Module 8 Flashcards
innate
Determined by factors present from birth.
innateness hypothesis
A hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language.
Imitation Theory
Child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.
Reinforcement Theory
Theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones
Active Construction of a Grammar Theory
Theory of child language which says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.
Connectionist Theory
Theory of language acquisition which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language
Social Interaction Theory
Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction–in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need.
linguistic universal
Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.
universal grammar
The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics
critical period
Age span, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language.
neglected child
A child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child.
feral child
Child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals.
homesign
A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language) that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication.
child-directed speech
Speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many Western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high-pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.
voice onset time
The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.
articulatory gesture
A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.
babbling
A phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of six months.
canonical babbling
The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like [mamama] by infants; also called repeated babbling.
variegated babbling
Production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants that are not repetitive
holophrastic stage
Stage in first-language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time. (Also called the one-word stage.)
holophrase
A one-word sentence.
telegraphic stage
A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.
overgeneralization
In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain contexts: a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult language.
complexive concept
A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items (abstract or concrete) that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.
