First Words & Word Combinations In Toddler Talk Flashcards
First word characteristics:
- must have a phonetic relationship to adult word
- must be used consistently
- must occur in the presence of a referent
Child’s expressive vocabulary at 2:
at about two, produces simple sentences and has expressive vocabulary of 150 to 300 words
Early word functions (like request):
A. request or indicate existence of object by naming it with a requesting or neutral intonation
B. request or describe recurrence of objects or events (“more”)
C. request or describe changing events involving objects (“up,” “on,” “open”)
D. request or describe the actions of others (“eat,” “kick”)
Early pragmatic intentions:
- control-make demands and requests, protest, and direct others (requesting action, protesting)
- representational-discuss entities and events and ask for information (requesting answer, labeling, answering)
- expressive-accompany play, exclaim, express feelings and attitudes
- social-greetings, farewells, talk routines (greetings)
- tutorial-practice with language forms (repeating/practicing)
- procedural-maintain communication by directing attention or requesting additional or misinterpreted information
Presuppositions:
assumption that listener knows or does not know certain information that child, as speaker, must include or delete from the conversation
toddler’s rules for presupposition
•1. object not in child’s possession should be labeled
•2. object in possession, but undergoing change, should be encoded by action or change (“cookie” when eating cookie)
•3. once encoded, object or action/state is more certain, so child will encode something else
When children learn more nouns:
by 18 months, toddler has lexicon of 50 words, with nouns predominating.
- initially more nouns until 100 words acquired
- then verbs have slow proportional rise
- other word classes increase proportionally after acquire 400 words
Meaning of single-word utterances:
A. early lexicons until 18 months follow rule of: if the word means X, it can’t mean Y or Z
B. may use two different processes to form internal representations
•1. some symbols may be context-bound, or attached to a certain event and only used in that context
•2. other may be used to designate entities, actions, and relationships in several contexts
Over-extensions and types:
Too broad when compared to adult meaning-”Daddy” for all men
1: Over-extensions fall into three general types:
A. categorical overextensions-child uses word to label referent in related category-”baby” for all children
B. analogical overextensions-child uses word to label referent based on perceptual, functional, or affective similarity-”ball” for round objects
C. predicate statements-child notes relationship between an object between some absent person, object, property, or state-”doll” when seeing empty bed
When children start to combine words:
Children start to combine words at 18 months - during second half of second year, toddlers begin to combine words and increase rate of vocabulary growth
Varieties of multiword utterances:
Three varieties:
1. word combinations-equivalent words that divide an experience into multiple units-sees dog on bed and says “doggie bed”-initially may be expressed as successive single utterances
2. pivot schemas- one word or phrases, such as “want” or “more” determines the intent of the utterance, such as a demand-”more apple,” “juice no”
A. don’t follow adult word order
3. item-based constructions-follow word-order rules with specific words-”cut paper,” draw puppy”
A. words such as verbs and place in constructions learned one verb at a time until about three
B. can include morphological markers (“-ing,” “-ed”), prepositions (“in,” “on”) and word order
Auditory maps:
A. learning of a word is an association between the way the word sounds and its meaning
B. child hears a word and sees an object simultaneously, forming an association
C. phonological system of humans is paired system of incoming and outgoing lexicons
D. incoming side has child’s knowledge base of stored information about rules based on language input and application of child’s phonological codes or patterns
E. outgoing signals are stored in a parallel branch of the system
F. also semantic avenues for storage that overlap phonological ones
G. speech perception based on use of phonological codes to hold incoming information in working memory while analyzed
H. words are placed in long-term memory
I. in imitation, child stimulated by incoming speech model
J. in spontaneous speech, child relies on stored lexical items on outgoing side
Lexical characteristics that influence linguistic processing:
- frequently used words recognized more quickly and accurately, but lots of neighboring words decrease accuracy and speed
- neighborhood density-number of possible words that differ by one phoneme-words in less dense neighborhoods easier to learn
- phonotactic probability-likelihood of a sound pattern occurring
Earliest word patterns
most of initial words are CV or CVCV constructions
Phonological processes:
A. systematic procedures used by children to make adult words pronounceable
B. let children produce approximation of adult model
C. exhibit tremendous variation
1. each child’s entire system is constantly changing
2. some words produced consistently, while some vary
3. phonological variation may be result of different phonological processes
D. reduplication-child attempts polysyllabic word but can’t produce one syllable correctly, so repeats other-“dada”
E. assimilation-child does not change syllables, but changes consonants to be the same-“doddie”/”doggie”
F. open syllables-final consonant is omitted, and becomes open syllable, syllable that ends in vowel-”boo”/”boot”
G. consonant/cluster reduction-single-consonant production-”poon”/”spoon”
H. weak syllable deletion-omit syllables with low pitch, loudness, and duration-”nana”/”banana”
I. may reflect multiple processes in the same word
Balanced bilingualism:
Equal proficiency in two languages, is rare
