Child Language Acquisition (P2 Q1) Flashcards
The four main theories
1) Behaviourism -> B.F Skinner -> children learn language through imitation ( via imitation/reinforcement/association)
2) Nativism -> Chomsky -> children have an innate capacity for language.
- LAD: language acquisition device -> specific part of brain responsible for language = Brocas and Wernicke’s
3) Social Interactionism -> Bruner + vygotsky -> children learn language through a specific type of interaction with their caretakers
- ‘scaffolding’ -> adult helping child to talk
- LASS : language acquisition support system
4) Cognitivism -> Piaget + Vygotsky -> Children develop, linguistically, in stages which correspond to their intellectual development.
+ Vygotsky = the zone of proximal development (the space between child independence and scaffolding = what a child can learn with guidance)
- comprehension is better than production
CDS
child directed speech
-how we talk to children
= long vowels : , high intonation, simplified vocabulary,repetition , commands etc
Pre verbal stages
- Vegetative (0-4months) -> biological noises lof discomfort (coughing + crying)
- Cooing (4-7months) -> comfort and vocal play (vowel sounds ‘oo’ and laughter)
- Babbling (7-9months) -> repeated patterns, syllable like sequences (consonants appear -> reduplication baba’ + variegated ‘bada’)
- Proto-words (9-12months) -> word-like vocalisations but are not real words (e.g ‘mmm’ for ‘i like that’ for pointing)-> aided by pragmatics
(Very Cool Babies Poo)
Place of articulation
= Where the airstream is manipulated. The restriction is caused by movements of the tongue and lips (articulators)
PALATALS MOST DIFFICULT
- Bilabials: /p/b/m/w/
- Labiodentals: /f/v/
- Interdentals: /θ/ð/ = THin/then
- Alveolar: /t/d/n/s/z/
-Palatals : /ʃ/ʒ/tʃ/ dʒ/l/ r/ j/
-Velars: /k/g/ɲ/
-Glottal: /ʔ/h/
Bats Like Icecream And Pickles… Very Good!!!
Manner of articulation
= How the airstream is manipulated
AFFRICATES AND LATERALS HARDEST
Nasals: m/ŋ/n/
Plosives: /p/b/t/d/k/g/
Affricatives: /dʒ/ (judge)/tʃ/ (church).
Fricatives: /v/ð/ (this), /z/ (hose), /ʒ/ (leisure). /f/, /θ/ (fourth), /s/, /ʃ/ (sash), /h/ (had).
Lateral: /l/
Approximants: /w/r/j/
NicePeopleAlwaysFinishLastAww
types of vowels (3)
1) pure vowels (monopthongs) -> single sounds
2) dipthongs -> combo of two sounds (ie eu, ai)
3) long vowels -> a: ar (father)
i: -> ee (bee)
3: -> ir (word)
): -> aw (taught)
U: -> uu (you)
= long vowels are common in child directed speech
Early phonological errors made by children (10)
- deletion = dog(g), cu(p) -> CVC preferred so delete consonant
- substitution = ‘pip’ for ‘ship’ (if nth else use this error)
- addition = doggie (only learnt error; behaviourism)
- assimilation = ‘gog’ for ‘dog’ (anticipates end phoneme)
- reduplication = ‘dada’ ‘mama’
- consonant cluster reductions = ‘pider’ for ‘spider’ when you get rid of 2+ consonants
- deletion of unstressed syllables = ‘nana’ for ‘banana’
-fricative avoidance = ‘doto’ as ‘photo’
- voicing = voice>voiceless when meant to be voiceless etc
- variegated babbling = ‘daga’
fiz phenomenon
=when children believe that they are saying words phonetically correct because they hear it differently to how they say it (ie ‘fix’ for ‘fish’)
Stages of phonetic acquisition
= Shriberg
early-8 = /m/n/j/b/w/d/p/h/ easiest (1-3yrs)
middle-8 = /t/n/k/g/f/v/ts/d3/ (3-5)
late-8 = weird s/3/l/r/s/z/th/TH + clusters. hardest (5- 7)
= determined phonetics norms using monosyllabic words
- Found that acquisition of phones in longer words come
last
My Nice Yellow Ball Washed Down Prince Harry’s
Thi- Ng Keeping God From Various Challenging Jokes
Shaming Leizurely Lives Really Slowly Zooming Through Them + clusters
Nelson’s first 50 words (1yrs) meaning
- Made a study of 18 children’s first 50 words noticing following patterns…
1) 60% = nouns (concrete most prevalent as its observable)
2) 20% = verbs
3) adjectives and social words were the next largest groups
lexical creativity (meaning)
suffixing : “ I like mouses”
prefixing : “ I unlove you ”
conversion : “ I’m darking the sky”
compounding : “ a hit boy”
= children use these to create new words in conversation
Rescorla’s semantic errors
-over extension
-categorical over extension
- under extension
(semantics)
over extension -> when a word is given a broader, more general meaning than it should have (ie all men are “daddy”. = main error (1/3 out of 50words = over extended).
