Language Acquisition Flashcards
imitation, nativism, or behaviorism
based on the empiricist or behavioral approach
innateness and mentalism
based on the rationalistic or mentalist approach
cognition
based on the cognitive-psychological approach
parameters
determine in the ways in which languages can vary
economy of derivation
movements only occur in order to match interpretable features with uninterpretable features
economy of representation
structure that states that grammatical structures must exist for a purpose
generalized transformations
take small structures which are either atomic or generated by other rules, and combine them like embedding etc.
motherese or input
based on the maternal approach to language acquisition
universal grammar
set of structural characteristics shared by all languages
connectionist theories
claims that exposure to language develops and strengthen neural connections
prelingustics
babies make noises, not yet babbling
one-word
speaks one word sentences
two-word stage
sentences consist of 2 words
beyond two-word stage
sentences with 3+ words
reinforcement
children learn through positive and negative reinforcement
phonetics
the sounds of a language
phonology
the sound patterns of a language
morphology
rules of word formation
syntax
how words combine into phrases/sentences
semantics
how to derive meaning from a sentence
pragmatics
how to properly use language in context
lexical items
words, morphemes, idioms
innate hypothesis
argues that our ability to acquire (human) language is innate (genetically encoded)
Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL)
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
