Language

Question 1

“True Language” 3 Criteria

Answer 1

1) Must be “regular” - governed by rules and grammar
2) Arbitrary - sounds don’t relate to objects
3) Productive - limitless ways to combine words

Question 2

Types of Swearing

Answer 2

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)

Question 3

Morphemes and Phonemes

Answer 3

Morphemes - smallest unit of sound or signing that contains meaning
Phonemes - smallest units of sound

Question 4

Grammar

Answer 4

Unique to each language, grammar represents the rules that govern how morphemes and words may be combined in order to make sense

Question 5

Semantics

Answer 5

The meaning that is produced through the use and combination of certain words and morphemes

Question 6

Universal Phonemic Sensitivity

Answer 6

• ability of infants to discriminate between any sounds they’re tested on
• includes sounds from non native languages

Question 7

Perceptual Narrowing

Answer 7

• Loss of universal phoneme sensitivity

- Occurs when individuals begin to specialize in a language

Question 8

Infant-Directed Speech

Answer 8

When people talk to infants, they tend to speak in a higher pitch, and exaggerate changes in pitch and use of rhythm

Question 9

Pragmatics

Answer 9

The skills that allow children to communicate effectively in a social situation

Question 10

Holophrastic Phase

Answer 10

• Occurs at 1 year

- A single word is used to indicate the meaning of an entire sentence

Question 11

Naming Explosion

Answer 11

• Word spurt
• When vocabulary expansion hits a rapid increase
  (18 – 24 months)

Question 12

Fast Mapping

Answer 12

Children learn the meaning of a word following 1 – 2 encounters with it (6 years)

Question 13

Expressive Vocabulary

Answer 13

The words that children use to speak

Question 14

Receptive Vocabulary

Answer 14

The words that children understand, but do not necessarily use yet

Question 15

Over-extensions

Answer 15

Using a specific word for a broader set of related items; include both semantic and syntax errors

Question 16

Under-extensions

Answer 16

A general term is used for a particular thing

Question 17

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 17

Short phrases that only contain crucial information that they are trying to communicate (like a telegram)

Question 18

Over-Regularizations

Answer 18

Syntactic errors which involve using a grammatical rule too broadly

Question 19

Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis

Answer 19

Language influences our perception of the world, alongside how we think

Question 20

Syntax

Answer 20

Rules that dictate how sentences should be composed (grammar)

Question 21

Language Development in Infants

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Language Explosion

Answer 22

• 1 ½ - 6 years: major increase in vocabulary
• mastery of various aspects of language
• syntax complexity improves

Question 23

Segmentation Problem

Answer 23

Someone speaking another language can sound like it’s being spoken quickly

Question 24

Social Learning Theory

Answer 24

• Children learn language through imitation/operant conditioning
• “nurture” component of language

Question 25

Innate Mechanism Theory

Answer 25

• 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

Question 26

The Waggle Dance – Bees

Answer 26

Communicates the location of food for other bees

Question 27

Washoe

Answer 27

Could use signs to communicate, but not systematic grammar

Question 28

Sarah

Answer 28

• Taught to use symbols to communicate, and answer simple questions
• Could not combine phonemes, or form sentences

Question 29

Kanzi

Answer 29

• Used lexigrams to communicate
• learning by observation instead of classical conditioning
• communicate some novel requests, but limited grammar

Question 30

Interactionist Theories

Answer 30

Nature or nurture is insufficient, BOTH are needed to explain language