Lecture #6 Flashcards
Aphasia
an acquired language disorder in which there is an impairment of a
language modality
• provide evidence of specialisation for language within the left hemisphere
Receptive (wernicke’s) aphasia
• can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation & stress, but
language content is incorrect
• use the wrong words, insert nonexistent words into speech, or string
normal words together randomly
• retain the ability to sing or to recite something memorized
Expressive (Broca’s) aphasia
- speech & writing difficult to initiate, nonfluent, labored & halting
- intonation & stress patterns are deficient
- language is reduced to disjointed words
- sentence construction is poor, omitting function words & inflections
Recent findings (non- invasive techniques) (brain and language)
the brain shows a consistent organisation for
language across the lifespan
– the left hemisphere shows activity when listening
to speech & the right shows activity when
processing the melody or rhythm of speech
– greater localisation in the left hemisphere in
men’s brains
– band of fibres (arcuate fasciculus) connects
Wernicke’s & Broca’s areas
Main elements of language
Phonology: the organisation of sounds in language
Semantics: the units of meaning in a language
Syntax: the rules for combining words
Pragmatics: the knowledge of how language is used
Prosody: the sound of speech
Phonology
– phonemes: basic speech sounds • English has approx. 41 phonemes • 1st 4 months universal linguists – can distinguish between all the sounds that make up speech
Semantics
– morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of a
language (symbols)
• e.g., antidisestablishmentarianism
• anti/dis/establish/ment/arian/ism
Syntax
– grammar
• specifies how morphemes & phonemes should be combined
• how words should be arranged to form meaningful phrases
& sentences
• much is learned tacitly
– “The crawled barn mouse the under”
– “The mouse crawled under the barn”
Pragmatics
- how to use language
Prosody
– the ‘melody’ of speech
Born with a preparedness for speech
- preference for speech sounds
- preference for mother’s voice
- language development is universal
Vocalisations
at around 6 to 8 weeks, infants begin producing
drawn out vowel sounds; cooing
– as the repertoire of sounds they can produce
expands, become increasingly aware that their
vocalizations elicit responses from others & begin
to engage in dialogues of reciprocal sounds
• between 4 & 6 months of age, infants begin to babble
– repeat strings of sounds comprising a consonant followed by a
vowel
• a key component of the development of babbling is
receiving feedback about the sounds one is producing
e.g., deaf infants
• as infants’ babbling becomes more varied, it conforms
more to the sounds, rhythm & intonation patterns of the
language they hear daily
7 ½ months: word segmentation • 8 months babble with an accent • comprehension proceeds production – at about 10 mths can comprehend, but not produce, approx. 50 words • How? – joint attention & syntax
Word Production
most infants produce their 1st words between 10-15 months
– 1st words typically include names for people, objects &
events from everyday life
• period of one-word utterances
– holophrases: because the child typically expresses a “whole phrase”
with a single word
Language achievement
experience a vocabulary
spurt at 18/19 months
- begin to produce simple
sentences at around 24
months - great variability in when
different children
achieve these milestones
How do children learn so quickly?
– with cognitive development comes a range of
improvements
• categorisation
• memory
• imitation
• perspective taking
• pronunciation
– fast mapping: the ability to connect a word with
its underlying concept after brief experience
Overextension
use a given word in a broader
context than is appropriate
Under extension
use a given word in a narrower
context than is appropriate
Creating Sentences
most children begin to combine words into simple
sentences by their 2nd year
2-word utterances; telegraphic speech
◦ word order is preserved in early sentences,
indicating understanding of syntax (functional grammar)
children are capable of producing
3 or 4-word sentences, at approx. 2½
years of age; the relationships between
words become more noticeable
• 2 – 5 yrs children experience an increase in the
number & types of sentences they use
Creating sentences- mastering new rules- over- regulation errors
speech errors in which children
treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
Idioms
words or phrases that bear no logical relation to normal
syntax or semantics
– children must learn them as exceptions
Development of pragmatics and prosody
- early childhood
- use of intonation & gestures
- demonstrate listening cues
- typically self-directed
- from about 3 years, become more socially oriented
- collective monologue
- use of intonation continues to improve
- conversational turn taking develops
• metalinguistic awareness: middle childhood, enhanced
knowledge of language as a system
Creating sentences - adulthood
• continued refinement of language abilities
through adolescence
• adults
– hold onto their knowledge of phonology & syntax
– semantics often expands (at least until our 70’s or
80’s)
– enhanced pragmatics
• dependent on sensory & cognitive functioning; memory – ‘tip-of-the tongue’
experience (retrieval)
Language acquisition
• Biology & heredity
– humans have a unique biological capacity to learn
- Chomsky (2000)
- the universal & species-specific nature of language
• LanguageAcquisition Device (LAD)
• specialised brain structures & mechanisms that
facilitate the rapid acquisition of language
• universal grammar: a system of common rules &
properties for learning any of the world’s languages
• Environment & Learning
– imitation & reinforcement
– not sufficient
• Social Interactionist Perspective
– language develops in the context of social
exchanges
– as adults converse with young children they create
a supportive learning environment; zone of
proximal development or scaffolding
Child directed speech
the distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt
when talking to babies & very young children
Interactionist approach
– biologically based competencies & the language
environment shape the course of language
development
– language acquisition occurs in the context of the
maturation of other cognitive abilities (e.g., the
capacity for symbolic thought)
