Lecture 3 - Language Development

Question 1

Language definition (Barrett, 1999)

Answer 1

“A code in which spoken sound is used in order to encode meaning”

Question 2

Main areas of language

Answer 2

Phenology, Semantics, Syntax, Pragmatics

Question 3

Phenology

Answer 3

“Phenomes” or sound segments

Question 4

Semantics

Answer 4

System of meaning (morphemes) eg d, o, g

Question 5

Syntax

Answer 5

Rules by which words/phrases are arranged eg Jane hit Sue vs Sue hit Jane

Question 6

Pragmatics

Answer 6

How language is used in different contexts

Question 7

Shahidullah and Hepper (1993)

Answer 7

Foetuses react to sounds from 20 weeks and distinguish between male and female voices near term. They show preference for mother’s voice after birth.

Question 8

Neonate speech perception studies

Answer 8

Voulourmanos and Werker (2007) - Prefer speech over non-speech.
Moon et al (1993) - Prefer native language
DeCasper and Fifer (1980) - Prefer mother’s sounds
Shi et al (1999) - Discriminates between content and function word types

Question 9

Speech production timeline

Answer 9

From 1-2 months: cooing and laughing, canonical babbling around 6-10 months and modulated babbling 10+ months

Question 10

Canonical babbling traits

Answer 10

Include more vowels and consonants
Combine these in ways that start to sound like words
Scream for attention or out of anger
Specific gestures/sounds reserved for primary caregiver or other familiar individuals

Question 11

Modulated babbling traits

Answer 11

Add stress and intonation patterns

Overlaps with meaningful speech period

Question 12

Word explosion

Answer 12

Roughly 20 words at 18 months – 200+ words at 24 months
Mainly nouns (labels of objects and people)
Some action, state, function words

Question 13

Multiword speech

Answer 13

18 months old - 2 word utterances (telegraphic speech)
24-27 months old - 3-4 word utterances (with grammatical errors ‘mouses’, prepositions and irregular verbs and re-order words eg negative statements, wh-questions)

Question 14

3 years old speech

Answer 14

Understandable to unfamiliar adults
Vocabulary around 1000 words
Complex sentences with relative clauses (eg my sister, who has four cats, is more of a crazy cat-lady than I am)
Still perfecting some linguistic systems

Question 15

5 years old speech

Answer 15

Language similar to that of adult (still perfectly some tenses and constructions eg passive voice, conditional tense)

Question 16

Children’s understanding of pragmatics

Answer 16

Adjust to different contexts (differences in communication to different listeners as young as 2 years eg informal and formal)
Take account of listener’s perspective (at 4-5 years)
Master convention of different genres (3 years old – eg once upon a time is telling a story)

Question 17

How do children acquire word meaning?

Answer 17

Word learning biases (whole object constraint – words refer to whole objects rather than parts of object)
Shape bias (generalise to other objects that are the same shape, rather than other attributes like texture, colour, material etc). Aids early noun learning.

Question 18

How do children acquire language?

Answer 18

Word acquisition (two example models: Barrett’s multi-route model and Gleitman’s syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis)
General theories of language development

Question 19

Barrett’s Multi-Route Model

Answer 19

Two different pathways in understanding:

1. Referential words - Used in a variety of contexts
2. Context-bound words - Only specific context

Question 20

Gleitman’s syntactic boot-strapping hypothesis

Answer 20

Sensitive to syntactic and semantic correspondences from early age
Extract meanings of new words from syntactic clues – # of “noun phrase” arguments or participants
Mary kicked the ball (transitive: subject + object)
Tom is sleeping (intransitive: subject, no object)
We test this by observational studies or artificial language in experiments

Question 21

Other theories for why language develops

Answer 21

• Nativist theories (Chomsky’s “Innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD))
• Constructivist or Cognitive theories (Piaget)
• Cognitive Functional Linguistics

Question 22

Chomsky’s LAD (Nativist)

Answer 22

• Human languages have universal features - Phonology, Syntax, “deep structures”
• Innate knowledge of basic grammar rules
• LAD perceives regularities in heard utterances - LAD generates hypotheses about regularities, hypotheses are tested against new utterances

Question 23

Support for LAD

Answer 23

1. Children learn quickly, and learning governed by rules
2. Systematic mistakes (logical errors)
3. Correct order early on

Question 24

Constructivist or Cognitive Theories

Answer 24

Language development reflects stages of cognitive development:
Cognitive abilities enable understanding and use of language
Rules come from wider cognitive system not LAD

Question 25

Support for cognitive theories

Answer 25

1. First words about familiar objects and activities –Usually dynamic objects child can hold
2. First words appear around same time as object permanence–Also around time symbolic play emerges
3. Words about present emerge before words about future and past–Appear around the time children understand time concepts
4. BUT – what about effect of social environment?

Question 26

Tomasello (2000)

Answer 26

Children can’t generate verb combinations they haven’t heard

Question 27

Cognitive-functional linguistics

Answer 27

No universal, innate grammar and children acquire language gradually through gradual building up of grammatical structures

Question 28

McDonough et al (2011)

Answer 28

Toddlers find a creative use of verbs but nouns are more difficult to understand

Question 29

Tomasello et al (1997)

Answer 29

Children taught 4 new “verbs” and “nouns” with no context. 18-23 month olds could produce plurals of nouns but not the past tense of the made up words.

Question 30

Adult-child speech

Answer 30

Different to adult-adult speech (higher voice, greater range in pitch, simpler meaning with more nouns and concrete words that adjusts to cognitive level of the child). Babies prefer this speech.

Question 31

Nelson et al (1987)

Answer 31

Adult-child speech acts as scaffolding for language and it helps with sentence imitation and more complex grammar

Question 32

Fernald et al (2012)

Answer 32

Language processing and vocabulary lower in lower SES (Social Economic Status) children

Question 33

Lee and Burkman (2002)

Answer 33

Children in the top SES (Social Economic Status) have 60% higher scores than those in the lowest quintile

Question 34

Hart and Risley (1995)

Answer 34

Children of a lower Social Economic Status hear fewer words per hour than in higher SES. Lower SES caregivers talk to child less and use less complex sentences - and read to them less

Question 35

Duursma (2015)

Answer 35

Fathers had an impact on child’s language development, less than mothers.
Fathers used more abstract and complex language and link events to child’s own experience. Mothers focused on details of the book.