Child Language Acquisition

Question 0

What are the Grammatical stages?

Answer 0

One-word / Holophrastic
Two word
Telegraphic
Post-telegraphic

Question 1

What are the pre-verbal phases?

Answer 1

Vegetative
Cooing
Babbling
Proto-word

Question 2

What is the Vegetative stage?

Answer 2

Reflex crying noises.

0-4 months

Question 3

What is the Cooing stage?

Answer 3

Open-mouthed vowel sounds.

3-6 months

Question 4

What is the Babbling stage?

Answer 4

Repeated consonant-vowel sounds and combinations of these.

6-12 months

Question 5

What is the Proto-word stage?

Answer 5

Babbling sounds that seem to match actual word sounds.

9-12 months

Question 6

What is the One word / Holophrastic stage?

Answer 6

Single recognisable words.

9-18 months

Question 7

What is the Two word stage?

Answer 7

Two-word combinations.

18-24 months

Question 8

What is the Telegraphic stage?

Answer 8

Three, four five and six word combinations, gradually expanding.
(24-40 months)

Question 9

What is the Post-telegraphic stage?

Answer 9

The same as the Telegraphic stage, but grammatically correct utterances.
(36 months onwards)

Question 10

What is the “Fis” phenomenon?

Berko and Brown (1960)

Answer 10

The child says something different to what they mean.

“This is your fis?”
“No, my fis”
“That is your fish?”
“Yes, my fis”

Question 11

Cruttendan (1974): Football results.

Answer 11

Intonation used in the first team’s score enabled to predict home win or draw. Children (7-11) were largely unsuccessful and the oldest were still significantly less successful than adults.

Question 12

What are the 6 ways of Simplification?

Answer 12

Deletion
Addition
Substitution
Reduplication
Assimilation
Metathesis

Question 13

What is Deletion?

Answer 13

Children will often simplify pronunciation by deleting certain sounds such as ….
Final consonants eg ‘ha(T)’
Unstressed syllables eg ‘(BA)nana’
Consonant clusters ‘(S)nake’

Question 14

What is Addition?

Answer 14

Children sometimes break up consonant clusters not by deleting them but adding a vowel to separate them. ‘Blue’ to ‘Belu’
Sometimes they add syllables on the end of the word to recreate CVCV pattern. ‘Horsey’ instead of ‘Horse’

Question 15

What is Substitution?

Answer 15

Another form of simplification involves substituting harder sounds with easier ones.
R becomes W (Story, Rock)
Th becomes D, N or F (There, That or Thumb)
P becomes B (Pig)

Question 16

What is Reduplication?

Answer 16

This is where a syllable in the word is repeated, eg Wee-wee, Night-night.

This often involves the repetition of CV syllable, which is favoured by children.

Question 17

What is Assimilation?

Answer 17

This occurs when sounds in a word are made to sound more like neighbouring ones, such as ‘Dog’ to ‘Gog’

Question 18

What is Metathesis?

Answer 18

This occurs when the sounds in a word are swapped round. For example, ‘Elephant’ to ‘Ephalent’

Question 19

What four categories did Katherine Nelson suggest a child’s first words can be grouped into?

Answer 19

Naming
Action
Social
Modifying

She found that 60% of a child’s first words were nouns (naming)

Question 20

What are Overextensions?

Leslie Rescorla

Answer 20

Children’s early words are often overextended to cover more things than the word actually means.

Eg all circular fruit being called an ‘Apple’

Question 21

What is an Underextension?

Answer 21

Words may have there meanings underextended to cover a narrower meaning.

The child may use the correct label for a banana but not use the correct label when referring to a picture of a banana.

Question 22

What are the three types of Overextension?

Answer 22

Categorical
Analogical
Mismatch or Predicate Statements

Question 23

What are Categorical Overextensions?

Answer 23

The most common type. The label is stretched to include other things within a larger category. the hypernym is used for the hyponym.
Eg ‘apple’ for all fruit. It is not until the child understands the hyponym until these Overextensions disappear.

