Language Flashcards
Phonemes
Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound unit in a
spoken language.
For example:
bat, has three phonemes b · a · t
chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t
Morpheme
Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries meaning may
be a word or a part of a word.
For example:
Milk = milk
Pumpkin = pump . Kin
Unforgettable = un · for · get · table
Grammar
A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others
Semantics
Set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
For example: A semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.
-ed itself is a morpheme because it changes the meaning of the word it’s added to. The rule that says adding -ed makes a word past tense is a semantic rule of grammar.
Syntax
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
For example: In English, a syntactical rule is that adjectives come before nouns; white house.
In Spanish it is reversed; casa blanca.
Language Development
Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2.
We learn on average (after age 1) 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate high school.
Babbling Stage…
Beginning at 4 months the infant spontaneously utters various
sounds, like ah-goo.
Babbling is not imitation of adult speech…until about 9 or 10
months, cannot differentiate
native language of baby’s household.
One-word Stage…
Beginning at or around 1 yr old, a child starts to speak one-word and makes
family adults understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out
there.
Usually begin with short words that begin with consonants like b, d, m, p or t
However…children can understand quite
a bit of language they hear at and before this stage
Two-word Stage…
Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences.
This form of speech is called telegraphic speech in which the child speaks
like a telegram
“go car,” means that, I would like to go for a ride in the car.
Longer Phrases…
After telegraphic speech children start uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball), with
syntactical sense and by early elementary school they are enjoying humor.
What does syntactical sense imply the child knows how to do?
You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.
Skinner
believed that learn to talk through operant conditioning
language development can be explained on the basis of
learning principles, such as association, imitation and
reinforcement.
Children learn to speak because being rewarded for making
sounds that are close to adult speech – shape until form correct
words
Chomsky
opposed Skinners ideas
suggested that rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained
through learning principles and thus most of it was inborn.
Supports with idea that languages have a universal grammar (similar
underlying structure of all world language)
Believes in the presence of a language acquisition device (a
neural system of the brain for understanding language) that is switched on by
exposure to language in our environment
Linguistic Determinism (Linguistic relativity hypothesis) –
suggested that language determines the way we think and perceive the world.
Example…
Hopi, he noted, did not have past tense for verbs therefore Hopis could not think readily about the past.
