Language Flashcards
“True Language” 3 Criteria
1) Must be “regular” - governed by rules and grammar
2) Arbitrary - sounds don’t relate to objects
3) Productive - limitless ways to combine words
Types of Swearing
1) The supernatural (potent in religious societies - hell)
2) Body effluvia and organs (disgust, vectors of disease)
3) Disease, death and sickness (emotion of dread)
4) Sexuality (exploitation)
Morphemes and Phonemes
Morphemes - smallest unit of sound or signing that contains meaning
Phonemes - smallest units of sound
Grammar
Unique to each language, grammar represents the rules that govern how morphemes and words may be combined in order to make sense
Semantics
The meaning that is produced through the use and combination of certain words and morphemes
Universal Phonemic Sensitivity
- ability of infants to discriminate between any sounds they’re tested on
- includes sounds from non native languages
Perceptual Narrowing
- Loss of universal phoneme sensitivity
- Occurs when individuals begin to specialize in a language
Infant-Directed Speech
When people talk to infants, they tend to speak in a higher pitch, and exaggerate changes in pitch and use of rhythm
Pragmatics
The skills that allow children to communicate effectively in a social situation
Holophrastic Phase
- Occurs at 1 year
- A single word is used to indicate the meaning of an entire sentence
Naming Explosion
- Word spurt
- When vocabulary expansion hits a rapid increase
(18 – 24 months)
Fast Mapping
Children learn the meaning of a word following 1 – 2 encounters with it (6 years)
Expressive Vocabulary
The words that children use to speak
Receptive Vocabulary
The words that children understand, but do not necessarily use yet
Over-extensions
Using a specific word for a broader set of related items; include both semantic and syntax errors
Under-extensions
A general term is used for a particular thing
Telegraphic Speech
Short phrases that only contain crucial information that they are trying to communicate (like a telegram)
Over-Regularizations
Syntactic errors which involve using a grammatical rule too broadly
Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis
Language influences our perception of the world, alongside how we think
Syntax
Rules that dictate how sentences should be composed (grammar)
Language Development in Infants
12 weeks - “cooing” sounds 16 weeks - responds to outside voices 6 months - imitates sounds 1 year - “babbles” 2 years - 50 -250 words; 2-word phrases 2.5 years - more than850 words
Language Explosion
- 1 ½ - 6 years: major increase in vocabulary
- mastery of various aspects of language
- syntax complexity improves
Segmentation Problem
Someone speaking another language can sound like it’s being spoken quickly
Social Learning Theory
- Children learn language through imitation/operant conditioning
- “nurture” component of language
Innate Mechanism Theory
- Helps for language to develop based upon universal rules; only humans
- Infants’ brains are wired to listen to speech, even if they don’t understand language
The Waggle Dance – Bees
Communicates the location of food for other bees
Washoe
Could use signs to communicate, but not systematic grammar
Sarah
- Taught to use symbols to communicate, and answer simple questions
- Could not combine phonemes, or form sentences
Kanzi
- Used lexigrams to communicate
- learning by observation instead of classical conditioning
- communicate some novel requests, but limited grammar
Interactionist Theories
Nature or nurture is insufficient, BOTH are needed to explain language
