Chapter 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use Flashcards
MIDTERM 2
babbling
repetitive consonant-vowel sequences (“bababa . . .”) or hand-shapes (for learners of signed languages) produced during the early phases of language development
bilingualism
the ability to use two languages
categorical perception
the perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories
collective monologues
conversations between children that involves a series of non sequiturs, the content of each child’s turn having little or nothing to do with the other child has just said
comprehension
with regard to language, understanding what others say (or sign or write)
connectionism
a type of information-processing approach that emphasizes the simultaneous activity of numerous interconnected processing units
critical period
the dime during which language develops readily and after which (sometimes between age 5 and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful
distributional properties
the phenomenon that in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others
dual representation
the idea that a symbolic artifact must be represented mentally in two ways at the same time–both as real object and as a symbol for something other than itself
fast mapping
the process of rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the contrastive use of a familiar and the unfamiliar word
generativity
refers to the idea that through the use of the finite set of words and morphemes in humans’ vocabulary, we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas
holophrastic period
the period when children begin using the words in their small productive vocabulary one word at at time
infant-directed speech (IDS)
the distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very young children
metalinguistic knowledge
an understanding of the properties and functions of language–that is, an understanding of language as language
modularity hypothesis
the idea that the human brain contains an innate, self-contained language module that is separate from other aspects of cognitive functioning
morphemes
the smallest units of meaning in a language, composed of one or more phonemes
narratives
descriptions of past events that have the basic structure of a story
overextension
the use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate
overregularization
speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
phonemes
the elementary units of meaningful sound used to produce languages
phonological development
the acquisition of knowledge about the sound system of a language
pragmatic cues
aspects of the social context used for word learning
pragmatic development
the acquisition of knowledge about how language is used
production
with regard to language, speaking (or writing or signing) to others
prosody
the characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody, intonational patterns, and so forth with which a language is spoken
reference
in language and speech, the associating of words and meaning
semantic development
the learning of the system for expressing meaning in a language, including word learning
symbols
systems for representing our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge and for communicating them to other people
syntactic bootstrapping
the strategy of using the grammatical structure of whole sentences to figure out meaning
syntactic development
the learning of the syntax of a language
syntax
rules in a language that specify how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on) can be combined
telegraphic speech
the term describing children’s first sentences that are generally two-word utterances
Universal Grammar
a proposed set of highly abstract, unconscious rules that are common to all languages
voice onset time (VOT)
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating
word segmentation
the process of discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech
