Week Eight - Language

Question 1

What is phonolgy?

Answer 1

The study of sounds in a language

Question 2

What is a phoneme?

Answer 2

the smallest unit of sound in a language (44 in english)

Pronunciation of each phoneme differs according to surrounding phoneme

Question 3

What is morphology?

Answer 3

The study of word structure and meaning

Question 4

What are infections?

Answer 4

The endings of words (ed, ing)

Question 5

What are derivations?

Answer 5

Adding chunks to add meaning (al - international)

Question 6

What is a morpheme?

Answer 6

The smallest unit of meaning (un-break-able) - each is a morpheme

Question 7

What are semantics?

Answer 7

The literal meaning of words and utterances

Question 8

What are pragmatics?

Answer 8

Intended meaning of words and utterances (rules for what we can see) - vary between culture

Question 9

What is grammar?

Answer 9

Rules for combining units of language

Question 10

What is syntax?

Answer 10

Rules for putting words in order

Question 11

What is intonation?

Answer 11

Prosodic contour of sentence (the way you go up and down as you speak)

• emphasise key words to show meaning
• can identify type of word via syllable (words spelt the same)

Question 12

Language is?

Answer 12

An essential part of human being

Mastered very rapidly

Question 13

What age do children start producing language?

Answer 13

12 months

Question 14

Language allows infants to?

Answer 14

Express and learn information

Question 15

Is there a critical/sensitive period for acquiring language?

Answer 15

no syntax ability if never learned language in first few years of life (can learn vocab)

Question 16

Why can children learn a second language easier?

Answer 16

less is more - children limited ability/knowledge makes the task of acquiring language easier (accent is hardest to learn)

Question 17

Theories of language can be either?

Answer 17

Nature or nurture

Question 18

Nature theories?

Answer 18

Nativist

Question 19

Nurture theories?

Answer 19

Behaviourist
Cognitive
Social interactionist
Statistical learning

Question 20

What is the Behaviourist/Imitation theory of language?

Answer 20

Learn language like we do everything else

If you get rewarded - you will learn/do it more

Question 21

What is the Nativist theory of language?

Answer 21

Suggests we are born ready to learn language (brain is preprogrammed)

Not all language is taught yet children acquire all parts

Question 22

What is the cognitive development theory of language?

Answer 22

Language is just another cognitive skill

Question 23

What is the Social/interactionist theory of language?

Answer 23

Language acquisition is facilitated by social cues and interactions (learn in a social context)

Question 24

What is the Statistical theory of language?

Answer 24

Infants learn spoken language seemingly effortless (use recurring patterns and sequences in language to learn categories)

Learned ‘words’ from patterns/sequences in 2 minutes

Question 25

Soon after birth, infants can discriminate?

Answer 25

Mother voice from foreign
Sounds that differ in only one respect
Males and females voice

Question 26

What is babbling?

Answer 26

Closing/opening mouth while phonating (strings of consonant-vowel combinations)

4-8 months

rewarding for baby as parents respond and its fun to hear

Question 27

A babies first word is often?

Answer 27

a noun (often a holophrase)

Question 28

What is the vocabulary spurt?

Answer 28

Sudden rapid acquisition of new words (30-50) age 18-20 mo, continues for years.

Often fast mapping (associating a word with concept after brief exposure)

Question 29

What is child-directed speech?

Answer 29

Language directed at infants by adults

• slow rate
• high frequency
• exaggerated

Question 30

How does CDS help word learning?

Answer 30

attracts attention and maintains interest (high frequency & exaggeration)

Easier to process and focus on important words (slow, simple, repetitive)

Nouns often emphasised (concrete)

Question 31

Cultural differences in CDS?

Answer 31

American: more verbal = better language comprehension & reasoning

Chinese: limited verbal = educational success

Question 32

What does direction language at an infant do?

Answer 32

Directing more language at an infant creates greater social and intellectual competence - increases interaction with parent (more chance to learn)

Question 33

Errors in language acquisition later in life?

Answer 33

overextension/overgeneralisation (single word used to label similar objects)

Underextension (single words used in restrictive way)

Mismatch (word mapped onto wrong concept)

Question 34

What are some innate biases that aid word learning?

Answer 34

1. whole of object bias: assume ir is the word for the whole thing
2. mutual exclusivity bias: the new word must be the thing you don’t already know
3. contextual cues: we saw the baboons at the zoo (must be an animal and be more than one due to plural)

Question 35

Learning grammatical rules is often?

Answer 35

A U shaped curve (begin correctly, overgeneralise, then corrected)

• build on previous knowledge

Question 36

intended meaning in children is?

Answer 36

Often ambiguous but depends on context

Question 37

Until age 3, speech is what and then what is it?

Answer 37

Self-directed and then more socially oriented and directed to others (suit need of listener)

Question 38

What contributes to vocab explosion?

Answer 38

Written language

Question 39

How many words do we know by age 12?

Answer 39

20,000

Question 40

What is metalinguistic awareness?

Answer 40

Ability to think about language as a system (can separate word from its meaning) - develops later as well as metaphors