categorical over extension -> the baby over extends in the basis of a category (so anything round is a ball).
under extension -> when a word is given a narrower meaning than it has in adult language (ie yellow rubber duck not the same as an acc duck)
= against cognitivism as they are not really aware of the meanings but continue to use them
Jean Aitchison (semantics)
= Identified 3 stages that occur during a child’s acquisition of vocabulary…
1) labelling -> naming
2) packaging -> understanding a words range of meaning ie to an alien (under ext and over ext negotiated here)
3) network building -> grasping the connections between words, some words are opposite in meaning (ie difference between hypernyms (ie flower) and hyponyms(rose)
hypernyms vs hyponyms (semantics)
hypernyms -> flower (main category/ general)
hyponyms -> rose (sub category/ specific)
hyponyms are learnt first by children
REMEMBER: E comes before O so the main category comes before the sub category!!
productive vs receptive vocabulary (grammar)
productive -> active vocab (what you can produce)
receptive -> what you can understand (what you can receive)
= supports cognitivism
Hallidays Function of speech (pragmatics)
7
instrumental -> to fulfil a need ‘want milk’
regulatory -> influence the behaviour of others ‘pick up’
interactional -> develop and maintain relationships ‘love you’
personal -> individual opinions/personal identity ‘me like charlie and lola’
representational -> facts and info ‘it hot’
imaginative -> create an imaginary world ‘imma shopkeeper’
heuristic -> asking questions to learn about the environment ‘why?’
I Hopped Into Really Pink Idilic Rooms
Dore’s language functions (pragmatics)
labelling -> naming
repeating
answering
requesting action -> command
calling -> gaining attention by shouting
greeting
protesting -> objecting requests ‘no’
practicing > using language when no adult is present
egocentric speech (pragmatics)
the running discourse style of speech used by children where no listener is directly addressed and the talk is focused on the child’s activities
Stages of grammar
Holophrastic/ 1 word stage : 12-18m
=one word utterances
Two word stage: 18-24m
=two words combined to create simple syntactical structures
ie S + V or S + O
Telegraphic stage: 24-36m
= 3+ words joined increasingly complex and accurate orders
ie S + V + O
S + V + C
S + V + A
but tend to leave out determiners and prepositions (ie the)
Post Telegraphic stage: 36m+
= increasing awareness of grammatical rules and irregularities
ie ‘ran’ instead of ‘runned’
developing grammar stages -> what theory does it support?
- if they are where they are meant to be (age-wise) = Nativism
- if they are behind/ahead = Cognitivism
Roger Browns meaning relations (two word stage)
nomination = person/object is labeled ‘garden gate’
recurrence = event is repeated ‘more cat’
negation = something is denied ‘no like’
possessor and possession = ‘my dog’
agent and action = someone performs an action
agent and affected = someone does smt to an object
entity and attribute = person/object described
action and affected = action affects object
action and location = action occurs in a place
entity and location = object is located
Key development issues of construction in Telegraphic stage
1) Questions
= children learn to develop question words but miss out copular verbs (ie is)
-learn in the following order -> what/where/why/when
- syntactical inversion
(In 2 word stage they use intonation instead)
2) Negatives
= Ursula Bellugi
stge 1 –> ‘no’/’‘not’ at end/start (“no wear shoes”)
tele stge 2 –> ‘no’/’not’ in middle (““i no want it”)
post- tele stge 3 –> attaches neg to aux verbs + copula (“no, i dont want to go to nursery”)
3) Pronouns
= Ursula Bellugi
stge 1 –> child uses own name (“Tom play”)
stge 2 –> I/me pronouns (“I play toy/ Me do that”)
stge 3 –> pronouns as to whether they are the subject/object (“I play with the toy/Give it to me”)
syntactical inversion (teleg stage)
changing word order from declarative to an interrogative (ie The apple is gone -> Is the apple gone?) -> hard
= Clark
Tomasello
= Usage Based Approach
nature vs nurture = he claimed to be too simplistic for CLA, and so merges them
- “It’s home” = too advanced for a child in the two word stage to acc understand therefore must have repeated it after hearing it but had to identify the pattern and apply it in context (beh and cog)
