Language Acquisition Flashcards
Innateness Hypothesis
Argues that our ability to acquire (human) language is innate (genetically encoded).
Language Acquisition
-Children’s acquisition occurs quickly and without instructions
Universal Grammar
Refers to the “set of structural characteristics shared by all languages”.
Sign Language Overview
-have gesture system, morphology, syntactic and semantic rules, and have dictionary of arbitrary signs.
Nicaraguan Sign Language
-Deaf children naturally and quickly created their own sign language.
-Didn’t exist before 1980
Imitation
Children imitate or repeat what they hear.
Theories of Acquisition
- Imitation
- Reinforcement
- Active construction of a grammar
- Connectionist Theories
Reinforcement
Children learn through positive and negative reinforcement.
Active Construction of Grammar
Children invent grammar rules themselves
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.
Stages of Development
Prelinguistic
Babbling
One word
Two word
Beyond two stage
Prelinguistic
-babies makes noises (crying, cooing)
Babbling
-Starts at about 6 months
-pitch and intonation resemble language spoken around them
One-word
-begins around age 1
-usually 1 syllable words, CV structure
two words
-starts at about 1.5-2years old
-sentences consist of 2 words
beyond 2 word stage
-sentences with 3+ words
-have learned some aspects of grammar
Dialect
A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
Social Connotations Hypothesis
Concept that the pleasantness of a language variety is a social convention.
Inherent Value Hypothesis
Argues that some languages are evaluated more positively than others because they are inherently more correct.
