Lecture 8 - Language and Development Flashcards
1
Q
What is language?
A
systems for representing thoughts, feelings, knowledge and communicating them to others
creative and flexible use of symbols is what sets humans apart form other animals
2
Q
What age can children speak as well as uni 1st year
A
5…but not quite at adult like competence
3
Q
mastering a language consists of two components
A
- language comprehension
- language production
4
Q
Components of language (5)
A
phonemes morphemes syntax semantics pragmatics
5
Q
phoneme
A
smallest unit of sound - rake and lake differ by just one phoneme (rrr and lll)
6
Q
morpheme
A
smallest unit of meaning (happy)
7
Q
syntax
A
rules governing word order and resulting meaning (man bites dog vs dog bites man). govern how words from different categories e.g verbs and nouns can be combined
8
Q
semantics
A
the meanings of words and sentences
9
Q
generativity
A
the idea that through the finite number of words we know we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas
10
Q
the first stage in a babies language learning is
A
Phonological development - the mastery of the sound system of their language (which letters can go together)
11
Q
full fledged language is only achieved by ____ if _____
A
Humans and only if they have experience with other humans.
Chimpanzees can be taught to sign but lack proper syntax
12
Q
Which hemisphere shows specialisation for language?
A
left - and specialisation increases with age
13
Q
Damage to which are of the brain causes difficulties with producing speech
A
broca’s - near the motor cortex
14
Q
Damage to which are of the brain causes difficulties with meaning
A
wernicke’s - near the auditory cortex
15
Q
What is associated with damage to Wernicke’s area
A
Difficulties with meaning
16
Q
What is associated with damage to broca’s area?
A
Difficulties producing speech
17
Q
Adults use Infant directed speech (IDS) when talking to children. What is different?
A
- Warm and affectionate tone
- high pitch
- slower
- extreme intonation
- more expressive/expressions
- kiddies prefer it to ADS
18
Q
What happens between age 5 and puberty with regard to language?
A
As shown by genie the feral child language acquisition can become much more difficult
19
Q
Genie
A
- born 1957
- severe child abuse, discovered age 13
- very malnourished, little stimulation
- never acquired language
- gestures and drawings only
- some vocab, no syntax
20
Q
critical language theory support:
A
- kiddywinks that suffer brain damage are much more likely to recover language abilities than adults, presumably coz other areas of the brain can take over (johnson 1998)
- work also done in bilinguals
21
Q
johnson 1998
A
kids recover after language impairment and adults don’t
22
Q
bilingual learning 2nd language from different ages grammar test results
A
3-7 same as native, after this begins to decline and decline
(johnson and newport 1989)
23
Q
johnson and newport 1989
A
bilingual learning 2nd language from different ages grammar test results
24
Q
phonological development is
A
the aquisition of knowledge about phonemes
25
semantic development
learning the system for expressing meaning in a language, starting with learning morphemes
26
syntactic development
learning the syntax or rules for combining words - learning how to organise words to express specific meanings
27
Pragamatic development
aquiring knowledge of how language is used, including understanding a variety of conversational conventions
e.g in some places its very rude to address a stranger or use informal 'you'
28
metalinguistic knowledge
an understanding of the properties and functions of language - e.g. adults know when they here a foreign language that it is a language made up of words etc
29
how is sign language learnt?
very similarly to vocal language
30
Prosody
the characteristic rhythm tempo cadence melody and intonational patterns within a language - fetuses respond to this
31
Beyond prosody what does speech perception consist of
distinguishing between speech sounds (phonemes)
32
Categorical speech perception
- both adults and infants perceive sounds as belonging to discrete categories
- with ba and pa as the vot is gradually lengthened adults don't hear a gradual chnage they have a cut of point at whic it becomes ba or pa - discontinuous categories
33
true or false: only infants posses categorical speech perception
false, adults and infants
34
true or false: only adults posses categorical speech perception
false, adults and infants
35
VOT
voice onset time - the time it takes between air passing through the lips and the vocal chords vibrating (b and p are formed in the same way but have different VOT's)
36
the time it takes between air passing through the lips and the vocal chords vibrating
VOT voice onset time
37
difference in categorisation of speech sounds in adults and babies
babies distinguish more sounds e.g. japanese babies distinguish r and l but lose this ability at around 10-12 months
38
phonemic distinction experiment
eimas et al 1971
39
eimas et al 1971
phonemic distinction experiment
40
How old are infants when they start producing sounds
6-8 weeks when producing vowel sounds and become aware that their vocalisation elicits responses from others
41
what happens at around 6-8 weeks
infants start making vowel sounds or vowel consonant sounds
42
at 6 to 10 months
babies begin babbling - they're babbling becomes more refined and starts to take on sounds and intonation of their native language - this includes silent babbling for babies with deaf parents
43
what age does babbling begin
6-10 months
44
who did experiments on silent babbling?
petitto and marentette 1991
45
petitto and marentette 1991
silent babbling
46
concepts infants are exposed to that prepare them for speech:
- Turn taking
- Intersubjectivity (sharing of common focus of attention)
- Joint attention (established when the baby and the parent are looking at the same thing)
- Pointing (helps establish joint attention or direct another attention there)
47
by 5 months
infants can pick their own name out of background conversation
48
at 7- 8 months
infants can recognise new words and and remember them for weeks
49
problem of reference
the associating of words with meaning. once they recognise recurrent units from speech
50
what age are infants associating highly familiar words?
