EXAM 2: Morphological Development

Question 1

Morpheme

Answer 1

Smallest meaningful unit of language
Union of a sound and meaning that cannot be broken down further
Not a 1:1 ratio of sound

Question 2

Free Morphemes

Answer 2

Stand-alone, often words
Lexical Morpheme
Functional Morpheme

Question 3

Lexical Morpheme

Answer 3

Words that are stand-alone and have meanings, usually root words
i.e. cat

Question 4

Functional Morpheme

Answer 4

Words that are stand-alone but carries no meaning
Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions
i.e. to, the

Question 5

Bound Morphemes

Answer 5

“Words” that are not stand alone and must be attached to another root word
Inflectional Morphemes
Derivational Morphemes

Question 6

Inflectional Morpheme

Answer 6

Affixes that gives information about the word, does not change meaning or syntactic category
Provides information about:
Person
Number
Tense
Possession
Comparison

Question 7

Derivational Morpheme

Answer 7

Affixes that change meaning or syntactic category
i.e. redo, reader

Question 8

Allomorphs

Answer 8

Different versions of a morpheme
Plurality allomorph, Possessive allomorph, past tense allomorph

Question 9

Auxiliary verbs

Answer 9

Functional morphemes, Tells information about a verb such as tense, helps the verb

i.e. Max is walking to the park

NO 2 verbs in a clause

Question 10

Copular verb

Answer 10

Be form verb that tells us what it is, usually 2 subjects and serves as an equal sign

I.e. Max is a golden retriever

Question 11

Contractible

Answer 11

If it can be contracted with a subject (the verb “be” with a subject)

The meaning of the sentence must be upkept

Question 12

Telegraphic speech

Answer 12

Developmental stage which young children produce primarily content words (lexical) and not other morphemes
around 2;2
around 3;0, starts forming functional morphemes

Question 13

Berko (1958) Wug Test

Answer 13

Study: Do children know the rules of allomorphs or do they memorize it? Took a bunch of children and showed a picture of a “wug” and asked them to make it plural.

Results:
90% were right for single consonant allomorphs, but 40% were right for multiconsonant allomorphs

multiconsonant allomorphs were more difficult for children to acquire

Question 14

Mean length of utterance (MLU)

Answer 14

Measured in taking average number of morphemes in each utterance
Describing general language development, and highly correlated with age
More exponential and rapid in the younger 1st years

Question 15

Over-regularization

Answer 15

Incorrectly applying rules
i.e. I holded the rabbit
Girls are more likely to over-regularize

Question 16

Irregular verb acquisition U-shaped learning curve

Answer 16

1st stage: Correctly uses the irreg. verb 100% of the time
2nd stage: over-regularizes the irregular verb, and uses it correctly only 50% of the time
3rd stage: Correctly uses the irreg. verb 100% of the time

Question 17

Potential explanations for U-Shaped Learning Curve

Answer 17

1. Treats the different forms of an irregular verb as two different words; doesn’t think go and went are the same word
2. Irregular verbs require rote memory over regular verbs which can be applied using patterns

Question 18

Omission errors

Answer 18

When a child leaves something behind
Subject omission, past tense omission

Question 19

Commission errors

Answer 19

Over-regularization, using the wrong type of rule

Question 20

Why do children omit?

Answer 20

1. It is not essential to meaning, children have limits to the lenght of MLU so they leave out unimportant parts to conserve energy
2. Omitted words often not stressed in adult utterances

Question 21

1997 study of omissions

Answer 21

Question: Will children omit more words in unfamiliar lexical settings with high stress/difficulty? or do children omit because they lack knowledge?

Study: Tested omission of function words with familiar/unfamiliar/nonsense words

Results: Higher omission with more unfamiliar words in a sentence
Linguistic complexity influences omission

Question 22

Roger Brown’s study of acquisition of 14 grammatical morphemes

Answer 22

Study: Followed Adam, Eve, and Sarah for about 3 years and recorded their interaction between parent and child.
Tracked the appearance of 14 grammatical morphemes and their order

Results: Acquired 14 morphemes in similar order, this became the core of morphological development in English speaking children
Rate of development differed but chronological order of morphemes appearances were the SAME
Transitions took time, and not an all or nothing process

Question 23

14 morphemes list and order

Answer 23

1. Present progressive (ing)
2. Prep. in
3. Prep. on
4. Plural regular
5. Past tense Irregular
6. Possessive s
7. Uncontractible Copula
8. Articles
9. Past tense regular
10. Third person present regular (s)
11. Third person past Irregular (does, has)
12. Uncontractible auxiliary
13. Contractible copula
14. Contractible auxiliary