Week 8 Lecture Flashcards

1
Q

What is phonology?

A

The study of sounds in a language

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2
Q

What are phonemes?

A

The smallest unit of sound in a language

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3
Q

How many phonemes are spoken in English?

A

44

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4
Q

What is the language with the fewest phonemes and how many do they have?

A

Rotokas with 11

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5
Q

What is the language with the most spoken phonemes and how many do they have?

A

Ixuu with 112

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6
Q

Each phoneme’s pronunciation differs according to what? How much infants learn to perceive them as?

A
  1. The surrounding phonemes.

2. Perceive them as the same

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7
Q

What is morphology?

A

The study of work structure/meaning

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8
Q

What is a morpheme?

A

The smallest unit of meaning.

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9
Q

Morphology includes inflections. What kind of things are these?

A

things you stick on the end of word which changes the grammar (not the actual meaning of the word)

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10
Q

Morphology include deviations, what is this?

A

bits you put in the start of end which change the meaning of the word

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11
Q

What is semantics?

A

the literal meaning of words and utterannces

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12
Q

What is pragmatics?

A

Intended meaning of words and utterances, plus “rules” for what you say

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13
Q

What are two pragmatic factors

A
  • varies with culture

- takes time to learn

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14
Q

What is grammar?

A

Rules for combining units of language

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15
Q

What are syntax?

A

rules for putting words in order

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16
Q

What is intonation?

A

prosodic contour of sentence, (emphasising certain words, identifies the types of utterance, can identify the ‘type’ of word)

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17
Q

Does language production gradually increase, or rapidly?

A

rapidly

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18
Q

What age do children usually start producing language?

A

about 12 months

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19
Q

language comprehension begins early, ___ the rate of production.

A

5X

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20
Q

Language allows infants to:

A
  1. express information

2. learn information

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21
Q

What is the evidence for whether there’s a critical period for acquiring language?

A
  1. Evidence for critical period with a first language: “wild children” (never been spoken to).
  2. Evidence with a second language: proficiency increases with earlier age of acquisition beginning
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22
Q

What is one reason reason as to why children might learn languages better than adults?

A

“less is more” (Newport). Children’s limited abilities make the task of language acquisition less daunting

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23
Q

What is one of the earliest theories of language acqusition?

A

behavioural learning - purely nurture with operant and classical conditioning

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24
Q

What is the learning language acquisition theory with Chomsky as its “father”?

A

nativist. commonly held today. Purely to do with nature. Universal grammar.

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25
Q

What is another learning acquisition theory, more Piagetian

A

cognitive development - language same as everything else

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26
Q

What is the most recent theory of language acquisition?

A

So many language patters, maybe we learn by seeing statistical patterns. use regularities in the language input of learn about language

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27
Q

What is the social interactionalist viewpoint of language acquisition?

A

Tomasello leading person, language learn from environment but strongly supported by the social aspects

28
Q

What is the role of classical conditioning in language acquisition?

A

If every time babies get a bottle they hear the word bottle, the word bottle with give babies that unconditioned response.

29
Q

What is the role for imitation and operant conditioning in language acquisition?

A

operant conditioning is extended to more stimuli and more responses as infants develop. babbling = smile and praise

30
Q

What are some arguments FOR the nativist approach to language acquisition?

A
  • adults don’t reward/punish grammar
  • adult speech models are imperfect
  • production come early
  • language is complex but there’s little teaching
31
Q

What are AGAINST FOR the nativist approach to language acquisition?

A

Are adult models really that uninformative?

What about the roles of socialisation?

32
Q

What are some arguments FOR a social interactionist view?

A
  • children learn language in a social context
  • there is feedback, its just usually implicit
  • adult models do help
33
Q

What are some arguments FOR statistical learning?

A
  1. There’s growing evidence of human sensitivity to statistical patterns in the input.
  2. Infants learn spoken language seemingly effortlessly
  3. Can statistical learning explain the rapidity and accuracy of learning
34
Q

Can infants hear sounds in the womb?

A

yes

35
Q

What sound to infants prefer immediately after birth?

A

Their Mother’s voice

36
Q

By 4 days, infants can discriminate between _______language and a _____ language

A

1, Mothers

2. Foreign

37
Q

Soon after birth, infants can discriminate in 2 tings with sound:

A
  1. p and b sounds

2. male and female

38
Q

What age does babbling by phonating occur?

A

4-8 months

39
Q

What does phonating mean?

A

making sounds - infants first voicing

40
Q

What does semantics mean?

A

work meaning

41
Q

What are generally infants first words? Then later, what is this followed by?

A
  1. nouns

2. later, verbs and adjectives

42
Q

Around what age do children have their “vocabulary spurts”?

A

around 18-20 months, they developed around 30-40 words. This continues for years

43
Q

What is “fast mapping”, which children use for learn wording association?

A

learn to associate word with concept after only brief exposure.

44
Q

What is child-directed speech?

A

Language directed at infants by adults and even older children, characterised by

  • slow rate
  • repetitions
  • high frequency
45
Q

What use are the characteristics of child-directed speech?

A

They help with word learning

46
Q

How can high frequency of child directed speech help word learning?

A

exaggerated intotion - attracts attention and maintains interest

47
Q

How does slow rate, simple syntax, repetitive nature of child centred speech help with word learning?

A

Easier to process and focus on most important words

48
Q

What are some characteristics of American infants in child centred speech?

A

more verbal interaction from mothers, better language comprehension and reasoning at age 4

49
Q

What are some characteristics of Chinese infants in child centred speech?

A

limited verbal interaction from mothers, but show education success

50
Q

What are some characteristics of Kaluli and Samoan infants in child centred speech?

A

Parents and siblings don’t tend to talk to them until they begin to crawl

51
Q

What is the value of speaking to infants?

A

Greater social and intellectual competence in infant.

52
Q

What is overextension in childhood language?

A

Single word used to label similar objects

53
Q

What is under-extension in childhood language?

A

single work used in a highly restrictive way

54
Q

What is mismatch in childhood language?

A

Word mapped onto wrong concept

55
Q

What are the 3 main errors in semantics improving in childhood language acquisition?
What happens to these types of errors as children’s understanding of word meaning grows?

A
  1. overextension, under-extension and mismatch

2. decreases

56
Q

What are some potential things which people say are innate biases to help with word learning?

A
  1. whole object bias (zebra)
  2. mutual exclusivity bias (plates)
  3. contextual cues:both semantic and syntactic
57
Q

What is telegraphic speech?

A

The two word utterances that infants often first learn to say

58
Q

What are pragmatics?

A

When, how, and where to use appropriate form of language. Takes some years to understand.

59
Q

Speech is fairly self directed up to what age?

A

Age 3

60
Q

From age 3, speech becomes more (2)

A
  1. socially oriented

2. More often directed at others

61
Q

By what age do children adjust speech to suit the needs of their listener?

A

4 years

62
Q

How can we examine comprehension modeling occuring?

A

during early school years, pragmatic listening skills also improve

63
Q

Once children get into their “double digits”, what happens with language? (4)

A
  1. pronunciation and fluency well developed
  2. Experience with written language greatly contributes to vocabulary expansion
  3. syntax knowledge improves: passive construction understood
  4. semantic ability appreciated, leads to jokes
64
Q

How many words does lexicon expand to by age 12?

A

approx. 20,000 words

65
Q

How many words approximately do native English speakers have in their vocabulary?

A

About 20,000 to 35,000 words

66
Q

Why might the study in vocabulary development in adults be overly inflated?

A

Because the sample comprises of people who self select to take the vocabulary test on the internet