Language Acquisition and Structure

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, theoretical perspectives, and developmental milestones in language development.

Language

Our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.

Symbolic

A characteristic of language referring to its ability to symbolize the past, present, future, and other places.

Generative

A characteristic of language describing how a limited amount of sounds can be combined to create unlimited messages.

Structured

A characteristic of language where elements build systematically from sounds to words, words to phrases, and phrases to sentences ($\text{sounds} \rightarrow \text{words} \rightarrow \text{phrases} \rightarrow \text{sentences}$).

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive sound unit in language. English has about $40$ phonemes, and young babies can produce all the phonemes of all the world's languages.

Morpheme

The smallest unit in a language that carries meaning; it may be a complete word or part of a word. English has about $100{,}000$ morphemes.

Grammar

The system of rules governing how phonemes, morphemes, and words can be combined to produce meaningful communication.

Overgeneralization

A phenomenon during language acquisition where a child generalizes grammatical rules too broadly (e.g., saying 'I dugged in the sandbox' instead of 'I dug in the sandbox').

Noam Chomsky

A linguist who argued that children have an innate predisposition to learn language, as though their brains are hardwired to acquire vocabulary and grammatical rules.

B.F. Skinner

A psychologist who argued that children learn language through association, imitation, and reinforcement or punishments.

Association

In B.F. Skinner's view of language acquisition, the process of linking specific sounds with particular people.

Babbling

The spontaneous vocalization of speech sounds by infants starting at approximately $4$ months; infants initially babble all phonemes of the world and narrow to their native language around $1$ year of age.

One-Word Stage

The developmental milestone occurring at approximately $12$ months of age in which a child uses a single word to convey an entire thought or idea.

Two-Word Stage

The developmental stage occurring at approximately $24$ months of age characterized by two-word sentences that exhibit an appreciation of grammatical rules.

Complete Sentence Development Stage

The developmental milestone occurring after $24+$ months of age marked by the rapid acquisition and production of full, complete sentences.