Language (9) Flashcards
Magnet effect (Triadic interaction)
Infant reaches towards the place an adult has acted on an object - object becomes more of a communicative referent
Language
A code in which spoken sound is used in order to encode meaning
Symbolic system*
Words and parts of words represent meaning - they refer to things other than themselves - the symbols are CONVENTIONAL
Rule governed
Rules that reflect regularities and are abstract e.g. articles precede nouns they refer to
Productive
A finite number of units and rules can make an infinite number of grammatical utterances and meanings
4 things our language is
A communication system
A symbolic system
Rule governed
Productive
Morphemes *
Smallest unit of meaning
Pragmatics *
How to use language in different contexts or genres
Syntax
Rules by which words/phrases are arranged
From how old foetal reactions to sound*
20 weeks
By 7 months…
Infants can remember and recognise familiar words within the speech stream
Phonemes *
Smallest unit of speech that can affect meaning
A SET of sounds that are not physically identical but are treated as equivalent by speakers of language
(E.g. K in ski and key)
Evidence that infants are innately predisposed -> sets them up for speech
Sequence of language-development production ***!!
Birth-2 months = reflexive vocalisations (e.g. different types of cry)
2-4months = cooing and laughing
4-6months = babbling - the first controlled vocalisations
6-10 months = CANONICAL* babbling - include more vowels and consonants - start to sound like words
10+ months = MODULATED babbling - add stress and intonation patterns and learn about these *
Gesture
A ‘way station’ on the road to language over ONTOGENETIC and evolutionary time
The pragmatic system*
Abilities that allow us to communicate in an effective way in a social context e.g….
Maintaining and repairing conversations - by 3 years will ask for clarifications
Turn taking
Initiating interactions
How old when differences in communication to listeners is shown (pragmatics)
2 years
How old when take into account listeners perspective
4-5 years
Convention of different genres age
3 years
Syntactic system
The way that words and parts of words are related to one another create grammatical sentences (governed by rules)
Syntactic system - Chomsky *
S-structure = surface structure (what is spoken)
D-structure = deep structure (the actual meaning)
innate Language Acquisition Device
Nativist theories (e.g. Chomsky)
Born with basic language production/comprehension capacity
Chomsky’s LAD*
Languages have universal features
Innate knowledge of basic grammar rules
Perceives regularities in perceived utterances
Generates hypotheses about these utterances
These can then be tested against new utterances
First words
10-18 months
‘Holophrases’ - condense meaning - more than one possible d-structure??
At 18months…
Word explosion
Mainly nouns
Combination of gesture and word
Come before word and word
18-24 months - 2 word utterances**
Telegraphic speech
Importance of scaffolding
Often don’t use word order for meaning
24-27 months - 3-4 word utterances**
Start to see evidence of grammatical rules
When is speech understandable to even unfamiliar adults
3 years
Complex sentences with relative clauses
When is language similar to that of an adult*
5 years
Still perfecting some tenses and constructions
Overregularisation
A previously learned syntactic rule is applied to the exception of the rule
Creative overregularisations - ‘ing’ - no irregular progressive forms so no errors
Underextension
Using a word too narrowly (e.g. ‘dog’ for toy dog but not dogs in the park)
Overextension
Extending the meaning too broadly (e.g. bird for all flying things)
What age of vocabulary predicts language competence at age 9/10
3
Example of morpheme
‘’ed” words
How old when child starts to ask for clarifications
3 years
Proto-conversations
Dyadic then triadic
Holophrases
More than 1 possible d-structure
Condensed meaning
How many words by 6 years of age
14,000
