Language Flashcards
Semantics
Word Meaning
Syntax
Word Order
Pragmatics
Social appropriateness such as intonation or volume
Better deffinition: what the speaker implies and what a listener infers
Language
Speech production/symbolic or representational symbols, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics all are factors that compromise
Many linguists do not consider orthography part of natural language
The 4 primary theoretical perspectives of child language acquisition (covered in class…) include:
Vygotsky (Social Interactionist)
Piaget (Constructivist)
Skinner (Behaviorist)
Chomsky (Nativist: Universal Grammar)
Noam Chomsky
The scholar associated with ideas such as:
As soon as humans hear language, they begin to automatically learn it –> At birth, has a basic set of language skills
Humans learn language very rapidly, through imitation
Universal grammar
** Does not take into account the very easily observed interactions with caregivers as well as necessity of observing others’ speak to learn to speak**
BF Skinner
The scholar associated with ideas such as:
Language is learned via operant conditioning. NURTURE
Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, underlies all of behavioral psychology.
Positive Reinforcement
Direct reward (getting the toy the child asked for)
Negative Reinforcement
Removing something unpleasant
Jean Piaget
The scholar associated with ideas such as:
Language is taught, but not before they are ready –> Children must develop mentally and then language is learned.
Believed language learning occurs in stages (four of them)
Also studied his own children.
The four stages of learning for Piaget
Sensory Motor Stage
Pre-Operation Stage
Concrete Operational
Formal Operation
Sensory Motor Stage
Piaget’s stages:
Uses sense, classifies object, literal and concrete vocabulary
Pre-Operational Stage
Piaget’s stages:
Egocentric, language skills develop
Concrete Operational
Piaget’s stages:
Logical thinking
Formal operations
Piaget’s stages:
Abstract reasoning (puberty)
Phoneme
A distinct units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another is a
Morpheme
A unit of sound in a language that has meaning and cannot be further divided is a
Wider: Phonemes and Morephemes
Wider – 2 morphemes, 4 phonemes, 2 syllables
Wide (width)
ER (“more of”)
Elevator: Phonemes and Morphemes
Elevator – 2 morphemes, 8 phonemes, 4 syllables
Elevate – to go up
Or – to cause movement
Mojito and Mojitos: Phonemes and Morphemes
Mojito – 6 phonemes, 1 morpheme, 3 syllables
* Mojitos – 7 phonemes, 2 morphemes, 3 syllables
Mojito – beverage name
S - plural
Over-learned skills
Reading and language are “overlearned skills” – hardest to unlearn, extinction
Auditory Perception in Language Development
When a phoneme loses its necessity in helping with phonemic development, the ability
to discriminate that phoneme is lost by about age 1
Lose plasticity with language at puberty by and large
Reading and language are “over-learned skills” – hardest to unlearn, extinction
Largely automatic – what does this mean for changing cultural vernaculars?
Impact of language on perception/cognition: Color
Ability to identify color is coded linguistically
Color blind individuals discriminate reds and greens based on other correlates
and can separate them into categories, even though the color is perceived the
same
Some cultures can perceive blue but do not refer to the color blue or specific
shades of blue
Impact of language on perception/cognition: Spatial Information
Language impacts how we relate to spatial information
o Left v right – cardinal directions
o Left right is egocentric – it is in relation to ourselves or others
o Animals navigating out navigate humans, possibly because of our lost sense of
spatial awareness due to our linguistic coding
Impact of language on perception/cognition: Child language
Child language development, do not invert subject and object relationships
The boy gave a ball to the girl
The girl was given a ball by the boy
Stages or observations of child language acquisition
Eye contact; gaze
Nursing behaviors
Awareness of environment, feelings states (e.g., hunger)
Cooing/Crying
gestures
Sound as impacting change - causality
Babbling/Echolalia/Noises
Motherese/Baby talk – tone, volume, scoops, EYE contact and widening
Intentionality
Responding as if intelligible
Copying/Mimicry – consonants, intonation, word patterns/sound patterns
Motherese
Baby talk – tone, volume, scoops, EYE contact and widening
Common and uncommon constants in language development
Most common consonants M, P, B, D, G, K, T
Least common consonants L, R
Nature vs Nurture?
Nature: Chomsky, Vygotsky
Nurture: Skinner
Cognitive theory: Piaget
Vygotsky
language learned as a function of social interaction, zone of proximal development (that is aided socially)
Children take in information from their environment (perception), convert it to a memory (a
social memory), apply it to knowledge they already have, then adopt a skill they need (e.g.,
language) to use in other contexts
Concepts of “overlearned” cognitive tasks and “automaticity”
As you do a behavior more it becomes more automatic so you can focus on other things and do other things at the same time
Ex: we learn language implicity and then it becomes an automatic process.
Saccade
Eye movements during reading, allows us to scan parts of words
Saccade vs Fixation: Reading processes
Periods of fixation and movement – only “read” during fixation
Fixation
Fixate on part of word, see 3-4 characters to the left, 12-15 characters to the right
How long you fixate likely under cognitive control, depending on text and automatic responses
Word length and space; length of word to the right
Removing spaces slows reading 30-50% (think about typewriting spaces); more spaces
improves reading
Reading disorders
Wider range for better readers, smaller range for less skilled readers and reading
disorders
Older readers have smaller span
Dyslexic persons have trouble encoding (memory) the target or fixated word (lingered)
Do you read each word?
Skip over about 1/3 of all words in sentences – mostly these are fillers and are implied
given context (e.g., “the” “of”)
Word Recognition Processess
Word recognition occurs primary not as a whole word, but as component letters
End letters are often most important (possibly to let us know when the word goes to the
next word)
Word Recognition
AS we read, we create a phonological representation of the words
We read faster than we speak
Words are often recognized not by letters individually but by shape
Perceptual Span
How much you can perceive in a window
