Language & Communication Part 1

Question 1

What are Hockett’s 4 design features of language?

Answer 1

Arbitrariness - no necessary connection between the sounds used and the message being sent
Displacement - the ability to communicate about things that are not currently present
Productivity - the ability to create new utterances from previously existing utterances and sounds
Dual of Patterning - meaningless phonemes are combines to make meaningful words which in turn are combined again to make sentences.

Question 2

What is Syntax/Morphology?

Answer 2

The rules that control sentence formation and word endings

Question 3

What is Phonology?

Answer 3

The sounds of langauge

Question 4

What are Pragmatics?

Answer 4

The social use of language in context

Question 5

What are Semantics?

Answer 5

The meaning of individual words and words in context

Question 6

What are Phones?

Answer 6

The different sounds in language, languages differ in the sounds they use and how they combine them

Question 7

What are Phonemes?

Answer 7

If different phones change the meanings of words they’re called phonemes
Not all languages have the same phonemes
Phonemes are the smallest segmental units of sound employed in a language to form meaningful contrasts between words

Question 8

Outline infant’s phonological development from being born

Answer 8

They are born being able to perceive all the sounds used in the worlds languages
Experience with a language over the first year of life allows them to tune into the phonemic contrast that are used in their language and tune out those that are not

Question 9

What is language production like at birth?

Answer 9

Crying and involuntary sounds of bodily functions

Question 10

What is language production like at 2-4 months?

Answer 10

Cooing and at around 16 weeks, laughter

Question 11

What is language production like at 4-7 months?

Answer 11

Squeals, yells, raspberries, vowels and marginal babbling

Question 12

What is language production like at around 7 months?

Answer 12

Sudden onset of reduplicated or canonical babbling e.g. dada, guh guh

Question 13

What is language production like at around 10 months?

Answer 13

Babbling comes to reflect frequent sounds in the ambient language

Question 14

What is language production like around 1st birthday?

Answer 14

Increase in the rate of variegated babbling e.g. bagoo and production of longer strings of sounds with varied intonation and stress patterns

Question 15

What does the age at which children begin to produce canonical babble predict?

Answer 15

• When they will begin to produce words
• How many words they will be able to produce at 18 months
• Caregiver’s responses to infant’s babble also predict word learning

Question 16

Why is the range of infant vocalisations limited?

Answer 16

The size and placement of the tongue in relation to vocal cavity
Neuromuscular limits on the movements of the tongue which is adapted for sucking and swallowing but not so able to produce fine articulatory movements

Question 17

Outline gaze following in infancy?

Answer 17

• Early in infancy, infants begin to follow other people’s line of regard
• From 18 months, children can use gaze following to check where someone is looking in order to figure out the meaning of a new word

Question 18

What is Joint Attention?

Answer 18

Can engage in joint attention at around 9 months
Occurs when two or more people are attending to something and they are mutually aware that they are attending to it together
Time spent in joint attention predicts later word learning

Question 19

Outline the role of pointing in infancy

Answer 19

Between 9-14 months, infants begin to point imperatively and declaratively
Index finger pointing is a predictor of later vocabulary learning along with other gestures including showing

Question 20

Outline the advances in learning words during infancy

Answer 20

Most children start producing first words within a few months of their first birthday
Word learning is typically slow until 50-100 words
By the age of 6, children have about 10-14,000 words in their lexicon
The learning rate continues to accelerate until about 8-10 years when they learn about 12 new words a day

Question 21

Outline errors children may make in phonology

Answer 21

‘efelant’ ‘hiccupotamus’ also adult spoonerisms and malapropisms
Children may be able to perceive but not produce certain speech sounds

Question 22

Outline errors children make in semantics

Answer 22

They tend to make ‘errors of scope’ that can shed light on the obstacles and the process of learning
Underextensions e.g. ‘car’ only to mean the family car
Overextensions e.g. ‘daddy’ to mean any adult male, which may be due to lack of an alernative

Question 23

What is the gavagai problem?

Answer 23

The argument that word learning needs to be constrained so that children don’t run into the indeterminacy of translation problem

Question 24

What is the indeterminacy of translation problem?

Answer 24

The problem of determining which of a large number of possible meanings a word is used to convey

Question 25

What are solutions to the gavagai problem?

Answer 25

Children have constraints on what words will refer to
Children use associative learning across contexts
Children use social cues and linguistic cues to meaning

Question 26

Outline the role of SES in word learning

Answer 26

Lower SES children tend to start school with weaker language skills and this disadvantage predicts later school outcomes

Question 27

What is one option to support language development in low SES

Answer 27

Help caregivers talk with infants in a way that promotes language

Question 28

What is contingent talk?

Answer 28

Child directed speech that is contingent on the infant’s focus of attention
Semantically (about what the infant is attending to)
Temporally (in response to infant vocalisation)