Language Flashcards
language is
regular, arbitrary and productive
Whorf-Sapir hypothesis
language may influence our thoughts and the way we perceive and experience the world
morphemes
the smallest unit of sound that contain information
phonemes
constituent sounds that form morphemes
syntax
rules that govern how words in a sentence are put together
semantics
refers to the meaning of each individual word
language explosion
from one and half to six years there is a rapid vocabulary increase
universal phoneme sensitivity
the ability of infants to discriminate between any sounds they’re tested on (including sounds from non-native languages)
social learning theory
children learn from language through imitation and operant conditioning
over-extension
when children apply a rule too broadly and can occur at the level of meaning or syntax
ex: learning the past tense of play is played and adding the suffix -ed to other verbs like run
under-extension
when children apply a rule to only a specific object
ex: when a child refers his/her toy duck as duck but not the real duck
language acquisition device (LAD)
Noam Chomsky argues that humans have this innate mechanism that helps language develop rapidly according to universal rules
