Vocabulary Ch 8

Question 1

Innate

Answer 1

Determined by factors present from birth.

Question 2

Innateness Hypothesis

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Imitation Theory

Answer 3

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

Question 5

Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

Answer 5

Theory of child language which says that children acquiring language by inventing rules of grammar based on speech around them.

Question 6

Social Interaction Theory

Answer 6

Theory of language acquisition. The claims that children acquire language their social interaction-in particular was older children and adults-and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need.

Question 7

Linguistic universal

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Universal grammar

Answer 8

The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of the set of shared characteristics.

Question 9

Homesign

Answer 9

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 the communication.

Question 10

Connectionist Theory

Answer 10

Theory of language acquisition, which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develop such connections through exposure to language and by using language.

Question 11

Rule

Answer 11

A formal statement of an observed generalization about patterns in language.

Question 12

Child-directed speech

Answer 12

Speech used by parents or caregivers in 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.

Question 13

High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)

Answer 13

Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination and infants from birth to about 6 months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants’ sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities.

Question 14

Condition Head-Turn Procedure (HT)

Answer 14

Experimental technique usually used with infants between 5 and 18 months, with two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditioning phase, the infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers, the 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 perceive the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.

Question 15

Voice onset time (VOT)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Articulatory gesture

Answer 16

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the vellum for the production of a nasal consonant.

Question 17

Babbling

Answer 17

A phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of 6 months.

Question 18

Canonical babbling

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Variegated babbling

Answer 19

Production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants.

Question 20

Holophrase

Answer 20

A one-word sentence.

Question 21

One-word stage

Answer 21

Stage in first language acquisition. During which children can produce only one word at a time. (Also called the holophrastic stage.)

Question 22

Two-word stage

Answer 22

Stage in first language acquisition at which children produce two-word utterances. In addition to one-word utterances.

Question 23

Telegraphic stage

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Overgeneralization

Answer 24

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 context beyond those in the adult language.

Question 25

Complexive concept

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

Overextension

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Underextension

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Relative intersection

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Deictic expression

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Attention getter

Answer 30

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 31

Attention holder

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Conversational turn

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Bilingual

Answer 33

State of commanding to languages; having linguistic confidence in 2 languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between only one language pair.

Question 34

Multilingual

Answer 34

The state of commanding 3 or more languages; having linguistic competence in 3 or more languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between more than 2 languages.

Question 35

Simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 35

Bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy.

Question 36

Sequential bilingualism

Answer 36

Bilingualism in which the 2nd language is acquired as a young child.

Question 37

Second-language (L2) acquisition

Answer 37

Acquisition of a second language. As a teenager or adult (after the critical period).

Question 38

Code-switching

Answer 38

Using words are structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation (or even within a single sentence or phrase).

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 speakers non-native language usage becomes fixed (generally in a way that would be considered ungrammatical by a native speaker) and do not change, even after years of instruction.