Language Acquisition

Question 1

imitation, nativism, or behaviorism

Answer 1

based on the empiricist or behavioral approach

Question 2

innateness and mentalism

Answer 2

based on the rationalistic or mentalist approach

Question 3

cognition

Answer 3

based on the cognitive-psychological approach

Question 4

parameters

Answer 4

determine in the ways in which languages can vary

Question 5

economy of derivation

Answer 5

movements only occur in order to match interpretable features with uninterpretable features

Question 6

economy of representation

Answer 6

structure that states that grammatical structures must exist for a purpose

Question 7

generalized transformations

Answer 7

take small structures which are either atomic or generated by other rules, and combine them like embedding etc.

Question 8

motherese or input

Answer 8

based on the maternal approach to language acquisition

Question 9

universal grammar

Answer 9

set of structural characteristics shared by all languages

Question 10

connectionist theories

Answer 10

claims that exposure to language develops and strengthen neural connections

Question 11

prelingustics

Answer 11

babies make noises, not yet babbling

Question 12

one-word

Answer 12

speaks one word sentences

Question 13

two-word stage

Answer 13

sentences consist of 2 words

Question 14

beyond two-word stage

Answer 14

sentences with 3+ words

Question 15

reinforcement

Answer 15

children learn through positive and negative reinforcement

Question 16

phonetics

Answer 16

the sounds of a language

Question 17

phonology

Answer 17

the sound patterns of a language

Question 18

morphology

Answer 18

rules of word formation

Question 19

syntax

Answer 19

how words combine into phrases/sentences

Question 20

semantics

Answer 20

how to derive meaning from a sentence

Question 21

pragmatics

Answer 21

how to properly use language in context

Question 22

lexical items

Answer 22

words, morphemes, idioms

Question 23

innate hypothesis

Answer 23

argues that our ability to acquire (human) language is innate (genetically encoded)

Question 24

Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL)

Answer 24

NSL didn’t exist before 1980, School for deaf children opened, teachers used only limited signs (for the alphabet), The deaf children naturally and quickly created their own sign
language, NSL quickly became a full-fledged language

Question 25

theories of acquisitions

Answer 25

imitation, reinforcement, active construction of a grammar, connectionist theories