CSD 354 Dev. in Children Flashcards
What is language?
A complex and dynamic system that uses conventional symbols in various modes to express thought and communication
What is a morpheme?
The smallest units of languages that carry meaning
“school”= 1 morpheme “school+s”= 2 morpheme “pre+school+s”= 3 morphemes
What is code?
The translation of one type of information to another type of information using symbols
What is a referent?
A word with meaning attached to it
What is one important aspect of language code?
The relationship between a word and its referent is arbitrary in social communication (not written)
What are 4 characteristics of the system of language?
- symbols
- conventional
- dynamic
- a tool for human comm. and cognition
What does conventional mean?
Users of language abide by accepted rules
What is a language community
A group of people who use a common language
What are three reasons for language communities to emerge?
- Geographic circumstances (Ukrainian)
- Sociological reasons (Hebrew, ASL)
- Economical reasons (World Trade Org)
What word describes the idea that language is always changing and evolving?
Dynamic
Who experiences a system of language that is dynamic?
- The individual: acquisitions of language as a baby through growth and development, growth in languages through learning new languages or new vocabulary, as well as a decline in language.
- The community: Words come and go in a community such as “selfie”
Language is a tool for what?
Human communication and cognition
Language can be used as a _________ tool to help people develop a “picture of the world” to use for thinking
representational
Language emerged as a ________ and _______
sociological, cultural evolution
Language did not evolve from a _________ evolution
biological
What is one sociological example that some scientists believe suggest caused language to emerge?
The increase of population in a community as it creates for more complex sociological dynamics in a community and therefore people need language as a tool for communicating more efficiently
The brain uses language as a representational tool to store info. and carry out what 5 cognitive processes?
reasoning, hypothesizing, planning, memorizing, and problem solving
The processes of reasoning, hypothesizing, planning, memorizing, and problem solving can be referred to as what?
higher-level language skills
What is modularity?
The cognitive science theory about how the human mind is organized within structures of the brain
What are the two beliefs about how modules work?
They are regions of the brain that are developed to process specific information. There are generalized modules in which all parts of the brain work together to process info.
What is the definition of a module?
A specialized problem-solving device in the brain that responds to info. of a restricted type.
What are domain-specific modules?
These are can process only very specific types of info. like depth perception
What is a domain-general module?
These are believed to carry out very general tasks like memory and reasoning as well the ability to access domain-specific modules
What is language modularity?
The belief that a large number of language specific modules are clustered closely together and interconnected in a specific part of the brain, each processing linguistic info.
What study do scientists use to support language modularity?
Studies that children from various diff. backgrounds and languages still struggle with verb tenses, and have specific language impairment
What is Specific Language Impairment (SLI)?
Children exhibit problems in very precise aspects of grammar, such as marking verb tense, typically omitting it.
What do critics of language modularity argue?
They believe that language emerges from an individuals culture/community rather than any specific internal build. Bickerton used research from developmental disability and brain injury claiming that they fail to support the concept of language modularity because the brain can still access specific language info if the part of the brain that typically processes language info. is damaged/not fully functional
What is communication?
A system that requires a sender who encodes, formulates, or transmits a message while the receiver decodes/comprehends the message
Crying in babies is not language, but is a ____ ____
biological reflex
Name 4 ways of communicating
- body “language”/gestures
- nonlinguist (pictures)
- paralinguistics (intonation, tone, pitch)
- language
What are three parts of language?
- speech
- writing
- signing
What are 3 purposes of communication?
to request, reject, and comment
Language is a ___________
shared code
Infants first learn to comm. intentionally using
gestures
Concepts in language are represented by
arbitrary symbols
What are arbitrary symbols?
symbols, letters, numbers, phonemes
What are phonemes?
perpetually distinct units of sound
Languages have _____ that allow symbols of the language to be combined into sentences
rules
Language rules, or grammar, allows symbols to be combined in an infinite number of sentences and makes language _______
generative
Language that is spoken is called
speech
What is speech?
A neuromuscular process by which humans create Meaningful sound signal that is transmitted through the air to the receiver
What is inner language?
individuals can choose to keep thoughts and ideas to themselves
What is written language?
Individuals use writing to express thoughts and ideas
What is hearing?
The sensory system that allows speech to enter into and be processed by the human brain
What does spoken conversation involve?
language, hearing, and speech
Speech requires what 4 systems?
respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation
What is respiration?
The act of breathing
What is phonation?
Within the trachea, a breath of air moves through vocal cords and creates vibration which creates voice
What is resonation?
The breath of air proceeds into the oral and nasal cavities where it resonates
What is articulation?
The breath of air is manipulated by oral articulators (teeth, tongue, lips, jaw) to emerge as sounds combined into words, phrases, and sentences
What are the 3 stages of speech production?
- perceptual target
- motor schema
- speech output
What is perceptual target?
The 1st stage of speech production; the abstract representation of speech sound stream is produced (formulated); m/a/m/a
What is motor schema?
The 2nd stage of speech production; the neurological brain systems produce a rough plan of the perceptual target and instructions are fed forward in syllable chucks to muscle groups involved with speech: ma/ma
What is speech output?
