Language Development Lecture Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering language acquisition, development theories, neurological foundations, social skills, and phonological milestones from Weeks 1 through 4.

Language

A conventional system based on the use of words, sounds, signs, or written symbols according to a complex system of rules for communication or self-expression, comprising phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Speech

The acoustic manifestation of language.

Wild Children Approach (500 BC - 1876 AD)

Historical approach to language origin, such as Pharaoh Psamtik placing two babies in isolation with goats, finding their first words were Phrygian, as well as cases like Victor of Aveyron and Genie.

Baby Biographies (1602)

An approach using daily observations by researchers, scientists, and philosophers on the development of their own children to describe typical development.

Normative Studies (WW1 - 1950s)

Large-scale normative sampling used to measure and catalog observable behaviors in normal child development without providing an explanation.

Linguistic Analysis (1957)

An approach introduced by N. Chomsky focusing on grammar and rules to explain the properties and processes of child language development as a test case for universal language properties.

Empiricism

The view that reason comes from experience, language development is a cultural phenomenon, and language is learned by imitating parents.

Nativism

The view that reason comes from innate structures that interpret experience, making language development a result of biological maturation.

Interactionism

An approach recognizing the contributions of both innate structure and experience, where the child is actively involved in the language acquisition process.

Syntactic Bootstrapping

A bootstrap operation in which children learn word meanings by recognizing parts of speech.

Semantic Bootstrapping

A bootstrap operation in which children learn grammatical structure by recognizing the meaning elements of words.

Generativism

Theory stating language is rule-based, humans possess an innate universal grammatical structure, and language experiences trigger innate knowledge setting language-specific parameters.

Social Interactionism

Theory stating language is a social phenomenon acquired because children have a necessity to communicate.

Usage-Based Theory

Theory stating language is a set of formulas that construct utterances across categories, emerging from the child's environment through use in social situations.

Connectionism

Theory stating language is a system of patterns among smaller elements of sound or meaning, connected by the child through repeated exposure.

Behaviorism (Language)

Theory stating language is a function of positive reinforcement.

Reflexive Characteristic

A unique language characteristic meaning language is intentional and not stimulus bound, where a goal in the mind of the speaker is interpreted by the listener.

Arbitrary Reference

A characteristic where words act as symbols standing for things without having any intrinsic relation to the items they represent.

Syntax

A productive system for combining symbols based on structural dependence on categories rather than linear ordering.

Pidgin

A communication system with no native speakers that arises when people lack a common language, characterized by lexical borrowings and minimal grammatical forms.

Creole

A language created when children are born into a community where a pidgin is the primary communication method and acquire it as their native language.

Modularity Theory

Theory stating language is an evolved adaptation and module with special-purpose abilities where children acquire linguistic rules.

Nonmodularity Theory

Theory stating language stems from general cognitive abilities and that children use statistical learning to extract regularities rather than rules.

Functional Asymmetry

Dominance of the left hemisphere for most people, involving expressive language (Broca's), receptive language (Wernicke's), morphology, syntax, routines, and temporal processing.

Invariance Hypothesis

The view that the left hemisphere is designated as the language hemisphere from the start and lateralization does not mature over time.

Equipotentiality Hypothesis

The view that the degree of brain lateralization for language increases with age.

Plasticity

The brain's capacity to modify, change, and adapt both its structure and function, which is observed more in children than in adults.

Critical Period Hypothesis

A biologically determined timeframe during which language acquisition must occur to be successful.

Joint Attention

The social cognitive capacity where a child relates to another person regarding an object, directly supporting language acquisition.

Intention Reading

The social foundation skill of understanding that other individuals possess communicative intentions.

Phonological Memory

The cognitive capacity to remember newly encountered sound sequences.

Statistical Learning

The process of finding patterns in speech through exposure to regularities in input.

Infant-Directed Speech

A speech style characterized by exaggerated and basic elements that make speech more informative to infants.

Phoneme

The mental representation of an individual sound that exists only in the mind.

Phone

The physical production or sound of a phoneme.

Allophone

The various physical manifestations of a phone that do not alter word meaning.

Basic Biological Noises

A developmental milestone at birth where infants make vegetative noises like burping, grunting, sighing, and sucking.

Cooing and Laughing

A milestone occurring at 6-8 weeks featuring early vowel-like sounds elicited by social interaction.

Vocal Play

A milestone occurring at 16-30 weeks characterized by sound practice and longer sound sequences.

Reduplicated Babbling

A milestone occurring at 24-26 weeks involving true CVCV syllable repetitions.

Non-reduplicated Babbling

A milestone occurring at 44-52 weeks featuring varying CVCV combinations, prosodic variation, and jargon.

Protowords

Transitional word forms occurring around 48-52 weeks that link babbling and first true words, such as saying 'yumyum' for spaghetti.

Pre-representational Phonology

Phonological stage characterized by producing syllable and word 'chunks' and phonological idioms rather than linked individual phonemes.

Representational Phonology

Phonological stage (18 months - 3 years) where phonemes replace chunks and systematic phonological processes emerge.

Unstressed Syllable Deletion

A phonological process where an unstressed syllable is dropped from a word, such as changing 'tomato' to 'mato'.

Final Consonant Deletion

A phonological process where the final consonant sound of a word is deleted, such as changing 'duck' to 'duh'.

Consonant Cluster Reduction

A phonological process where a cluster of consonants is reduced to a simpler form, such as changing 'blue' to 'boo' or 'stop' to 'top'.

Fronting

A phonological process where back-of-the-mouth sounds are replaced with front-of-the-mouth sounds, such as changing 'gas' to 'tas'.

Gliding

A phonological process where liquid sounds are substituted with glides, such as changing 'rabbit' to 'wabbit'.