Language development Flashcards
What is Phonology
refers to the basic units of sound, or phonemes, that are used in language. each language uses only a subset of sounds that humans are capable of generating and no two languages have precisely the same phonologiies.
What is Morphology
specify how words ar formed from sound. eg in English rules for forming past tense of verbs by adding -ed or for plurals add a -s
What is Semantics
refers to the meaning expressed in words and sentences. the smallest meaningful units of language are morphemes; free morphemes can stand alone as words eg (dog) whereas bound morphemes cannot stand along but change meaning when attached to a free morpheme ( adding -s to dogs make the meaning more then one dog. children must recognize grammatical morphemes convey meaning
What is Syntax
are rules that specify how words are to be combined to from meaningful phrases and sentences;
-Garfield Odie bit
Garfield bit Odie
Odia bit Garfield
What is pragmatics
hoe language is used to communicate effectively.
this involves sociolinguistic knowledge; culturally specified rules that dictate how language should be used in particular social contexts.
Also requires the ability to properly interpret and use nonverbal signals.
Describe the learning/empiricist perspective
learning theorist emphasize that imitation and reinforcement are what aide language development. that children mimic what they here from from adults and adults reinforce the proper grammar and correct wrong words. so this theory argues that caregivers teach language by modeling and by reinforcing grammatical speech.
limitations: doesnt explain development of syntax
not much evidence for how children acquire grammatical rules
Describe the Nativist Perspective
human beings are biologically programmed to acquire language. Chompsky, argues that the structure of even the simplest languages is incredibly elaborate, far to complex for a parent to teach or through trial and error.
proposed that humans come equiped with a language acquisition device (LAD) a linguistic processor that is activated by verbal input. The LAD has universal rules that are common in all languages
Dan Slobin, does not assume children have an innate ability but that they have an inborn language-making capacity (LMC)- a set of cognitive and perceptual abilities that are highly specialized for language learning.
Interactionist perspective
believe that both leaning theorist and nativist are partially correct language development results from a complex interplay among biological maturation, cognitive developement, and an ever-changing linguistic environment that is heavily influenced by the childs attempts to communicate with her companions.
Explain language issue in the pre-linguistic period; what Pre-linguistic Vocalisations
10-13 month is pre-linguistic phases, period before speaking their frist meaningful words.
at 2 months babis state to make vowel-like noises called cooing, by 4-6 month children add consonants and are now babbling
10-12months children will use certain sounds for particualr situations, such as using mmmm for requesting and ahhhh what manipulating objects. suggested that infants who produce these vocabbles are now aware that certain speech sounds have consistent meanings.
Explain language issue in the pre-linguistic period; Gestures and non verbal responses
8-10 months preverbal infants begin to use gestures and other nonverbal responses (facial expressions) to communicate with their companions. two types are common, declarative gestures, in which the infant directs others attention to an object by pointing at or touching it, and imperative gestures in which the infant tries to convince others to grant his request though such action as pointing at candy he wants or tugging at leg when wants to be picked up
explain the language issues in the holophrastic period; Early semantics and Vocabulary
the Holophrastic period, infants utter single words that often seem to represent an entire sentence’s worth of meaning. the child vocabulary is constrained, so first words may only be noticed by close companions (eg ba for ball or awa for i want.
Early semantics; the growth of their vocabulary proceeds one word at a time, between 18 and 24 months word learning quicken dramatically, and they can learn 10-20 new words per week.
- mostly say objects, including familiar
explain the language issues in the holophrastic period; attaching meaning to words
in many cases they use a fast-mapping process, quickly acquiring and retaining a word after hearing it applied to its referent on a small number of occasions, 13-15 month can lean the meanings of words through fast mapping, objects are easier, fast mapping improves with age.
20 months old are likely to learn the meaning of novel words that a speaker introduces only if they and the other speaker are jointly attending to the labeled object or activity.
24-30months will now fast map and are very good at incorporating word meanings .
whats inside the box? in a study found that toddlers who had yet to enter the naming explosion generally could not retrieve words they knew well to answer correctly whereas their counterparts who had already displayed a vocabulary spurt performed much better, important reason why productive vocabulary may be so far behind receptive vocabulary early in life is that we to 15 months who are fast mapping the meaning of many new words are often unable to retrieve these words from memory to talk about their referents.
explain the language issues in the telegraphic period; the concept of telegraphic speech
telegraph period 18-24 months, when children combine words into simple sentences such as ‘daddy eat’ that are remarkably similar across language. They only contain content words, nouns, verbs and adjectives and leave out such frills as articles, prepositions and auxiliary verbs.
it is thought that children use limited words due to their own processing and production constraints, not because they dont understand fully worded sentences.
explain the language issues in the telegraphic period; Pragmatics in early speech
because early sentences are incomplete and their meanings often ambiguous, children continue to supplement their words with gestures and intonational cure to ensure that their message is understood.
2 year olds recognize that people look up at their listener before they talk.
2-2 and a half children know they must stand close to a person so they can here or increase volume if they are to hear.
explain language issues in the preschool period: grammatical development
over
from age 2 and half to five children come to produce sentences that are remarkably complex and adultlike.
grammatical morphemes are modifiers that give more precise meaning to the sentences we construct. these meaning modifiers usually appear sometime during the third year, as children begin to pluralize nouns by adding s. a study found that children all learnt the morphemes at different time and frequency but all acquired in the same order starting with; ing, in, on, s, are, was, the, a etc.
