Language Development Flashcards
What is psycholinguistics?
the study of the structure and development of language
What is phonology?
The sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce meaningful units of speech
True or False:
We perceive phonemes categorically.
True
What is the “magnet effect”?
When a series of phonemes is played continuously, our ear is drawn to categorical distinctions of the sound
What is acquired distinctiveness?
we become better at perceiving stimulus properties that are critical for distinguishing native language sounds
What is acquired similarity?
we become worse at perceiving properties that are not part of our native language
How is our brain able to understand phonemes that are not enunciated “perfectly”?
brain filters out sounds that don’t belong (like synaptic pruning)
why we understand accents!
True or False:
During the critical period, our brain takes “statistics” on languages it hears.
True
Why does acquired similarity happen?
our brain is not exposed to those novel stimuli from non-native languages
True or False:
A baby has lower plasticity to learning phonemes than adults.
False
Babies have higher plasticity to learning sounds; expect to receive language and can acquire any phoneme
What is the process of language acquisition?
- high plasticity –> acquired distinctiveness
- brain prunes away ability to perceive sound as you grow older
- lower plasticity –> acquired similarity
True or False:
Japanese speakers are able to differentiate between the English /r/ and English /l/.
False
What mechanism is used to study infants’ development of categorical perception of phonemes?
conditioned head turn procedure
How did Werker’s conditioned head turn procedure work?
whenever a sound changes, a curtain will pull back and rabbit toy will play
* if the infant hears the sound change, their head will turn
True or False:
Infants can distinguish Hindi phonemes until 8-10 months.
False
until 10-12 months
What is morphology?
how words are formed from sounds
(i.e. stems, root words, prefixes)
i.e. grammar
What is semantics?
the expressed meaning of words and sentences
What is syntax?
the structure of a language; the rules specifying how words and grammatical markers are to be combined to produce meaningful sentences
What are pragmatics?
principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in social contexts
i.e. when to use polite forms
True or False:
When children acquire words, production precedes comprehension.
False
Comprehension precedes production;
children understand what something means before they can say it
What is the problem of “reference”?
children are unable to interpret exactly what a word is referring to
What is “fast mapping”?
attaching meaning to words after hearing it applied to its referent after only a few times
How was “fast mapping” displayed in the Carey & Bartlett study?
children were told to get the “chromium” block, “not the blue one,” and used the reference of the color blue to get something they’ve never heard before
What are three fast mapping errors?
- overextension
- underextension
- overregularization
What is overextension?
tendency to use specific words to refer to a broad class of objects
car = all moving vehicles
What is underextension?
tendency to use a general word to refer to a smaller set of items
candy = one type of candy (not chocolate)
What is overregularization?
tendency to overuse grammatical rules when they don’t apply
1 mouse, 2 mouses
What is the holophrastic period?
infants utter one word that is meant to represent an entire sentence
“milk”
What is the telegraphic speech period?
sentences that omit less meaningful parts of speech (18-24 months)
“want milk”
What is the word learning period?
toddlers will experience a “naming explosion,” which grows language
What did the “wug test” show about language acquisition?
children can understand and internalize rules of grammar and apply to novel words they’ve never heard
why overgeneralization happens
What is the empiricist perspective of language acquisition?
language is acquired through children imitating adult language and through adult reinforcement of correct language usage
What is evidence that supports the empiricist’s theory?
- imitation is important to the development of phonology and semantics
- we talk like our parents
What is evidence against the empiricist’s theory?
- adults do not correct gramatically incorrect utterances because they know what the child means
- stilll let children speak the way they speak without correcting them
- eventually children learn how to speak correctly without environmental output
What is the nativist perspective of language acquisition?
children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language alone
developed by Noam Chomsky
What is the “Language Acquisition Device”?
allows any child to develop an implicit understanding an infer the rules governing others’ speech and to use these rules to produce language
What is evidence that supports the nativist theory?
- only humans have shown ability to acquire knowledge of syntax without formal training
- some evidence for critical or sensitive periods for language development
- spontaneous creolization of pidgin language by second generation
What is evidence against the nativist theory?
- sensitive period data is shaky; people can learn a second language after puberty
- some non-human primates are senstivie to some aspects of language
- creolization may simply reflect a human sensitivity to rules and an ability to learn codes, rather than reflect innate knowledge
How did Genie show support for both the nativist and empiricist theories of language acquisition?
- nativist: critical period for fully developing language (not able to learn grammar, syntax, etc.)
- empiricist: able to expand vocabulary and learn words from researchers
