First Language Acquisition

Question 1

Vowel acquisition

Answer 1

/a, i, u/ acquired earliest
Extreme values and most common among world’s languages

Question 2

Consonant acquisition

Answer 2

/p, b, m, w/ acquired earliest
Articulation acquired from front of mouth to the back

Question 3

Gliding

Answer 3

A glide (typically /w/) substitutes for a liquid (/l/ or /r/)

Question 4

Stopping

Answer 4

Substitution of a stop (typically /d/) for a fricative (theta, eth, /z/, /s/, etc)

Question 5

Fronting

Answer 5

Replaces a palatal or velar consonant with one that has a more forward place of articulation (/d/ instead of /g/)

Question 6

Consonant harmony

Answer 6

A consonant in one syllable assimilates to a consonant in another syllable (goggie instead of doggie)

Question 7

Prevocalic voicing

Answer 7

A voiceless consonant in front of a vowel is replaced by a voiced consonant (gow instead of cow)

Question 8

Final devoicing

Answer 8

A voiced consonant at the end of a word is replaced by a voiceless consonant (bet instead of bed)

Question 9

Syllable structures

Answer 9

(C)V
CV
CVC
CVCC
CCVCC

Question 10

Simplification

Answer 10

reduction of consonant clusters

Question 11

Epenthesis

Answer 11

insertion of a vowel to break up a consonant cluster

Question 12

Reduplication

Answer 12

syllable repetition

Question 13

Final consonant reduction

Answer 13

deletes a post-vocalic word-final obstruent

Question 14

Blending

Answer 14

combines features of two adjacent segments into a single segment

Question 15

Order of acquiring inflectional morphemes

Answer 15

The smaller the domain to which an affix applies, the earlier an affix is acquired
{PLU} (nouns)
{POSS} (noun phrases)
{PRES} (sentences)

Question 16

Overgeneralization

Answer 16

using a word to refer to more things than it does in an adult’s lexicon

Question 17

Narrowing

Answer 17

moving from overgeneralization to proper usage over time

Question 18

Basic-level terms

Answer 18

words that are intermediates between very general and very specific terms

Question 19

positive member

Answer 19

an antonym that carries fewer presuppositions than its opposite (tall)

Question 20

negative member

Answer 20

an antonym that carries more presuppositions than its opposite (short)

Question 21

passive sentences

Answer 21

interpreted as if they were active by children as old as 4 or 5

Question 22

bare infinitive

Answer 22

an infinitive verb form with no overt subject

Question 23

minimum distance principle

Answer 23

the subject of a bare infinitive is assumed to be the closest NP to its left

Question 24

temporal sentences (before and after)

Answer 24

interpreted via order of mention (event in first clause happened first, event in second clause happened second)

Question 25

nativism

Answer 25

Mentalism
Mind has more innate structure
Language acquisition primarily biologically determined, language is acquired
Chomsky

Question 26

empiricism

Answer 26

Behaviorism
Mind has less innate structure
Language acquisition primarily culturally determined, language is learned

Question 27

arguments for nativism

Answer 27

Complexity of acquired structures
Fixed onset and development
Rapidity of acquisition
Language universals
Independence of instruction
Independence of intelligence and motivation