6 months
51
US children have a vocab of how many words at how many months
10 months
| 11-154 words
52
what age do most infants produce their first words?
| -typically include....
10-15 months
| ...names, objects, events from everyday life
53
holophrastic period
the period of one word utterances when a child expresses whole phrases with one word such as 'up' or 'juice'
54
the time of one word utterances when a child expresses whole phrases with one word such as 'up' or 'juice'
holophrastic period
55
overextension
when what children want to express outstrips their vocabulary e.g. using 'dog' for any 4 legged animal
56
when what children want to express outstrips their vocabulary e.g. using 'dog' for any 4 legged animal
Overextension
57
On average children say their first word at
13 months (though much variability)
58
on average children have a vocab spurt at
19 months (though much variability)
59
on average children form their first sentences at
24 months (though much variability)
60
Adult influences on word learning:
- quantity of talk, repetition
- place stress on the objects name
- name the object as the last word of the sentence
- name objects that are already the focus of attention to reduce confusion
- playing naming games e.g. wheres you're tummy
61
Childrens contribution to word learning:
```
fast mapping
whole object assumption
mutual exclusivity
pragamatic cues
-social context
-intentionality
linguistic context
```
62
fast mapping
'the process of learning a new word through the contrastive use of a familiar and unfamiliar word' get me the chromium tray,
well theres a blue tray and a mystery colour tray so that must be chromium
63
whole object assumption
children assume a new word refers to a novel object rather than a part of that object or action of it
e.g. will assume bunny refers to the animal not the tail or the nose twitching
64
mutual exclusivity
if they see an object they know and one they don't and are presented with a word they don't know they will assume the unknown word refers to the unknown object because how could an object be two things? (but could be e.g. chair/furniture)
65
pragmatic cues
- learning words from context e.g. what an adult is looking at when they say the name
- if the adult says they are going to dax the doll and then performs one 'accidental' action and one 'purposeful' action the child will thin purposeful = dax
66
linguistic context
children use the words place in the sentence to figure out what they mean
using grammatical context of a word:
this is a dax - refers ti the object
this is a dax one - refers to the colour -- tend to have a shape bias over colour or material
grammatical structure of whole sentence:
-syntactic bootstrapping
67
syntactic bootstrapping
children use the grammatical structure of a sentence to infer the meaning
2-year olds hear an adult describe the scene as “The duck is kradding the rabbit,” or “the duck and the rabbit are kradding”.
68
telegraphic speech
two word sentences missing non essential elements e.g. read me
69
at around 2.5 years....
children producing 4 word sentences start using more than one clause e.g. i'll do that when we get home
70
when do children start using more than one clause
2.5 years
71
evidence that children understand grammar
- word endings
| - overregularisation
72
overregularisation
applying regular grammar rules to irregular concepts
| e.g. my foots/feets growed/grewed
73
how do children learn - nativist view:
- chomsky claims that humansare born with an innate lingustic knowledge
- a set of highly abstract, unconscious rules common to all languages
- believe there is a specific language 'module'in the brain
74
modularity hypothesis
-the brain contains an innate self-contained language module that is separate from other aspects of cognitive functioning
75
Evidence for the nativist view on learning language:
- deaf children imposed grammatical rules similar to the norms into their sign language with no adult influence-utterances are not generally corrected grammatically, more for factuality
- children won't hear every structure of their target language (generativity)
- universals and species specific nature of language
76
critiques of the nativist view:
- the idea of universal grammar
| - focuses on syntax and ignore communicative role of language
77
how do children learn - interactionist view:
-virtually everything about language is influenced by its communicative function
-children are motivated to communicate their wants/desires/goals
-babbling rate is influenced by parental reinforcement
-knowledge of the formal properties of language (that chomsky thought where innate) are learned through interacting with other people
-
78
evidence for the interactionist view
- remarkable sensitivity of young children for pragmatic cues
- ability to use even quite subtle aspects of social context to interpret utterances
79
Evidence for the nativist view on learning language:
- deaf children imposed grammatical rules similar to the norms into their sign language with no adult influence-utterances are not generally corrected grammatically, more for factuality
- children won't hear every structure of their target language (generativity)
- universals and species specific nature of language
80
critiques of the nativist view:
- the idea of universal grammar
| - focuses on syntax and ignore communicative role of language
81
how do children learn - interactionist view:
-virtually everything about language is influenced by its communicative function
-children are motivated to communicate their wants/desires/goals
-babbling rate is influenced by parental reinforcement
-knowledge of the formal properties of language (that chomsky thought where innate) are learned through interacting with other people
-
82
evidence for the interactionist view
- remarkable sensitivity of young children for pragmatic cues
- ability to use even quite subtle aspects of social context to interpret utterances
- children just as readily accept gestures and signs as labels for objects as words
83
evidence agaisnt
- even after diligent concentration to a language could never reveal its complex grammatical principles
- criticised for ignoring syntactic development
