Language Acquisition Vocab

Question 1

Prelinguistic

Answer 1

Can generally refer to all stages prior to the emergence of language, it is typically used to refer to the period in which communication appears to be intentional, using gestures or vocalizations – usually in combination with facial expressions and actions on objects – in ways that suggest they represent messages directed to a communication partner. This period encompasses the ages of around 8–18 months in typically-developing children and usually culminates in acquisition of a burgeoning vocabulary and production of connected or multiword expressions.

Question 2

Telegraphic

Answer 2

Termed as simply two-word sentences, such as “kitty tired” or “I hungry”. Toddlers develop this level of speech between 18-24 months. Telegraphic speech is important because it means your little one is: Learning to communicate their thoughts and feelings

Question 3

Nativism

Answer 3

A theory that grammar is largely hard-wired into the brain.

Question 4

Motherese

Answer 4

A term used in the study of child language acquisition for the way mothers often talk to their young children.
Also called Parentese, Baby talk, Caretaker speech, Infant-directed speech (IDS), Child-directed speech (CDS).

Question 5

Innatism

Answer 5

The philosophical position that minds are born with knowledge. Theory maintains that the human brain is born with ideas and knowledge already pre-programmed into it and that certain aspects of language are already with us from the start.

Question 6

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Answer 6

Proposed by Noam Chomsky to explain how human children, when exposed to any human language, are able to learn it within only a few years following birth. Chomsky argued that all humans are born with the knowledge of what makes a human language. Included in this innate knowledge must be details of important characteristics of all the world’s languages. The term universal grammar has been used to describe the knowledge contained in the LAD.

Question 7

Universal Grammar

Answer 7

A theory in linguistics usually credited to Noam Chomsky that suggests that all human beings inherit a universal set of principles and parameters which control the shape human language can take.

Question 8

Linguistic competence

Answer 8

The unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.

Question 9

Head Parameter

Answer 9

Specifies the position of the head in relation to its compliments within phrases for different languages. Each phrase has central elements that is called “head” in the case of Noun-Phrase head is a noun, and in the case of Verb-Phrase is a verb.

Question 10

Paramter

Answer 10

Properties that individual languages have that differentiate them from other languages.

Question 11

Context-Free Grammars

Answer 11

A set of recursive rules used to generate patterns of strings. A context-free grammar can describe all regular languages and more, but they cannot describe all possible languages - just context-free languages.

Question 12

Economy of Derivation

Answer 12

A principle stating that movements (i.e. transformations) only occur in order to match interpretable features (has semantic content) with uninterpretable feature (no semantic content).

Question 13

Interpretable Features

Answer 13

Features that have a semantic content

Question 14

Uninterpretable Features

Answer 14

Features that are devoid of a semantic content

Question 15

Economy of Representation

Answer 15

The principle that grammatical structures must exist for a purpose, i.e. the structure of a sentence should be no larger or more complex than required to satisfy constraints on grammaticality.

Question 16

Deep Structure

Answer 16

Also known as deep grammar or D-structure), it’s the underlying syntactic structure—or level—of a sentence. It’s an abstract representation that identifies the ways a sentence can be analyzed and interpreted.

Question 17

Government–Binding theory

Answer 17

An approach to the study of the syntax of human languages based on an abstract underlying representation and transformations successively altering that structure. The approach posits universal principles innately represented in the mind, and simple parameters, fixed by the language learner from simple evidence, determining how languages can differ.

Question 18

Cognitive Theory

Answer 18

An approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding your thought processes.

Question 19

Input Theory

Answer 19

Developed by Stephen Krashen, it’s an attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language – how second language acquisition takes place. The Input hypothesis is only concerned with ‘acquisition’, not ‘learning’. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the ‘natural order’ when he/she receives second language ‘input’ that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.

Question 20

Reduplicative Words

Answer 20

Words formed by duplicating or repeating certain sounds are called reduplications. It’s a morphological process in linguistics where the root word or a part of it is repeated, perhaps with a slight change, to form a new word.