Child Language Acquisition Flashcards
1
Q
What are the stages of acquisition?
A
- preverbal
- babbling
- one word / holophrastic
- two word
- multi word / telegraphic
- later multi word
2
Q
What are the stages AND age ranges of acquisition?
A
- preverbal (0-3mths)
- babbling (3-12mths)
- one word / holophrastic (12-18mths)
- two word (1-2 yrs)
- multi word / telegraphic (2-3 yrs)
- later multi word (3-4 yrs)
3
Q
Age range of pre-verbal stage
A
0-3 months
4
Q
Age range of babbling stage
A
3-12 months
5
Q
Age range of one-word stage
A
12-18 months
6
Q
Age range of two-word stage
A
1-2 years
7
Q
Age range of multi-word stage
A
2-3 years
8
Q
Age range of later multi-word stage
A
3-4 years
9
Q
Two theories of CLA
A
- theory of universal grammar
- usage-based theory
10
Q
Theory of Universal Grammar - who is the theorist?
A
Noam Chomsky
11
Q
Usage-based theory - who is the theorist?
A
Michael Tomasello
12
Q
Poverty of stimulus
A
child’s knowledge of language can NOT be learnt from caregivers or experience in immediate environment alone
13
Q
Key points of Universal Grammar
A
- language is innate
- Language Acquisition Device = brain is hardwired to acquire language with exposure
- poverty of stimulus
14
Q
Problems with Universal Grammar
A
- did not focus on how language was developed
- did not focus on features of interaction
- did not complete practical experiments
15
Q
Key points of Usage-based Theory
A
- language develops alongside cognitive development
- adult interaction with care-givers assists in language development (e.g. corrective feedback)
- evidence includes imitation, repetition, corrective feedback, recognising grammatical patterns
16
Q
Key features pre-verbal stage
A
- babies can recognise primary caregivers’ language and voices
- crying = importance of communication
- engage in turn-taking
- experiment with articulators in their mouth
17
Q
Key features babbling stage
A
- produce stops and nasals
- reduplication e.g. ma ma ma ma
- no connection between sound and meaning
- vocal play
18
Q
Key features one-word stage
A
- one word stands in for whole utterance
- primarily content words from immediate environment
- connection between sound and meaning
19
Q
Key features two-word stage
A
- combine two words together
- primarily open-class words
- productive vocab 50-200 words
- primarily follow Standard word order
- omit inflectional morphology and many function words
20
Q
Key features multi-word stage
A
- three+ word utternaces
- growing use of function words and inflectional morphology
- ~1000 words
21
Q
Key features later-multi-word stage
A
- creative, make-believe, language play, things not in immediate environment
- pronouns I, me, you = Standard
- four+ word utterances
- plural and past tense forms
22
Q
Common sound change process in CLA
A
- addition
- substitution
- deletion / elision / omission
- consonant cluster reduction
- reduplication
- assimilation
23
Q
Reasons for sound change
A
- achieve CV+ patterns
- initial position consonants are easier
- sounds are stressed/unstressed
- easier to produce
- sounds are acquired earlier/later
24
Q
Rough order for sound acquisition
A
- stops, nasals, bilabials
- ‘weird’ symbols e.g. ‘th’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’
- two-letter consonant clusters
- three letter consonant clusters
25
Regular rule for creating past tense
-ed inflectional morpheme
26
Regular rule for creating plural
-s inflectional morpheme
27
Overgeneralisation (general)
Children learn a 'rule' and apply it in a broader context than is Standard via a process of analogy (applying the pattern)
28
Morphological overgeneralisation
Children learn a regular rule for inflectional morphology (e.g. past tense or plural) and apply it in an irregular context
29
Why do children appear to 'go backwards' regarding inflectional morphology?
1. acquire word+ irregular form as separate words
2. acquire regular rule (and apply in irregular context)
3. acquire word + irregular form as CONNECTED
30
Stages of negation (syntax)
1. use 'no' or 'not' at beginning of sentence
2. noun phrase + negative + sentence e.g. 'he no bite you'
3. noun phrase + aux + negative + sentence e.g. 'he didn't bite you'
NOTE aux 'to be' may still be missing
31
Stages of interrogatives (syntax)
1. rising intonation
2. wh-questions formed without auxiliary and/or without inversion
3. wh-questions formed with inversion
NOTE children may not understand contractions so may form something like 'what's is that'
32
Semantic overgeneralisation
Children apply a lexeme to anything with similar characteristics
e.g. dog for any animal with four legs
33
Semantic undergeneralisation
Children use a lexeme in a more specific context
e.g. dog used for the family pet but no other dogs
34
Order of IPA label
voicing, place, manner
35
When to use / / for phonetics and phonology
use / / for the actual IPA symbol
use " " for just the letters
e.g. "th"
