Chapter 8

Question 1

Voice Onset Time

Answer 1

The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.

Question 2

Two-Word Stage

Answer 2

Stage in first-language acquisition at which children produce two-word utterances in addition to one-word utterances.

Question 3

Telegraphic Stage

Answer 3

A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.

Question 4

Telegraphic Utterances

Answer 4

Utterances containing primarily content words (in the style of a telegram with many function words and function morphemes left out.

Question 5

Simultaneous Bilingualism

Answer 5

Bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy.

Question 6

Social Interaction Theory

Answer 6

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction–in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need.

Question 7

Reinforcement Theory

Answer 7

Theory of language acquisition that says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones.

Question 8

Overgeneralization

Answer 8

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain contexts: a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult langauge

Question 9

Overextension

Answer 9

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of a word meaning: the child’s application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language.

Question 10

Neglected Child

Answer 10

A child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child.

Question 11

Linguistic Universal

Answer 11

Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.

Question 12

Innate

Answer 12

Determined by factors present from birth

Question 13

High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)

Answer 13

Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants’ sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities.

Question 14

Holophrase

Answer 14

A one-word sentence.

Question 15

Homesign

Answer 15

A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language) that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication.

Question 16

Imitation Theory

Answer 16

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.

Question 17

Feral Child

Answer 17

Child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals.

Question 18

First Language (L1) Acquisition

Answer 18

The process by which children acquire the lexicon and grammatical rules of their native language. In the case of native bilinguals, both languages are acquired as first languages.

Question 19

Foreign Accent

Answer 19

An accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the other speaker.

Question 20

Fossilization

Answer 20

Process through which forms from a speaker’s non-native language usage become fixed (generally in a way that would be considered ungrammatical by a native speaker) and do not change, even after years of instruction.

Question 21

Deictic (Expression)

Answer 21

Word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance.

Question 22

Critical Period

Answer 22

Age span, usually described as lasting from, or puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language.

Question 23

Conversational Turn

Answer 23

The contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor onto another speaker.

Question 24

Canonical Babbling

Answer 24

The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like [mamama] by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 25

Child Directed Speech

Answer 25

Speech used by parents of caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many Western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high-pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 26

Code Switching

Answer 26

Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation.

Question 27

Articulatory Gesture

Answer 27

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.

Question 28

Attention Getter

Answer 28

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 29

Attention Holder

Answer 29

A tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time.

Question 30

Bilingual

Answer 30

State of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages.

Question 31

Babbling

Answer 31

A phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of 6 months.

Question 32

Active Construction of Grammar Theory

Answer 32

Theory of language acquisition that says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on speech around them.

Question 33

Innateness hypothesis

Answer 33

A hypotheses that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language.

Question 34

Connectionist Theories

Answer 34

Language acquisition theory which claims children learn languages through connections in the brain; caused by exposure to and use of language

Question 35

Universal grammar

Answer 35

The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages; also the name of this set of shared characteristics.

Question 36

Idioma de signos Nicaragense (ISN)

Answer 36

signed language which formed naturally in Nicaragua after the revolution. Deaf children came together to a school and brought a hodgepodge of homesign gestures which eventually combined together; after the creation of grammar it became a natural language.

Question 37

variegated babbling

Answer 37

production of meaningless consonant vowel sequences by infants.

Question 38

Holophrastic stage

Answer 38

stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word.

Question 39

complexive concept

Answer 39

a term used in the study of a child’s language acquisition/ A group of items that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying principle.

Question 40

underextension

Answer 40

application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word.