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