Lecture 5 Flashcards
what are the stages of vocabulary growth?
12 months: production of first word
15 months: about 25 words or word fragments (e.g. ba for ball)
2 years old: about 300 words
5 years old: 10,000 - 15,000 words (10-20 new words a days!) -> vocabulary spurt/burst, naming explosion
18 years old: 60,000 words
what is the first stage in language developments?
babbling, 4-9 months gagaga
meaningless, speech-like vocalisations
sounds like speech but is meaningless
simple structure - cv syllables, often reduplicated
change in sound discrimination skill: first sounds are universal, then more language-specific
not independent of later speech development; phonetic content found in babbling overlaps with phonetic preferences in later meaningful speech
what is the second stage in language development?
one-word (holophrastic), 9-18 months
names & objects in baby’s life
example: development of gaga to water
- nouns: concrete, refer to physical objects they can see, touch, eat
- easy to produce
/p/ /m/ /b/,… -> mama, papa
CV (constant and vowel) easier than CVC (constant vowel constant) - high in frequency
most relevant in their environment, important role of demonstrative words (THIS, THAT, also HERE, THERE) - amongst the earliest words in most/all languages
relation with (establishing) joint attention with caregivers
what are the types of deletion and substitution?
- final consonant deletion
- consonant cluster deletion
- unstressed syllable deletion
- stop substitution
- fronting
give an example final consonant deletion
DOG -> “DO”
give an example consonant cluster deletion
STOP -> “TOP”
give an example of unstressed syllable deletion
BUTTerFLY -> “BUFFLY”
give an example stop substitution
replace a fricative (consonant produced with continuous flowing air) with a stop (consonant where air flow is completely stopped)
ZEBRA -> “DEBRA”
give an example of fronting
replace a sound with a sound that is made more towards the front of the mouth
SHIP -> “SIP”
what is the third stage of language development?
TWO-WORD, 18-24 months
examples: more water; doggie bad; daddy sleep
different from idiomatic (unanalysed chunks) expressions such a “night night” or “thank you”
most often nouns (N-N), some nouns + verbs (N-V)
lack of grammatical markers (plural, tense,…)
beginning of syntax
combining words together -> able to express more ideas at the same time
what is the fourth stage of language development?
TELEGRAPHIC, 24 - 30 months
example: you kick ball
~ 3 word expressions
absence of function words (the, a,…), auxiliary verbs (is, are,…), prepositions (in, on, at,…) and tense morphemes (-ed, -ing, -s,…)
mainly nouns, verbs, adjectives
very quick progression
can foetuses hear sounds in the womb?
they can hear impoverished sounds
high frequencies blocked by amniotic fluid -> cant hear individual words but can hear prosody: rhythm, stress, intonation, duration
what contribution do newborns make to communication?
head-turning to noise
is calmed by voice
can discriminate between many sounds
prefers mother’s voice
what contribution does 1-4 month olds make to communication?
smiles, cooing, comfort sounds
laughter at about 4 months
what contribution do 3-9 month olds to communication?
different responses to different intonations (e.g., angry, friendly)
vocal play
babbling: syllable-like sequences
when does intentional communication emerge?
between 8-10 months (linked to cognitive development) between baby caregiver
what contribution do 8-12 month year olds to communication?
interpretable reaction too some words (due to recognition)
showing, giving, pointing
(12 m.o.) recognition of +50 words, production of first words (s)
what is child-directed speech (CDS) / Motherese?
phonological differences: slower, higher in pitch, exaggerated intonation, clearly segmented
shorter and simpler sentences. smaller vocabulary
lots of repetition of words/phrases
more diminutives (kitty, horsy, doggie…)
especially when talking to girls
possibly helps with acquiring noun morphology
talking to boys: more direct language
does CDS help the contribution of the parent to communication?
CDS can facilitate language learning, but might not be essential for it
- clear turn-taking
- clear eye contact and pointing
- adaptation to child’s age
- marking of word and phrase (syntactic) boundaries
- word order: new words in utterance-final position - helps with word recognition
- fairly universal (but not present in all cultures)
what is the behaviourist account of language acquisition theories?
Skinner
- language is used in response to stimuli
- children learn language through imitation & reinforcement
- new-borns are a blank slate (tabula rasa)
what is the first problem with the behaviourist account?
- poverty of the stimulus: the input is degenerate (full of dysfluencies, mispronunciation, incomplete utterances,…) and insufficient (not enough examples exposed to in order to work out the underlying rules)
what is the second problem with the behaviourist account?
imitation/reinforcement - is not always done/followed. children often use “ungrammatical” language that they never heard before. Parents rarely correct grammar. Truth value rather than well-formedness chiefly governs explicit reinforcement cannot explain these mistakes
what is the nativist/innatist accounts of language acquisition theories?
language capacity is innate (LAD - Language Acquisition Device)
children do not need explicit instruction, don’t rely on imitation & reinforcement
children worldwide learn grammar at approximately the same age -> universal grammar at approximately the same age -> universal grammar
what is the constructivist/cognitive accounts for language acquisition theories?
not only due to genetic predisposition or imitation
language is driven by cognitive development: children first need to develop mentally (e.g., creating schemas) before language development can happen
what is the social account for language acquisition theory?
