Infants learn and recognize words better when presented in ____ than ____.
IDS; ADS.
Language is acquired by
listening and speaking/watching and signing.
prosody
the characteristic rhythm, tempo, etc with which a language is spoken.
categorical perception
the perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories
speech synthesizer
is used to gradually and continuously change one speech sound, such as /b/, into a related one, such as /p/.
voice onset time (VOT)
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating
Young infants draw the same _____ between ______ sounds.
sharp distinctions; speech
Perceptual narrowing
- in speech perception happens during the first 10 to 12 months of age.
- infants lose their ability to perceive the speech sounds that are not part of their native language by 1st birthday.
Word segmentation
Figuring out where the words start and end
Distributional properties
the phenomenon that in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others.
at what age do babies begin to coo?
6 - 8 weeks.
dialogues of reciprocal cooing
babies vocalizations elicit responses from others.
more responsive caregivers equals
more mature vocalization patterns.
Babbling
repetitive consonant-vowel sequences or hand movements produced during the early phases of language development
Communicative competence
the ability to communicate intentionally with another person
reference
the associating of words and meaning
Productive vocabulary
the words a child is able to say
Holophrastic Period
the period when children begin using the words in their small productive vocabulary one word at a time
Overextension
the use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate
Children have a vocabulary of about ____ words around ___ months of age.
50; 18
Adult influences on word learning
- amount and quality of speech
- parents highlighting new words
- naming games
- names of objects in the central vision are better learned
- contexts in which words are used by talking adults
- spatial consistency
Social economic status (SES)
is a key determinants of langue children hear.
Example of SES on language development
- richness of communicative context also predict language attainment.
- physical environments in which children learn language
- peer effects
- teacher effects
Fast mapping
The process of rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the contrastive use of a familiar and the unfamiliar word.
Mutual exclusivity principle
assuming a given entity have only one name.
whole-object principle
children expect a novel word to refer to a whole object rather than to another aspect of the object.
Pragmatic cues
Aspects of the social context used for word learning
ex of pragmatic cies
- Adult’s focus of attention
- Intentionality
- Adult’s emotional response
- Linguistic context
- Objects shape
- cross-situational word learning
- Syntactic bootstrapping
Intentionality
ex: lets “dax” mickey mouse.
- child thinks dax = see.
Adult’s emotional response
ex: picking up one of two objects and showing disappointment
Shape cue- shape bias
Children extend a novel noun to novel objects of the same shape, even when those objects differ dramatically in size, colour, and texture
cross-situational word learning
Narrowing down the possible meanings of new words based on experience
Syntactic bootstrapping
strategy of using the grammatical structure of whole sentences to figure out meaning
By the end of ____ sentences appear
2nd
Comprehension precedes
production.
Telegraphic speech
Children’s first sentences.
- ex: drink juice
Grammar
a tool for building new words and sentences.
Generalization
- nouns are made plural by addings
- verbs are put into past tense by adding ed
Overregularization
Treating irregular forms of words as if they were regular
Collective monologues
Egocentric conversations of young children
Narratives
Descriptions of past events with basic structure of a story
Scaffolding
contributes to children’s narratives by asking elaborative questions.
Complex grammar is mastered
school-age children
Approximate vocabulary achieved
- 6-year-olds – 10,000 words
- 5th-graders – 40,000 words
- College students – 150,000 words
Prerequisites for language acquisition are:
- ) A human brain (nature)
2. ) Experience with a human language (nurture
Skinner (and behaviourists) favoured
nurture.
Noam Chomsky proposed humans are born with:
Universal grammar
Universal grammar
A proposed set of highly abstract, unconscious rules that are common to all languages
