chapter 6: development of language and symbol use Flashcards
symbols
systems for representing our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge, and for communicating them to other people
language comprehension
understanding what others say (or sign or write)
language production
the process of speaking (or signing or writing)
generative
a system in which a finite set of words can be combined to generate an infinite number of sentences
phonemes
the smallest units of meaningful sound
morphemes
the smallest units of meaning in a language
syntax
rules specifying how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) can be combined
pragmatics
knowledge about how language is used
bilingualism
fluency in two languages
infant-directed speech (IDS)
the distinctive mode of speech used when speaking to infants and toddlers
prosody
the characteristic rhythm and intonational patterns with which a language is spoken
categorical perception
the perception of phonemes as belonging to discrete categories
voice onset time (VOT)
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating
word segmentation
discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech
distributional properties of speech
in any language, certain sounds are more likely to occur together than are others
babbling
repetitive consonant-vowel sequences (“bababa…”) or hand movements (for learners of sign languages)
overextension
an overly broad interpretation of the meaning of a word
underextension
an overly narrow interpretation of the meaning of a word
pragmatic cues
aspects of the social context used for word learning
cross-situational word learning
determining word meanings by tracking the correlations between labels and meanings across scenes and contexts
syntactic bootstrapping
the strategy of using grammatical structure to infer the meaning of a new word
telegraphic speech
short utterances that leave out non-essential words
overregularization
speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
collective monologue
conversation between children that involves a series of non sequiturs
narratives
story-like structured descriptions of past events
Universal Grammar
a proposed set of highly abstract structures that are common to all languages
connectionism
a computational modeling approach that emphasizes the simultaneous activity of numerous interconnected processing units
dual representation
treating a symbolic artifact both as a real object and as a symbol for something other than itself