Question 24

What are Analogical Overextensions?

Answer 24

… Is found in about 15% of Rescorla’s cases and is related to the function or perception of the object. A child may call a fluffy scarf a cat because they feel similar.

Question 25

What are Mismatch or Predicate Statements?

Answer 25

Account for around 25% of Overextensions. These convey some form of abstract information.
Eg Doll in reference to an empty cot.
This may appear to be mislabelling, but it refers to where the doll can usually be found.

Question 26

What did Thompson and Chapman (1977) and Hock, Ingram and Gibson find?

Answer 26

They found that children know and understand far more words than they produce.

Question 27

What are Jean Aitchinson’s three stages in a child’s acquisition for words and their meanings?

Answer 27

Labelling
Packaging
Network Building

Question 28

What is Labelling?

Aitchinson

Answer 28

Associating sounds with objects in the world.

Linking words with things.

Understanding the concept of labels.

Question 29

What is Packaging?

Answer 29

Starting to explore the extent of the label.

Often the stage during which over/under extensions occur most frequently.

Question 30

What is Network Building?

Answer 30

Making connections between the labels they have developed.

Understanding opposites and similarities, relationships and contrasts.

Question 31

What are the two different styles Katherine Nelson suggested regarding how children learn new words?

Answer 31

Referential

Expressive

Question 32

What is meant by Referential?

Answer 32

Early words linked to objects.
High proportion of nouns and adjectives.
Few Formulae
No inflections at stage 1
More Telegraphic

Question 33

What is meant by Expressive?

Answer 33

Early words linked to social relationships.
Low proportions of nouns and adjectives.
Many formulae (What do you want?)
Inflections at stage 1

Question 34

Grammatical Development:

Holophrastic Stage

Answer 34

Not much to say about syntax; a child says a word or they don’t.

Sometimes a child may group words together, these are known as Gestalt expressions.

Question 35

What are Gestalt Expressions?

Answer 35

When a child groups two words together.

Eg ‘wassat’

Question 36

Grammatical Development: Two-Word Stage (1)

Answer 36

Syntax comes into play, and is like adult syntax.
Roger Brown noted that many of the patterns these expressions fall into are linked to the semantic relationship of the words.
Many if these utterances may have a wider meaning than the child can express. Relies in context.

Question 37

Grammatical Development: Two-Word Stage (2)

Answer 37

Other things missing at this stage are inflectional affixes.
Eg ‘s’ for plurals, ‘ed’ for past tenses and ‘s’ to indicate possession.
An adult may use intonation and stress to hell a child develop grammatical constructions. (CDR) Bruner

Question 38

Grammatical Development: Telegraphic Stage (1)

Answer 38

Some grammar is still missing. Only relevant information in order to be understood.
Child still does not use tense. 
Other jimmi sinks include:
Articles 'a' and 'the'
Aux verbs 'is' and 'has'
Prepositions 'to' 'on' 'for'

Question 39

Grammatical Development: Telegraphic Stage (2)

Answer 39

Child will use questions, commands and simple statements. Child usually sentences that include inflectional affixes.

Question 40

Asking Questions (Three Stages)
David Crystal

Answer 40

1) Rely on intonation.
2) Acquire question words such as ‘what’. They can’t yet use ancillary verbs.
3) word order is manipulated to create longer and more detailed questions, sometimes using Aux verbs.

Question 41

Negatives (Six Stages)

David Crystal

Answer 41

1) They use words on there own ‘no’
2) Combine with other words.
3) Use negatives in middle of an utterance.
4) Increased accuracy of negative words, often contractions ‘isn’t’
5) Increased range and complexity.
6) Saying no without saying no.

Question 42

Grammatical Development: Post-Telegraphic Stage

Answer 42

Beyond the Telegraphic stage, the missing words such as determiners Aux verbs and prepositions begin to appear.