The 3rd stage of speech production; air pressure is modulated as respiratory flow is sent forward. Articulators and oral cavity are manipulated to produced /mama/
What is the IPA?
international phonetic alphabet
What is the international phonetic alphabet?
It’s an international set of symbols that represents all the phonemes of the world’s languages
What is feedback?
Relays info about speech output back to the origination of the perceptual target and motor schema
Speech relies wholly on ____ because it gives speech its meaning.
language
Language doesn’t rely on ___, because one can sign, write, or read.
speech
What is locked-in syndrome?
completely intact language and cognitive skills without ability to move with exception of eye movement
What is hearing or audition?
The perception of sound including general auditory perception and speech perception
What is acoustics?
The study of sound
Communication through speech involves what 4 acoustic events?
- creating sound-source or vibration of air particles
- vibration of air particles depends on speed of particles (frequency/pitch) and (intensity/loudness)
- reception by the air in 3 chambers
- comprehension of the brain
Name the 3 chambers of the air
- outer chamber: captures sound and sends it to the
- middle chamber: forwards acoustic into
- inner chamber: contains cochlea which travels up the auditory nerve to auditory regions of the brain
What is speech perception?
how the brain processes speech and language
What is auditory perception?
how the brain processes any type of auditory perception- not speech
What is auditory overshadowing?
a principle of early dev. suggesting that young children and infants have a strong bias for auditory over visual.
What is statistical learning?
being able to isolate words within running speech and recognize the sounds blending together. ex. “c/u/p” phonemes being recognized as the entity of a cup
What is coarticulation?
the smearing/overlapping of phonemes in the production of strings of speech sounds- our speech processing mechanisms of the brain have evolved to process rapidly occurring coarticulated speech sounds
What does the sender do?
formulates/encodes and transmits a message
What does the receiver do?
decodes/receives the message and comprehends it
What is formulation?
the process of formulating and pulling together thoughts and ideas for sharing with another
What is transmission/encoding?
the process of conveying ideas to another through language
What is reception?
the receiver receiving information
What is comprehension?
the receiver comprehending a message
What is symbolic/referential communication?
When a person communicates about a specific entity/event and the relationship between the entity/event and the referent is arbitrary. Ex: baby says “bottle” but means its thirsty
What is pre-intentional communication?
listeners infer or assume the relationship between a communicative behavior and its referent. Ex: cat’s purr or baby’s cry
What is intentional communication?
the relationship between the communicative behavior and its referent is not arbitrary
What is iconic communication?
A form of intentional comm. when there is a clear relationship between the message and its referent. Ex. chimpanzee pointing at banana or baby pointing at toy
What is oral communication?
The combination or speech and listening
What is feedback in a conversation?
info the receiver sends to the sender
A ____ system is back and forth exchanging of comm. and makes comm. active and dynamic
feedback
What is linguistic feedback?
The receiver speaks to request, reject, or comment
What is nonlinguistic/extralinguistic feedback?
The receiver uses gestures or body language
What is paralinguistic feedback?
The receiver uses tone, pitch, loudness, pausing in combination with linguistic feedback
What is a communication breakdown?
when the sender and/or receiver doesn’t do their part
What is conversational repair?
repairing a communication breakdown through fixing one aspect of the comm. model
What is the primary purpose of communication?
to provide and solicit information
What are the 3 major domains of language?
Form, content, and use
What is form?
how words, sentences, and sounds are organized and arranged to convey content
What is content?
The words used and the meaning behind them
What is a lexicon?
a vocabulary system
Define contextualized
immediate context is provided through concrete cues within the environment such a gestures, facial expressions in the here and now
Define decontextualized
sharing language with little to no reliance on context for conveying content
What is use?
how people draw on language functionally to meet personal and social needs- the intention behind the words
What is phonology?
rules of language governing the sounds that make syllables and words
What are allophones?
subtle variations of phonemes that occur as a result of contextual influences on how phonemes are produced in diff words. Ex: “p/o/p”
What are phonotactics?
rules governing how sounds are organized into words- ex: /g/ never comes after /s/
What is morphology?
the rules of language governing the internal organization of words. Ex: Morphemes can morphed in diff. ways to change their meaning like adding “pre” to words to change their meaning
What are grammatical morphemes?
The process of using suffixes to change meaning in words like plurality, possession, and tenses
What is syntax?
the rules of language governing the internal organization of sentences. Provide structure in a sentence
What is semantics?
the rules of language governing the meaning of individual words and word combinations
What is pragmatics?
the rules governing language use for social purposes. It is also referred to as social communication
What is acquisition rate?
how quickly children retain and learn to speak language
What is the critical period?
from birth to puberty the window of opportunity exists during which language develops rapidly and with the greatest ease. Ex: Romanian children transferring to foster care.
What is the universality concept?
in language all people apply the same cognitive infrastructure to the task of learning language- which results in communities developing symbolic representations for objects and actions
What is species specificity?
ability to use language to represent events that are decontextualized
What is productivity?
the principle of combination of phonemes and morphemes into infinite novel creations- supporting that language is generative
