Language Acquisition Flashcards

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1
Q

Phonetics

A

The sounds of a langauge

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2
Q

Phonology

A

The sound patterns of a language

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3
Q

Morphology

A

Rules of word formation

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4
Q

Syntax

A

Howards combine into phrases and sentences

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5
Q

Innateness hypothesis or Nativist

A

The Innateness hypothesis argues that our ability to acquire language is innate. Children must be born with the capacity for language development.

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6
Q

Universal Grammar

A

Universal Grammar refers to the set of structural characteristics shared by all languages

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7
Q

Receptive language stage

A

Associating sounds with facial movements and learning word boundaries in speech (0-4 months).

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8
Q

Productive language stage

A

Babbling in multilingual sounds and gestures (4 months).

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9
Q

Babbling stage

A

Sounds more like parents’ or household’s language (10 months).

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10
Q

One word stage

A

Understanding and beginning to say many nouns (12 months).

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11
Q

Two words stage

A

Adding verbs and making sentences but missing words (18-24 months).

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12
Q

Full sentences stage

A

Speaking and understanding complex sentences (24+ months).

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13
Q

Theoretical linguistics

A

Theoretical linguistics is the branch of linguistics that inquires into the nature of language or languages without regard for practical application

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14
Q

Imitation

A

Children imitate what they hear. The theory is based on an empirical or behavioral approach

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15
Q

Reinforcement

A

Children learn through positive and negative reinforcement. Very little evidence to support.

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16
Q

Connectionist Theory

A

Claims that exposure to language develops and strengthens neural connections

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17
Q

Critical Period Hypothesis

A

There’s a critical time in development during which a language can be acquired like a native speaker

18
Q

Sensitive Period Hypothesis

A

A period of development begins and ends gradually, but there is a maximum period of sensitivity.

19
Q

Pragmatic Cues

A

social context in which language is

20
Q

Intentionality

A

Children draw inferences about a word’s meaning from what is being done as the word is used.

21
Q

Infant-directed speech

A

A distinctive mode of speech used in talking to infants and young children.

22
Q

Associationist theory

A

Language development occurs as the result of the gradual strengthening of connections that matter.

23
Q

Word

A

Arbitrary symbol used to refer to some thing

24
Q

Lexicon

A

Dictionary of words

25
Q

Function Words

A

Words that are not meaningful by themselves but give structure to language (articles).

26
Q

Comprehension vocabulary

A

Words that infants understand

27
Q

Fast Mapping

A

The way in which children quickly form an idea of the meaning of an unfamiliar word they hear in a familiar and highly structured social interaction.

28
Q

Code switching

A

the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation

29
Q

LAD Language acquisition device

A

The hypothetical tool in the human brain that lets children learn and understand language quickly. Theory developed by Noam Chomski.

30
Q

Competence

A

Linguistic competence is concerned with the child’s grammar, linguistic input and construction of the grammatical structures

31
Q

Performance

A

Performance deals with the nature of child’s rule system; the psychological processes the child uses in learning the language, and how the child establishes meaning in the language input

32
Q

Structure dependency

A

This principle of universal grammar states that language is organized in such a way that it crucially depends on the structural relationships between elements in a sentence

33
Q

Parameters

A

Determine the ways in which languages can vary

34
Q

Head

A

Specifies the position of the head in relation to its complements within phrases for different languages. English is a headfirst language because head of the phrase always appears before it’s complements whilst Japanese is a head last language.

35
Q

Surface structure

A

Surface structure represents the physical properties of language

36
Q

Deep Structure

A

The deep structure represented the core semantic relations of the sentence

37
Q

Economy of derivation

A

The principal stating that movements only occur in order to match the interpretable features with an interpretive all features

38
Q

Economy of representation

A

principle that grammatical structures must exist for a reason

39
Q

Transformations

A

A rule that takes an input typically called the deep structure and changes it in some restricted way to result in a surface structure

40
Q

Cognitive theory

A

Language acquisition must be viewed within the context of a child’s intellectual development. Linguistic structures will emerge only if there is an already established cognitive foundation

41
Q

Input Theory

A

Learners progress in their knowledge of the language when they comprehend language input that is slightly more advanced than their current level

42
Q

Motherese

A

Simplified and repetitive type of speech with exaggerated intonation in rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies