Week 8, Chapter 9 Flashcards
What are the 3 properties of language?
Social tool, rule governed, generative system
What is the name of all important sounds, rules for combining them and the stress and intonation patterns that accompany them?
Phonology
What is the smallest unit of sound called and what does it consist of?
Phoneme; distinguishes words from each other, no meaning (t vs d in ten vs. den)
What is the system of rules governing the meaning or content of words and word combinations called?
Semantics
What is the smallest unit of meaning called and what is an example?
Morpheme; dogs = dog + s
What is a declarative sentence, simple sentence, subject and verb, verb phrase, adjective phrase, prepositional phrase and what is an example of all these in a sentence?
Statement, one clause, it, is, is cold in here, cold, in here = it’s cold in here
What are the rules for how to combine words into phrases and sentences and how to transform sentences into other sentences called?
Syntax
What is the basic word order?
Subject - verb - object
What is the correct adjectives order?
Quantity, opinion, size, shape, age, colour, origin, material, purpose
What is the use of language to express one’s intentions and get things done in the world and who is also concerned with the way language is used to communicate, called?
Pragmatics
What is figurative language?
Not literal, means something metaphorically (she spilled the beans)
At what age can infants differentiate between different sounds?
As early as 1 month
What does native listeners vs. universal listeners mean? Who does each apply to?
Tuned into sounds of the language they speak, able to discriminate all speech contrasts globally; adults, young infants
What is this called; innate abilities to be supported by the environment
Phonemic perceptual reorganization
Between what ages can infants differentiate phonemes, and when do they lose this skill?
6-8 months; 10-12 months
What is the difference between trochaic vs. iambic speech and which is more common in nursery rhymes and poetry?
Strong/weak stress pattern - weak/strong stress pattern; trochaic
What age can babies recognize their own name and when can they correctly recognize and identify each parent?
4.5 months, 6 months
How are 8 month old infants able to segment speech stream (4)?
Stress patterns, frequently used words, statistics = infant directed speech
What are statistics in infant directed speech?
Sensitivity to the frequency of co-occurring syllables
What are the first steps of speech, and what are the ages of each (4)?
2 months cooing, 6 months babbling, 8-11 months babbling including intonation, first words 1st birthday
What is the criteria of first words (2)?
Phonetic relationship to adult word, must use word referentially (see object/person)
What is the difference between cooing, babbling, and babbling with intonation?
Vowel-like sounds, speech like sound with no meaning, rising or falling pitch
What is this process called; child learns a new word very quickly, often after only one exposure
Fast mapping
How many words do 15 month old children learn per week?
2-3
What happens to learning new words by 18 months or by 50 words? What is this phenomenon called?
Increase of 8 words per day; naming explosion
What are 2 intentional cues from speaker?
Gaze direction, joint attention
When does gaze direction develop?
6-9 months
What are 3 constraints on word names?
Name refers to a whole object, if object already has a name and another name is presented = subcategory, with many similar category members, a word is applied to one member = proper noun
When do infants begin to attend to syntactic cues to figure out what words mean?
During age 2
What is a class example of sentence cues?
This dog is named daxy
This dog is very daxy
This dog is a daxy
What is this called; when a child applied a word too narrowly, using it only for a specific object instead of the broader category and what issue is this an example of?
Underextension; assimilation
What is this called; when a child applies a word too broadly, using it for things that are similar in some way but are not actually the same category and what issue is this an example of?
Overextension; accommodation
Why do 18 month olds have a wide range in vocabulary (avg. 75)?
Phonological memory, exposure to language rich environment
What is this; vocabularies consist mainly of words that name objects, persons, or actions, and what do children like to use this language as?
Referential style; intellectual tool
What is this; vocabularies include many social phrases that are used as a single word (go-away, I-want-it) and what do children use this as?
Expressive style; social tool
What are 3 facts about bilingual children
1-2 yo infants exposed to 2 languages progress slower but catch up, better developed language skills (example of monolingual children assuming word bus is longer than word bug), better developed other skills (inhibition, working memory)
When do children understand photos are representations of objects?
18 months
Who is a dual representation task a challenge for?
Children under 3
What was the conclusion of the scale model task studies?
When the challenge of dual representation removed, children can perform the task
What is telegraphic speech?
Includes only critical words; want milk?
What are grammatical morphemes?
“ing” in going, “s” in dogs
What is an example of an over-regularization error?
Two womans
What is the behaviourist answer to the question of how children acquire language?
Reinforcement of imitation
What are 4 criticisms to the behaviourist answer to how children acquire grammar?
Children produce novel sentences, children’s speech has own grammar, parents rarely reinforce grammatical correctness, grammatical rules seem too complex to be simply inferred
What is the nativist answer for how children acquire grammar?
Inborn mechanisms for language
What are 5 characteristics of the nativist belief to learning grammar?
Specific regions of brain for different language functions, only humans learn grammar readily, children develop linguistic communication with little to no formal input, critical period for learning language, development of vocabulary closely related, suggesting both part of a common system
What is the cognitive answer to how children acquire grammar?
Some researchers believe that powerful cognitive skills can account for language learning; grammar may be learned by detecting regularities in the environment and patterns in grammatical structures (word boundaries)
What is the social interaction answer to how children acquire grammar?
Much language learning takes place in the context of interactions between children and adults, with both parties eager for better communication
What theory is this; people use symbol to communicate, meaning of symbols created through social interactions, understanding of reality is shaped by these shared meanings
Symbolic interaction theory
What is the relational frame theory (RFT)?
We learn meaning by relating words to each other, not just through direct experience; these relationships based on context and can be flexible
When do children start taking turns?
Spontaneous at 2, by 3 will try to elicit response if listener fails to answer
What are collective monologues and when do they occur?
Early conversation between kids - taking turns but content of each unrelated (dress vs. tunnel conversation); 2-5 years
At what age do children start to adjust their message depending on the listener?
4
What is the difference between irony and sarcasm? When do kids know not to take it seriously vs. when do they understand it?
Not meant to hurt anyone, meant to mock, criticize, or be humorous with a biting/exaggerated tone; 5-6, 9-10
What age do kids understand simple metaphors, and what do complex metaphors require?
5; specialized knowledge
What are 4 characteristics of sign languages and what do they mean?
Arbitrary units (signs don’t have to be iconic), structured and meaningful (grammatical rules followed), displacement (can be used to discuss events displaced in time), generativity (can be used to create an infinite number of new utterances)
What is the ASL word order vs. english word order?
Object - subject - verb; subject - verb - object
What are 4 facts about signed languages?
Develop the same as spoken language, has a critical learning period, seem to be acquired earlier than spoken language, many hearing families use baby sign
What are people who live in Canada and who speak a language other than french or english called?
Allophones
What is the semantic bootstrapping theory?
Children born knowing nouns usually prefer to people or objects that verbs are actions and they use this knowledge to infer grammatical rules
To promote language development in kids, what should adults do (5)?
Talk with them frequently and treat them as partners in conversation, use child’s speech to show new language forms (remark to introduce new vocab or vocab forms, rephrase ungrammatical remark), encourage children to go beyond minimal use of language (no single words, use descriptive words), listen (don’t complete sentences, respond appropriately), make language fun (books, rhymes, songs)
