Unit 3 - Communication and Language Development

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carried meaning; may be a word or part of a word

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with a understand others

Syntax

determines the rules for combining or arranging words into grammatically sensible sentences

Semantics

set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

Vicarious conditioning

Learning through the observation of others' experiences, such as seeing someone else being rewarded or punished.

Babbling Stage

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-Word Stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1-2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Telegraphic Speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - "go car" - using mostly nouns and verbs

Overgeneralization

using grammar rules without proper use and exceptions