language has a social origin - focus on social interaction, social learning
adults are very important (“more knowledgeable others”) by modelling and explaining concepts, culture
Bruner: Language Acquisition Socialisation System (LASS)
explain word learning for easy words
short and easy to say
frequent and relevant concepts
include items from different syntactic (e.g., N and V) and semantic categories
what is a type of error in word learning? (o)
overextension: e.g., all animals are called “doggie”
what is a type of error in word learning? (u)
underextension: e.g., only roses are “flowers”
what is an example of low-level learning mechanisms?
classical conditioning - minor role in word learning
what are conceptual prerequisites?
child knows basic ontological categories (objects, properties, events, agents,…)
what are language prerequisites?
child assumes words have meaning
child assumes that mapping is symbolic
child assumes that mapping is consistent across time and speakers
describe whole object predisposition children have
assumes that the word is a label that refers to the whole object rather than its parts
describe shape bias predisposition children have
extend names to objects that are similar in shape rather than similar in colour, texture, function…
starts around 2 years, related to vocabulary development, delayed or lacking in children with atypical language development
describe mutual exclusivity assumptions predisposition children have
an object can only have one label -> assign a novel word to objects they don’t have a label for already
“show me the dax”
describe taxonomic assumptions predisposition children have
assumption that a novel word which refers to one thing will also refer to similar things “dogs” used to refer to a poodle can also be used to refer to a dachshund
can lead to overextensions (“Spot” to refer to the neighbours’ dog and other 4-legged animals)
relationship is taxonomically rather than thematically
“dog” used for different types of dog, but not for a dog bone
describe basic level category assumption predisposition children have
assume that a novel word refers to the basic level (DOG) rather than the superordinate (ANIMAL) or subordinate (POODLE) level
describe noun-category bias predisposition children have
nouns are easier and quicker to learn than other syntactic categories (adjectives, verbs) because they are conceptually easier
nouns refer to (initially mainly concrete) objects, verbs to actions/events/relations
while verbs are universally difficult to learn, there are differences across languages
what are the 3 stages of morphological development?
- holophrastic
- rule-based
- rules & exceptions
what is the holophrastic stage?
right answer for the wrong reason
feet, went, spoke
what is the rule-based stage?
wrong answer for the right reason
overgeneralisation of a rule
foots, goed, speaked
what is the rules & expectations stage?
right answer for the right reason
feet, went, spoke
what is the critical age hypothesis?
certain types of behaviour need to develop within a critical, sensitive period for it to develop normally
many songbirds display hemispheric specialisation in that only one hemisphere controls singing
young birds sing a basic version of its song before acquiring its dialect version
if isolated from other birds during a critical period, the bird will never be able to learn a dialect
what did Chomsky believe language acquisition is guided by?
an innate device called the LAD or Universal Grammar (UG)
what is LAD?
provides the rules and principles that allow a child to learn any language in the world
input is needed, but only to ‘trigger’ the operation of the language acquisition device
tightly constrains what structures are acceptable (grammatical)
what is universal grammar?
UG has a limited number of principles common to all languages
defines the range of possible human languages
e.g. all languages have a subject even if not expressed
provides a limited range of options or parameters (“switches”) which can be set and explains why there is variation amongst languages
the child determines which parameter is appropriate
how would we measure syntactic development?
MLU = “Mean Length of Utterance)
standardised assessment of a child’s syntactic and phonological development at a specific point in time
more useful than age
based on a large sample of speech per child
in english, MLU = the mean number of morphemes rather than words
how would we recognise morphemes?
happy (word = 1, syllable = 2, MLU = 1); unhappy (word = 1, syllable = 3, MLU = 2)
he jump (words = 2, MLU = 2)
he jumps (words = 2, MLU = 3)
do children use semantic context?
children do not use semantic context: “on the napkin” is always interpreted as destination (at least for somewhat difficult ambiguous constructions tested here)
children’s preference might be based on the frequency of the ‘put x on y’ constructions, with y being the destination
how does the national assessment of educational progress define reading?
reading is an active and complex process that involves understanding written text; developing and interpreting meaning; using meaning as appropriate to type of text, purpose, and situation
what is phonemic awareness?
children’s knowledge of the internal sound structure of spoken words
very good predictor for how quickly one learns to read
task: do cat and mat rhyme?
what are phonics?
to teach children the relationship between the letters of the written language and the sounds of the spoken language
goal: help the children learn the alphabetic principle
a limited set of sounds builds a large set of words
what is fluency?
ability to read a text accurately and quickly
repetition helps
advantage: less concentration needed for decoding words, more attention for the meaning of the text
what is vocabulary?
vocabulary is related to overall achievement
can learn new vocabulary directly (explicit instruction) and/or indirectly (e.g., overhearing adult conversation, reading on their own of more advanced texts,…)
what is text comprehension?
ultimate aim of reading
good readers think actively while reading
text comprehension can be improved by specific comprehension strategies
e.g. children can adjust reading seed according to text difficulty
what is the simple view formula?
word recognition ( the ability to transform print into spoken language) multiplied by language comprehension
(the ability to understand spoken language) = reading comprehension
summarise this lecture
4 main stages in language development (universal)
phonology: can distinguish and produce sounds occurring in many different languages, then narrowing to own language
both the parent (e.g., CDS) and then infant contribute to language development
word learning based on predispositions (e.g. shape bias)
different theories explaining language development, from in-born capacity to social and general–purpose mechanisms
measuring tool for typical language development (MLU)
use of pragmatics (likely) delayed in children
