Child Language Acquisition

Question 1

What are the stages of acquisition?

Answer 1

1. preverbal
2. babbling
3. one word / holophrastic
4. two word
5. multi word / telegraphic
6. later multi word

Question 2

What are the stages AND age ranges of acquisition?

Answer 2

1. preverbal (0-3mths)
2. babbling (3-12mths)
3. one word / holophrastic (12-18mths)
4. two word (1-2 yrs)
5. multi word / telegraphic (2-3 yrs)
6. later multi word (3-4 yrs)

Question 3

Age range of pre-verbal stage

Answer 3

0-3 months

Question 4

Age range of babbling stage

Answer 4

3-12 months

Question 5

Age range of one-word stage

Answer 5

12-18 months

Question 6

Age range of two-word stage

Answer 6

1-2 years

Question 7

Age range of multi-word stage

Answer 7

2-3 years

Question 8

Age range of later multi-word stage

Answer 8

3-4 years

Question 9

Two theories of CLA

Answer 9

1. theory of universal grammar
2. usage-based theory

Question 10

Theory of Universal Grammar - who is the theorist?

Answer 10

Noam Chomsky

Question 11

Usage-based theory - who is the theorist?

Answer 11

Michael Tomasello

Question 12

Poverty of stimulus

Answer 12

child’s knowledge of language can NOT be learnt from caregivers or experience in immediate environment alone

Question 13

Key points of Universal Grammar

Answer 13

1. language is innate
2. Language Acquisition Device = brain is hardwired to acquire language with exposure
3. poverty of stimulus

Question 14

Problems with Universal Grammar

Answer 14

1. did not focus on how language was developed
2. did not focus on features of interaction
3. did not complete practical experiments

Question 15

Key points of Usage-based Theory

Answer 15

1. language develops alongside cognitive development
2. adult interaction with care-givers assists in language development (e.g. corrective feedback)
3. evidence includes imitation, repetition, corrective feedback, recognising grammatical patterns

Question 16

Key features pre-verbal stage

Answer 16

1. babies can recognise primary caregivers’ language and voices
2. crying = importance of communication
3. engage in turn-taking
4. experiment with articulators in their mouth

Question 17

Key features babbling stage

Answer 17

1. produce stops and nasals
2. reduplication e.g. ma ma ma ma
3. no connection between sound and meaning
4. vocal play

Question 18

Key features one-word stage

Answer 18

1. one word stands in for whole utterance
2. primarily content words from immediate environment
3. connection between sound and meaning

Question 19

Key features two-word stage

Answer 19

1. combine two words together
2. primarily open-class words
3. productive vocab 50-200 words
4. primarily follow Standard word order
5. omit inflectional morphology and many function words

Question 20

Key features multi-word stage

Answer 20

1. three+ word utternaces
2. growing use of function words and inflectional morphology
3. ~1000 words

Question 21

Key features later-multi-word stage

Answer 21

1. creative, make-believe, language play, things not in immediate environment
2. pronouns I, me, you = Standard
3. four+ word utterances
4. plural and past tense forms

Question 22

Common sound change process in CLA

Answer 22

1. addition
2. substitution
3. deletion / elision / omission
4. consonant cluster reduction
5. reduplication
6. assimilation

Question 23

Reasons for sound change

Answer 23

1. achieve CV+ patterns
2. initial position consonants are easier
3. sounds are stressed/unstressed
4. easier to produce
5. sounds are acquired earlier/later

Question 24

Rough order for sound acquisition

Answer 24

1. stops, nasals, bilabials
2. ‘weird’ symbols e.g. ‘th’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’
3. two-letter consonant clusters
4. three letter consonant clusters

Question 25

Regular rule for creating past tense

Answer 25

-ed inflectional morpheme

Question 26

Regular rule for creating plural

Answer 26

-s inflectional morpheme

Question 27

Overgeneralisation (general)

Answer 27

Children learn a ‘rule’ and apply it in a broader context than is Standard via a process of analogy (applying the pattern)

Question 28

Morphological overgeneralisation

Answer 28

Children learn a regular rule for inflectional morphology (e.g. past tense or plural) and apply it in an irregular context

Question 29

Why do children appear to ‘go backwards’ regarding inflectional morphology?

Answer 29

1. acquire word+ irregular form as separate words
2. acquire regular rule (and apply in irregular context)
3. acquire word + irregular form as CONNECTED

Question 30

Stages of negation (syntax)

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Stages of interrogatives (syntax)

Answer 31

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’

Question 32

Semantic overgeneralisation

Answer 32

Children apply a lexeme to anything with similar characteristics
e.g. dog for any animal with four legs

Question 33

Semantic undergeneralisation

Answer 33

Children use a lexeme in a more specific context
e.g. dog used for the family pet but no other dogs

Question 34

Order of IPA label

Answer 34

voicing, place, manner

Question 35

When to use / / for phonetics and phonology

Answer 35

use / / for the actual IPA symbol
use “ “ for just the letters
e.g. “th”