Language Acquisition Flashcards
The ‘Innateness Hypothesis’
argues that our ability to acquire
(human) language is innate (genetically encoded).
Universal Grammar (UG)
the “set of structural
characteristics shared by all languages”
Imitation
children imitate what they hear
Reinforcement
children learn through positive and negative reinforcement
Connectionist Theories
Claims that exposure to language develops and strengthens
neural connections.
Critical Period Hypothesis
there is a critical period in development during
which a language can be acquired like a native speaker
Nativism
based on the empiricist or behavioral approach
Mentalism
rationalistic or mentalist approach
cognition
based on the cognitive-psychological approach
motherese
Based on maternal approach to language acquisition
Language Acquisition Device
innate ability to learn and develop language
linguistic competence
the childs grammar, linguistic input and construction of grammatical structures
performance
the nature of the childs rule system
Structure Dependency
language is organized in such a way that it crucially depends of the structural relationships between elements in a sentence
parameters
help determine the ways in which languages can vary
