Chapter 8 Flashcards
Language
communication system consisting of sounds, morphemes, words, and rules for combining all of these.
Inateness Hypothesis
Humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language
Linguistic universals
basic features shared by all languages
Universal Grammar
the theoretically inborn set of structural characteristics shared by all languages
Homesign
Gestures made up in the home, when signed language is not available. Extremely limited and without grammar
Idioma de Signos Nicaragense (ISN)
A complete created language by two to three generations of students. “evidence” of the innateness of language.
Imitation Theory
Language acquisition theory that children learn language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.
Reinforcement Theory
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 incorrect forms.
Active Construction of a Grammar Theory
Children invent the rules of grammar themselves
Connectionist theories
Assume that children learn language by creating neural connections in the brain. The child develops such connections through exposure to language by using language. (Bottle example)
Social Interaction Theory
Assumes that children acquire language through social interaction, with older children and adults in particular.
Child-directed speech
slow and high-pitched and contains many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary
High Amplitude Sucking
infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants learn quickly that their sucking produces the noise.
High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)
infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants learn quickly that their sucking produces the noise.
Conditioned Head-Turn procedure (HT)
Experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditioning phase, the infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers, first presented at the same time and then in succession, such that the infant begins to anticipate the appearance of the visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. During the testing phase, when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, it suggests that the infant has perceived the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.
VOT: Voice Onset time
The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.
babble
producing sequences of vowels and consonants if they are acquiring spoken language, or producing hand movements if they are acquiring signed language.
Repeated/canonical babbling
starts around the age of seven to ten months. The continual repetition of syllables helps the infant practice a sequence of consonant and vowel sounds. (mamamama)
variegated babbling
10-12 months. infant strings together different syllables as in [buɡɑbimo].
One-word stage
First stage in morphological acquisition usually involves the child producing single words in isolation. Typically around 1 yrs old
holophrastic stage
One word sentence. Not just saying one word, they can be inquiring, making a statement, asking a question, showing empathy.
Two-word stage
Stage in first-language acquisition at which children produce two-word utterances in addition to one-word utterances.
Telegraphic Stage
A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.
Overgeneralization
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 language.
Overgeneralization
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 language. Plural of Man, becomes Mans-es
Irregular plural
When a child may say men instead of man, using forms that adults use but hey are unaware it doesn’t mean the same thing.
Negative sentence stages
- Put the word no in front of a sentence to negate its meaning. No baby sleep.
- Insert a negative word between the subject and verb: baby no sleep
- Uses words such as somebody or something.
- # 3 replaced by nothing and nobody.
- # 4 replaced with anything and anybody
Interrogatives
Conveying the force of a question. Young children produce questions with two-words and rising intonation.
Auxillary verbs
Can, Will, Are you ___?
Auxiliary verbs
Can, Will, Are you ___?
Vocabulary at age 6
14,000 words
Complexive Concepts
a child associates different characteristics with the meaning of a word on successive uses, creating a set of objects that do not have any particular unifying characteristic. Serve to form a loose bond between items associated in the child’s experience and represent a primitive conception of word meaning.
overextension
a child extends the range of a word’s meaning beyond that typically used by adults, we say that he has produced this. Ticktock used to refer to clocks, watches, parking meters, dial on scales.
underextension
application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech.
relational term
“large” or “small” The correct use of words like these requires that two things be kept in mind: the absolute size of the object in question and its position on a scale of similar objects.
Deictic expressions
words referring to personal, temporal, or spatial aspects of an utterance and whose meaning depends on the context in which the word is used. (here, this, vs there, that)
Three things that influence how adults talk to children
- adults have to make sure that children realize that an utterance is being addressed to them and not to someone else.
- once they have the child’s attention, they must choose concepts/ideas that maximize the child’s chances of understanding what is being said.
- then choose a particular style of speaking that they think will be most beneficial to the child. They can talk quickly or slowly, use short sentences or long ones, and so on.
Attention getters
Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.
Attention holders
A tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time.
“Here and now”
Talking about whatever is directly under the child’s eyes.
baby talk
adults to children: woof woof for dog, or meow for cat, or kitty or doggie.
Conversational terms
take their turns as speaker and listener in conversation.
simultaneous bilingualism
learn more than one language from birth
sequential bilingualism
begin learning a second language as a young child
second-language acquisition
learn a second language not as a young child, but in life. Imigrant learning the local language, or thru education/travel
code-switching (language mixing)
Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation (or even within a single sentence or phrase).
Fossilization
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.
