Chapter 6: Language development

Question 1

by what age have most kids mastered the basic structure of their native language?

Answer 1

5 years

Question 2

Generativity

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Phonemes

Answer 3

The elementary units of meaningful sound used to produce languages

Question 4

Phonological development

Answer 4

The acquisition of knowledge about the sound system of a language`

Question 5

Morphemes

Answer 5

The smallest units of meaning in a language composed of one or more phonemes

Question 6

Semantic development

Answer 6

The learning of the system for expressing meaning in a language, including word learning

Question 7

Syntax

Answer 7

Rules in a language that specify how words from different categories can be combined (grammar)

Question 8

Syntactic development

Answer 8

learning of the syntax of a language

Question 9

Pragmatic development

Answer 9

The acquisition of knowledge about how language is used

Question 10

Metalinguistic

Answer 10

Knowledge about language and its properties

Question 11

How is language a species specific behaviour?

Answer 11

Only humans can acquire language in the normal course of development

Question 12

How is language species universal?

Answer 12

Language learning is achieved by typically developing infants across the globe

Question 13

Critical period for language development

Answer 13

The time during which language develops readily and after which (between 5yrs and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful

Question 14

bilingualism

Answer 14

the ability to use two languages

Question 15

What are some cognitive advantages of bilinguals?

Answer 15

Rule switching

Question 16

What are some linguistic advantages of bilinguals?

Answer 16

1) better differentiation between languages - even from “silent talking”
2) better vocabulary

Question 17

Do bilingual children confuse languages?

Answer 17

No - they are just filling in gaps in their vocabulary with the language they know it better in

ex. knowing more school words in english and more home words in romanian

Question 18

Infants directed speach

Answer 18

the distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very young children

Question 19

What are some characteristics of infant directed speech?

Answer 19

1) affection tone
2) slowing speech
3) higher pitch
4) clearer vowels
5) exaggerated facial expressions

Question 20

Prosody

Answer 20

the characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody, intonational patterns and so forth with which a language is spoken

Question 21

Categorical Perception

Answer 21

The perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories

Question 22

Voice onset time (VOT)

Answer 22

the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating

Question 23

At what age do infants loose their ability to differentiate speech sounds others than their native language

Answer 23

10 - 12 months

Question 24

Word segmentation

Answer 24

The process of discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech

Question 25

How do infants find words in pause free speech?

Answer 25

1) stress patterning

2) distributional properties

Question 26

Distributional properties

Answer 26

the phenomenon that in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others

Question 27

babbling

Answer 27

repetitive consonant-vowel sequences or hand movements produced during the early phases of language development

Question 28

inter-subjectivity

Answer 28

two interacting partners share a mutual understanding - the foundation of inter-subjectivity is joint attention

Question 29

reference

Answer 29

in language and speech, the associating of words and meaning

Question 30

Holophrastic period

Answer 30

The period when children begin using the words in their small productive vocabulary one word at a time

Question 31

Over-extension

Answer 31

the use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate
ex. “daddy” for any man

Question 32

Fast mapping

Answer 32

the process of rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the contrastive use of a familiar and the unfamiliar word

Question 33

pragmatic cues

Answer 33

aspects of the social context used for word learning

Question 34

What are some pragmatic cues that children use?

Answer 34

1) social contexts

2) intentionality

Question 35

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 35

the term describing children’s first sentences that are generally two-word utterances

Question 36

overregularization

Answer 36

Speech errors in ehich children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular