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English 211 > Language Acquisition > Flashcards

Language Acquisition Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

All (normal) human children:

A
  • learn a language.
  • can learn any language they are exposed to.
  • learn all languages at basically the same rate.
  • follow the same stages of language acquisition.
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2
Q

Language Acquisition

A

the process of building the ability to understand a language and using it to communicate with others.

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3
Q

Innateness Hypothesis

A

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

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4
Q

Universal Grammar

A

refers to the “set of structural characteristics shared by all languages”

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5
Q

Overviews of sign language

A
  • have gesture system
  • have morphology rules
  • have syntactic rules
  • have semantic rules
  • have dictionary of arbitrary signs
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6
Q

Theories of Acquisition

A
  1. Imitation
  2. Reinforcement
  3. Active Construction of a Grammar
  4. Connectionist Theories
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7
Q

Main Idea of Imitation

A

Children imitate what they hear

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8
Q

Problems with Imitation

A
  • Children produce things not said by adults.
  • Children often fail to accurately mimic adult utterances.
  • Children may invent a new language in the right circumstances.
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9
Q

Main Idea of Reinforcement

A

Children learn through positive and negative reinforcement.

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10
Q

Problems with Reinforcement

A
  • Ignores how children initially learn to produce utterances
  • rarely occurs
  • fails when it does occur
  • fails to explain children’s own grammar rules and why children seem impervious to correction.
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11
Q

Active Construction of a Grammar

A
  • Children invent grammar rules themselves.

- Ability to develop rules is innate.

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12
Q

What active construction of a grammar explains which imitation/reinforcement can’t:

A
  • Children are expected to make mistakes
  • Children are expected to follow non-random patterns
  • Regression
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13
Q

Connectionist Theories

A

Claims that exposure to language develops and strengthens neural connections.

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14
Q

Problems with Connectionist Theories

A

-predicts that any pattern is learnable bu humans, but this is demonstrably false.

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15
Q

Imitation

A

Is necessary but not sufficient.

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16
Q

Reinforcement

A

Is virtually unsupported.

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17
Q

Active Construction of a Grammar

A

Nicely accounts for predictable deviations from adults grammars, and the various stages of grammar development.

18
Q

Connectionist Theories

A

Account for frequency effects, can also account for regular deviations from adult grammars.

19
Q

Basic Idea of Critical Period

A

There is a critical period in development during which a language can be acquired like a native speaker.

20
Q

Strong Hypothesis of Critical Period

A

After this critical period, it is impossible to acquire a language as well as a native speaker.

21
Q

Weak Hypothesis of Critical Period

A

There are ‘sensitive periods’ during which the ease of learning certain aspects of language decline.

22
Q

Stages of Development

A
  1. Prelinguistic
  2. Babbling
  3. One-word
  4. Two-word stage
  5. Beyond 2-word stage
23
Q

Prelinguistic

A
  • Babies make noise, but not yet babbling.

- Sensitive to native and non-native sound distinctions.

24
Q

Babbling

A
  • Starts at about 6 months of age.
  • Not linked to biological needs.
  • Pitch and intonation resemble language spoken around them.
25
Q

One-word

A
  • Begins at age 1.
  • Speaks one-word sentences.
  • Usually 1-syllable words.
  • Consonant clusters reduced.
  • Words learned as a whole, rather than a sequence of sounds.
26
Q

Two-word stage

A
  • Starts at about 1.5-2 years of age.
  • Vocabulary of +/- 50 words.
  • Sentences consist of two words.
27
Q

Beyond 2-word stage

A
  • Sentences with 3+ words.
  • Begins using function words.
  • Have already learned some aspects of grammar.
  • Grammar resembles adult grammar by about age 5.
28
Q

Children’s acquisition of language occurs:

A
  • quickly.
  • without explicit instruction.
  • uniformly.
29
Q

What must a child learn?

A
  • The sounds of language.
  • The sounds patterns of a language.
  • Rules of word formation.
  • How words combine into phrases/sentences.
  • How to derive meaning from a sentence.
  • How to properly use language in context.
  • Lexical items (words, morphemes, idioms, etc.)
30
Q

Examples of living organisms having innate behaviors:

A
  • Newly hatched sea turtles moving towards the ocean.
  • Honeybees performing dances for communication.
  • Birds flying.
31
Q

Attempts to explain Innateness Hypothesis

A
  • Speed of acquisition
  • Ease of acquisition
  • Uniformity of acquisition process
  • Uniformity in adult language
  • Universalities across language
32
Q

The goal of theoretical linguistics:

A

is to discover the properties of Universal Grammar.

33
Q

Acquisition process of Active Construction of a Grammar

A
  • Listen
  • Try to find patterns
  • Hypothesize a rule for the pattern
  • Test hypothesis
  • Modify rule as necessary
34
Q

Parameter

A

determines the ways in which language can vary.

35
Q

Head parameter

A

specifies the position of the head in relation to its compliments within phrases for different language.

36
Q

Theories of Language Acquisition

A
  • Imitation, Nativism, or Behaviorism
  • Innateness or Mentalism
  • Cognition
  • Motherese or Input
37
Q

Imitation, Nativism, or Behaviorism

A

Based on the empiricist or behavioral approach

38
Q

Innate or Mentalism

A

Based on the rationalistic or mentalist approach

39
Q

Cognition

A

Based on the cognitive-psychological approach

40
Q

Motherese or Input

A

Based on the maternal approach to language acquisition

English 211 (7 decks)

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