Problem 5: Language

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

Basic units of sounds (phonemes) used to make words

Question 2

Morphology

Answer 2

How words can be formed from sounds

Question 3

Semantics

Answer 3

• Meanings expressed in words and sentences.
• Smallest meaningful units of language are morphemes.
  - Free morphemes can stand alone as words (dog)

Question 4

Semantics

Answer 4

• Meanings expressed in words and sentences.
• Smallest meaningful units of language are morphemes.
  - Free morphemes can stand alone as words,
  (dog)
  - Bound morphemes cannot stand alone but
  change the free morphemes (the “s” in “dogs”).

Question 5

Syntax

Answer 5

How words are to be combined to form sentences/phrases

Question 6

Pragmatics

Answer 6

• The knowledge of how language might be used to communicate effectively.
• Involves sociolinguistic knowledge: culturally specified rules for particular social contexts.

Question 7

Learning perspective of Language Development

Answer 7

• Language is learned, and not biologically determined.
• Adults shape speech by reinforcing and rewarding - infants when making progress.
  Infants learn by imitations (accents too).
• Evaluation:
  
  • Little success accounting for the development of syntax.
    
    • The adults’ approval or disapproval depends on the truth value (semantic) more than the grammatical correctness of the statement (syntax).
• Children adapt the adult sentence to their competence level and not by imitation.

Question 8

The Nativist perspective of Language Development

Answer 8

• Biologically programmed to acquire language.

Chomsky:
- humans equipped with a language acquisition device (LAD)
- Activated by verbal input and contains universal grammar.

Slobin:
- Children have a language-making capacity (LMC) rather than an innate knowledge of the language.
- Cognitive and perceptual ability to learn a language.
- The sensitive period for learning a language (infancy to adolescence)
- Left hemisphere is dominant.
- Broca’s area (speech production and grammar)
- Wernicke’s area (understanding language)

Evaluation:
- Universality is not possible - many languages.
- Other explanations for the aptitude for grammar.
- It takes longer to learn a language.
- There is little about the influence of the social context on the development of language.
- Descriptive and not explanatory.
- No environmental factors.

Question 9

The interactionist perspective

Answer 9

• Combination of nature vs nurture.
• Combines aspects of nativism and behaviorism.
• All babies develop language approximately at the same rate and in the same way.
• Environmental factors:
  
  • Learn through shared activities.
  • Exposure to speech alone is not enough, participating in the conversation is crucial.
  • Learn through child-oriented speech (motherese) - baby voices, emphasis on words, high pitch
  • Expansion: learning of negative evidence (saying something wrong and understanding it).

Question 10

The prelinguistic phase of language

Answer 10

• 0-12 months
• No use of language or words yet - phonology phase.
• First 2 months - cooing.
• 4th-6th month - babbling.
  
  • Repetition = reduplication
  • Combining sounds = canonical babbling
• 6th month - prosody (sensitivity to their own language)
• 7th to 8th month: listening and babbling back
• 8th-10th: proto declarative gestures = person’s attention is drawn to them.
  
  • Joint attention = both adult and child focus on the same thing.
  • Ptoroimperative gestures = babies steer people to do something
• 9th month: a sense of melody and rhythm of speech, preference for listening to sentences.
• 10th-12th: specific babbling for specific situations.
• A child can understand before it can produce language:
  
  • Receptive language = understanding
  • Productive language = producing

Question 11

Holophrase phase of language

Answer 11

• 12-18 months
• Holophrase = one word that has the meaning of a whole sentence.
• Fast mapping
• Common errors in word use:
  
  • Overextension: a word that uses one word for multiple objects (dog used for dogs, cats, cows, etc). It is categorical and sed for perceptually similar objects.
  • Underextension: using one word in a too-limited way (car for dad’s car, and trucks for everything else).
• Processing constraints: cognitive preference that causes a child to favor the interpretation of a word. Strategies:
  
  • Object score constraint: describing a whole object rather than just a part.
  • Lexical contrast constraint: the distinction between subcategories.
  • Taxonomic constraint: objects with the same properties fall under the same category.
  • Mutual exclusivity: each word in a sentence has its own meaning and each object has its own name.
• Semantic bootstrapping: gaining knowledge by looking at the situation/context.
• Synthetic bootstrapping: using a sentence to find out the meaning of the word.
• Nominals: first words (13th month).
  
  • Reference style: words for objects.
  • Expressive style: social words.
    Naming explosion: increase in vocabulary.

Question 12

The telegraphic phase of language

Answer 12

• 18-24 months
• Using two essential words to convey their intentions.
• Intonation improves and differs with different languages.
• Grammatical rules of language are used.
• Aware of the social and situational factors of effective communication.
• Around 200 words.

Question 13

The preschool phase of language

Answer 13

• 25 months to 5 years
• Production of complex sentences.
• Grammar explosion: over-regulation occurs (over-application of general rules)
• Can produce almost all sounds of mother tongue.
• Develop an understanding of contrasts (light and dark)
• Ask questions by using higher intonation.
• 10,000 words by age 6.
• Pragmatic development occurs: adapting the use of language to the environment/context.
  
  • Turnabout: child provokes reactions to what he said.
  • Shading: child changes topics of conversation through minor adjustments.
  • Reference communication skills: skills the child uses to indicate he doesn’t understand something.
  • Illucotionary intent: child understands what is meant without it being said directly.
  • Speech registers: adapt language to the environment.

Question 14

Middle youth/Adolescence phase of language

Answer 14

• 6-14 years
• Better grammar and pragmatics
• Learn to write and read, and approach language from all sides.
• Morphological knowledge: knowledge of morphemes that make up words.
• Understanding skills: metaphors are understood.
• Semantic integration is developed: they can draw conclusions of hidden intentions etc.
• Metalinguistic awareness develops: language is a rule-bound system.

Question 15

Slobin’s grammar rules stages

Answer 15

1. Trying to apply grammar rules but failing to do so.
2. Remembering conjugations of some irregular verbs but not applying them yet.
3. Applying general grammar rules
4. 7-8 years old use and apply grammar rules like adults do. They know when to apply it and when not to.