Module 9 Vocabulary & Terms

Question 1

innate

Answer 1

Determined by factors present from birth.

Question 2

innateness hypothesis

Answer 2

A hypothesis that humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language.

Question 3

imitation theory

Answer 3

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.

Question 4

reinforcement theory

Answer 4

Theory of language acquisition that says children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when the use the wrong ones .

Question 5

active construction of a grammar theory

Answer 5

Theory of language acquisition that chilled acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

Question 6

connectionist theory

Answer 6

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neutral connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language.

Question 7

social interaction theory

Answer 7

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 appropriate language experience they need.

Question 8

linguistic universals

Answer 8

Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.

Question 9

high amplitude sucking

Answer 9

Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and the infants’ sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities.

Question 10

conditioned head turn procedure

Answer 10

Experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months within two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditioning phase, the infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation go visual reinforcers, first presented at the same time and then in succession, such that the infant begins to anticipate the appearance of the visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. During the testing phase, when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, it suggests that the infant has perceived the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.

Question 11

voice onset time

Answer 11

The length go time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.

Question 12

articulacy gestures

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

babble

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

canonical babbling

Answer 14

The continuous repetition pf sequences of vowels and consonants like [mamama] by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 15

variegated babbling

Answer 15

Production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants.

Question 16

holophrasis stage

Answer 16

Stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce one word at a time.

Question 17

telegraphic

Answer 17

A phase during children language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.

Question 18

overgeneralization

Answer 18

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules and relative to certain contexts: a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult language.

Question 19

complexive concept

Answer 19

A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.

Question 20

overextension

Answer 20

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of a word meaning; the child’s application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language.

Question 21

homesign

Answer 21

A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication

Question 22

holophrase

Answer 22

one-word sentence

Question 23

interrogatives

Answer 23

A kind of language that expresses a question. In English, interrogative sentences have an auxiliary verb that precedes the subject.

Question 24

underextension

Answer 24

Application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word.

Question 25

relational term

Answer 25

Type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference.

Question 26

deictic expressions

Answer 26

Word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance.

Question 27

infant-directed speech

Answer 27

Speech used by caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high pitched and has many repetitions, simplifies syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple concrete vocabulary.

Question 28

child-directed speech

Answer 28

Speech used by caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high pitched and has many repetitions, simplifies syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple concrete vocabulary.

Question 29

attention getters

Answer 29

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 30

attention holders

Answer 30

A tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time.

Question 31

conversational turns

Answer 31

The contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor to another speaker.

Question 32

bilingual

Answer 32

State of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between only one language pair.

Question 33

multilingual

Answer 33

the state of commanding three or more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between more than two languages.

Question 34

simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 34

Bilingualism in which both languages are acquired atom infancy.

Question 35

sequential bilingualism

Answer 35

Bilingualism in which the second language is acquired as a young child.

Question 36

second-language acquisition

Answer 36

Acquisition of a second language as a teenager to adult.

Question 37

language mixing

Answer 37

Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation.

Question 38

code switching

Answer 38

Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation.

Question 39

foreign accent

Answer 39

An accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the speaker.

Question 40

fossilization

Answer 40

Process through which forms from a speaker’s non-native language using become fixed and do not change, even after years of instruction.