Chapter 9: Language Development

Question 1

babbling

Answer 1

Babies’ repetition of consonant–vowel combinations, often in long strings, beginning around 6 months of age.

Question 2

Broca’s area

Answer 2

A structure located in the left frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex that supports grammatical processing and language production.

Question 3

categorical speech perception

Answer 3

The tendency to perceive as identical a range of sounds that belong to the same phonemic class.

Question 4

code switching

Answer 4

A strategy in which bilingual individuals produce an utterance in one language that contains one or more “guest” words from the other, without violating the grammar of either language.

Question 5

comprehension

Answer 5

In language development, the words children understand.

Distinguished from production.

Question 6

cooing

Answer 6

Pleasant vowel-like noises made by infants, beginning around 2 months of age.

Question 7

emergentist coalition model

Answer 7

The view that word-learning strategies emerge out of children’s efforts to decipher language, during which they draw on a coalition of perceptual, social, and linguistic cues that shift in importance with age.

Question 8

expansions

Answer 8

Adult responses that elaborate on children’s speech, increasing its complexity.

Question 9

expressive style

Answer 9

A style of early language learning in which toddlers use language mainly to talk about their own and others’ feelings and needs, with an initial vocabulary emphasizing social formulas and pronouns. Distinguished from referential style.

Question 10

fast-mapping

Answer 10

Children’s ability to connect a new word with an underlying concept after only a brief encounter.

Question 11

grammar

Answer 11

The component of language concerned with syntax, the rules by which words are arranged into sentences, and morphology, the use of grammatical markers indicating number, tense, case, person, gender, active or passive voice, and other meanings.

Question 12

grammatical morphemes

Answer 12

In language development, small markers that change the meaning of sentences, as in “John’s dog” and “he is eating.”

Question 13

illocutionary intent

Answer 13

In conversation, what a speaker means to say, even if the form of the utterance is not perfectly consistent with it.

Question 14

infant-directed speech

Answer 14

A form of communication used by adults in many countries when speaking to babies, consisting of short sentences with high-pitched, exaggerated expression, clear pronunciation, distinct pauses between speech segments, clear gestures to support verbal mean- ing, and repetition of new words in a variety of contexts.

Question 15

joint attention

Answer 15

A state in which child and caregiver attend to the same object or event and the caregiver labels what the child sees, which contributes to language development.

Question 16

language acquisition device

Answer 16

In Chomsky’s theory,an innate system containing a universal grammar, or set of rules common to all languages, that permits children, once they have acquired sufficient vocabulary, to understand and speak in a rule-oriented fashion.

Question 17

metalinguistic awareness

Answer 17

The ability to think about language as a system.

Question 18

morphology

Answer 18

The use of grammatical markers indicating number, tense, case, person, gender, active or passive voice, and other meanings

Question 19

mutual exclusivity bias

Answer 19

Children’s assumption in early vocabulary growth

that words refer to entirely separate, non-overlapping categories.

Question 20

overextension

Answer 20

An early vocabulary error in which a word is applied to a wider collection of objects and events than is appropriate. Distinguished from underextension.

Question 21

overregularization

Answer 21

Extension of regular morphological rules to words that

are exceptions.

Question 22

phoneme

Answer 22

The smallest sound units that signal a change in meaning.

Question 23

phonological store

Answer 23

A special part of short-term memory that permits retention of speech-based information and, thus, supports early vocabulary
development.

Question 24

phonology

Answer 24

The component of language consisting of the rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds.

Question 25

pragmatics

Answer 25

The component of language consisting of the rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication.

Question 26

production

Answer 26

In language development, the words and word combinations that children use. Distinguished from comprehension.

Question 27

protodeclarative

Answer 27

A preverbal communicative gesture in which the baby points to, touches, or holds up an object while looking at others to make sure they notice. Distinguished from protoimperative.

Question 28

protoimperative

Answer 28

A preverbal communicative gesture in which the baby gets another person to do something by reaching, pointing, and often making sounds at the same time. Distinguished from protodeclarative.

Question 29

recasts

Answer 29

Adult responses that restructure children’s grammatically inaccurate speech into correct form.

Question 30

referential communication skills

Answer 30

The ability to produce clear verbal mes- sages and to recognize when the meaning of others’ messages is uncle

Question 31

referential style

Answer 31

A style of early language learning in which toddlers use language mainly to label objects. Distinguished from expressive style.

Question 32

semantic bootstrapping

Answer 32

In language development, children’s reliance on

semantics, or word meanings, to figure out sentence structure

Question 33

semantics

Answer 33

The component of language that involves vocabulary—the way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations.

Question 34

shading

Answer 34

A conversational strategy in which a speaker initiates a change of topic gradually by modifying the focus of discussion.

Question 35

shape bias

Answer 35

In early language development, children’s tendency to rely heavily on shape as a distinguishing property when learning names for objects.

Question 36

speech registers

Answer 36

Language adaptations to social expectations.

Question 37

syntactic bootstrapping

Answer 37

In language development, children’s discovery of

word meanings by observing how words are used in syntax, or the structure of sentences.

Question 38

syntax

Answer 38

The rules by which words are arranged into sentences.

Question 39

telegraphic speech

Answer 39

Young children’s two-word utterances that, like a tele- gram, focus on high-content words, omitting smaller, less important ones.

Question 40

turnabout

Answer 40

A conversational strategy in which the speaker, after commenting on what has just been said, also adds a request to get the partner to respond again.

Question 41

underextension

Answer 41

An early vocabulary error in which a word is applied too narrowly, to a smaller number of objects or events than is appropriate. Distinguished from overextension.

Question 42

universal grammar

Answer 42

In Chomsky’s theory of language development, a built-in storehouse of grammatical rules common to all human languages.

Question 43

Wernicke’s area

Answer 43

A language structure located in the left temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex that plays a role in comprehending word meaning.