Normal Language Development Flashcards
What is language?
Language is the comprehension and/or use of a spoken, written, other communication symbol system.
Language is a code whereby ideas about the world are expressed through a conventional system of arbitrary signals for communication.
Language is used to communicate
- Prime means of intentional communication
- Speech is the most common
- Language takes into account environmental factors
- Allows flexibility with communication
According to Lahey, language expresses ideas. How?
- Language expresses the individual’s beliefs and desires
- Perception plays a big role
Language is a code. What is a code?
- A code is means of representing one thing by another
- Language is a means of representation
- Many things can represent an object, event or relationship
There are two things happening in relation to language as a code. It is encoding and decoding. What is encoding?
This is the act of recalling and combining the unit of the code to represent information in a message.
Ex. Arranging words in a sentence to communicate
What is decoding?
The act of recognising and segmenting the unit of a code to extract information from a message
The code is a _________ (following specific rules at word and sentence level)
The code is a system, because language is systematic. It follows specific rules at word and sentence level.
The code is a _________ (shared knowledge)
Convention. The speakers in a language community agree on such matters.
Social reasons > logical/empirical. So language is shared knowledge.
What are the components of language?
Content, form, use
What is language content? Compared to topics it is?
- Linguistic expression of what we have in mind.
- Comes from our memories and experiences
- Consists of topics but broader than topics
- Categorizes them into general meanings
- General, depersonalized, independent of particular context. General (e.g., food items). Changes with development.
Example: Mommy’s coat. What is the content?
Possession
Example: Eating ramen
Action
Topic: Red ball
Attribution
What are the primary categories of content?
Object knowledge, relationship between objects, relationship between events
What is object knowledge? What are its 2 subdivisions?
- Information about an object.
- Particular objects (proper nouns) (e.g., Alea)
- Classes of objects (common nouns) (e.g., SLP, mice,)
What subdivisions and their content categories are under object relations?
- Reflexive- relationship with itself
- Existence, non-existence, recurrence (e.g., more cookie) - Intraclass- how are they different from one another
- Quantity, attribution (e.g., red dog, blue dog) - Interclass- objects from diff classes which are related to each other. Two different things are linked by something
- Action, possession (e.g., mommy coat–they have a possessive relationship with each other)
What content categories are under event relations? What is event relations?
- Describe how two events interact with each other.
- This could be because two events of the cause and effect relationship, or pertain the mood of the speaker towards the event, etc.,
- Time/Temporal, causality, state, epistemic
What is the language form?
The shape or sound of the units, and combination in a message
What are the three broad categories under language form?
Phonology, morphology, syntax
What is phonology?
The shape or sound of the units and combination in a message
What are the two main areas under phonology?
Segmental features
Suprasegmental features
What is a segmental feature?
Phonemes, syllable (e.g., /p/ - phoneme, /ba/ - syllable)
What are suprasegmental features?
Intonation, stress, pause
What is morphology? What are morphemes?
- It is the study of the internal structure of words and parts
- Morpheme is the smallest segment of speech that carries meaning