Language

Question 1

Semantics

Answer 1

Word Meaning

Question 2

Syntax

Answer 2

Word Order

Question 3

Pragmatics

Answer 3

Social appropriateness such as intonation or volume

Better deffinition: what the speaker implies and what a listener infers

Question 4

Language

Answer 4

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

Question 5

The 4 primary theoretical perspectives of child language acquisition (covered in class…) include:

Answer 5

Vygotsky (Social Interactionist)

Piaget (Constructivist)

Skinner (Behaviorist)

Chomsky (Nativist: Universal Grammar)

Question 6

Noam Chomsky

Answer 6

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**

Question 7

BF Skinner

Answer 7

The scholar associated with ideas such as:

Language is learned via operant conditioning. NURTURE

Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, underlies all of behavioral psychology.

Question 8

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 8

Direct reward (getting the toy the child asked for)

Question 9

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 9

Removing something unpleasant

Question 10

Jean Piaget

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

The four stages of learning for Piaget

Answer 11

Sensory Motor Stage

Pre-Operation Stage

Concrete Operational

Formal Operation

Question 12

Sensory Motor Stage

Answer 12

Piaget’s stages:

Uses sense, classifies object, literal and concrete vocabulary

Question 13

Pre-Operational Stage

Answer 13

Piaget’s stages:

Egocentric, language skills develop

Question 14

Concrete Operational

Answer 14

Piaget’s stages:

Logical thinking

Question 15

Formal operations

Answer 15

Piaget’s stages:

Abstract reasoning (puberty)

Question 16

Phoneme

Answer 16

A distinct units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another is a

Question 17

Morpheme

Answer 17

A unit of sound in a language that has meaning and cannot be further divided is a

Question 18

Wider: Phonemes and Morephemes

Answer 18

Wider – 2 morphemes, 4 phonemes, 2 syllables
 Wide (width)
 ER (“more of”)

Question 19

Elevator: Phonemes and Morphemes

Answer 19

Elevator – 2 morphemes, 8 phonemes, 4 syllables
 Elevate – to go up
 Or – to cause movement

Question 20

Mojito and Mojitos: Phonemes and Morphemes

Answer 20

Mojito – 6 phonemes, 1 morpheme, 3 syllables
* Mojitos – 7 phonemes, 2 morphemes, 3 syllables
 Mojito – beverage name
 S - plural

Question 21

Over-learned skills

Answer 21

Reading and language are “overlearned skills” – hardest to unlearn, extinction

Question 22

Auditory Perception in Language Development

Answer 22

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?

Question 23

Impact of language on perception/cognition: Color

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Impact of language on perception/cognition: Spatial Information

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Impact of language on perception/cognition: Child language

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Stages or observations of child language acquisition

Answer 26

 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

Question 27

Motherese

Answer 27

Baby talk – tone, volume, scoops, EYE contact and widening

Question 28

Common and uncommon constants in language development

Answer 28

Most common consonants M, P, B, D, G, K, T

Least common consonants L, R

Question 29

Nature vs Nurture?

Answer 29

Nature: Chomsky, Vygotsky

Nurture: Skinner

Cognitive theory: Piaget

Question 30

Vygotsky

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Concepts of “overlearned” cognitive tasks and “automaticity”

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Saccade

Answer 32

Eye movements during reading, allows us to scan parts of words

Question 33

Saccade vs Fixation: Reading processes

Answer 33

Periods of fixation and movement – only “read” during fixation

Question 34

Fixation

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Reading disorders

Answer 35

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)

Question 36

Do you read each word?

Answer 36

Skip over about 1/3 of all words in sentences – mostly these are fillers and are implied
given context (e.g., “the” “of”)

Question 37

Word Recognition Processess

Answer 37

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)

Question 38

Word Recognition

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Perceptual Span

Answer 39

How much you can perceive in a window