First Language Acquisition Flashcards
Vowel acquisition
/a, i, u/ acquired earliest
Extreme values and most common among world’s languages
Consonant acquisition
/p, b, m, w/ acquired earliest
Articulation acquired from front of mouth to the back
Gliding
A glide (typically /w/) substitutes for a liquid (/l/ or /r/)
Stopping
Substitution of a stop (typically /d/) for a fricative (theta, eth, /z/, /s/, etc)
Fronting
Replaces a palatal or velar consonant with one that has a more forward place of articulation (/d/ instead of /g/)
Consonant harmony
A consonant in one syllable assimilates to a consonant in another syllable (goggie instead of doggie)
Prevocalic voicing
A voiceless consonant in front of a vowel is replaced by a voiced consonant (gow instead of cow)
Final devoicing
A voiced consonant at the end of a word is replaced by a voiceless consonant (bet instead of bed)
Syllable structures
(C)V
CV
CVC
CVCC
CCVCC
Simplification
reduction of consonant clusters
Epenthesis
insertion of a vowel to break up a consonant cluster
Reduplication
syllable repetition
Final consonant reduction
deletes a post-vocalic word-final obstruent
Blending
combines features of two adjacent segments into a single segment
Order of acquiring inflectional morphemes
The smaller the domain to which an affix applies, the earlier an affix is acquired
{PLU} (nouns)
{POSS} (noun phrases)
{PRES} (sentences)
Overgeneralization
using a word to refer to more things than it does in an adult’s lexicon
Narrowing
moving from overgeneralization to proper usage over time
Basic-level terms
words that are intermediates between very general and very specific terms
positive member
an antonym that carries fewer presuppositions than its opposite (tall)
negative member
an antonym that carries more presuppositions than its opposite (short)
passive sentences
interpreted as if they were active by children as old as 4 or 5
bare infinitive
an infinitive verb form with no overt subject
minimum distance principle
the subject of a bare infinitive is assumed to be the closest NP to its left
temporal sentences (before and after)
interpreted via order of mention (event in first clause happened first, event in second clause happened second)
nativism
Mentalism
Mind has more innate structure
Language acquisition primarily biologically determined, language is acquired
Chomsky
empiricism
Behaviorism
Mind has less innate structure
Language acquisition primarily culturally determined, language is learned
arguments for nativism
Complexity of acquired structures
Fixed onset and development
Rapidity of acquisition
Language universals
Independence of instruction
Independence of intelligence and motivation
