CHILD LANGUAGE EXAM 1

What are the 5 main components of language?

1. Phonology

2. Morphology

3. Syntax

4. Semantics

5. Pragmantics

What is phonology?

1. the rules of speech sounds, including how phonemes are used and the structure of sounds in language

What is morphology?

1. the rules of word structure, including how morphemes (smallest units of meaning) are used, such as grammatical inflections

What does syntax refer to?

The rules governing sentence structure and how words are combined to form sentences

What is semantics?

the study of word meaning and how meaning is conveyed through language

What does pragmatics involve?

1. the social rules of language use, including context, irony, sarcasm, and how language varies in different social settings 

What is the behaviorist approach to language learning?

approach that views language as a behavior learned through operant conditioning, reinforcement, and stimuli-response associations

What are the key concepts of the behaviorist perspective?

1. classical conditioning, operant conditioning, reinforcement, shaping behavior, and stimulus-response associations

What is a major critique of the behaviorist view?

1. it overemphasizes external stimuli and reinforcement, neglecting internal mental processes like grammar, syntax, and abstract reasoning 

What is the generative / nativist approach (chomskyan)?:

1. it posits that humans have innate, biological structures (Universal Grammar, Language Acquisition Device) that enable language learning

What are the main ideas behind Chomsky’s theory?

1. Innate UG & LAD, suggesting children are born with a capacity to acquire language rapidly and uniformly across cultures 

How does the social interactionist perspective differ?

1. it emphasizes the role of social interaction, child-directed speech, scaffolding, and shared intentionality in language development 

What is child-directed speech?

1. speech that adults use with children — characterized by clear pronounciation, exaggerated intonation, slower tempo, and higher pitch — to facilitate language learning 

What is Vygotsky’s scaffolding?

1. Temporary support provided by a more knowledgable other (adult or peer) that helps children learn skills slightly beyond their current level (zone of proximal development) internalized over time

What is statistical learning (KUHL)?

the process by which infants detect patterns and regularities in speech input to learn about language structure 

How does Piaget’s cognitive approach explain language development?

1. Language emerges from general cognitive development, with skills like ASSIMILATION and ACCOMMODATION shaping progress through stages

What is Tomasello’s usage-based approach?

1. language structure and grammar emerge from actual usage and communication, driven by INTENTION READING and PATTERN FINDING

What is the domain-general vs domain-specific distinction?

1. domain-general skills influence multiple areas of learning (e.g. general cognition), whereas domain-specific skills are specialized for language (e.g. statistical learning) 

What is Chomsky’s main argument against Skinner’s behaviorist view?

Chomsky argues that language is too complex to be explained solely by external stimuli and reinforcement; internal mental structures (UG, LAD) are necessary to account for language acquisition.

How does Chomsky describe the process of sentence formation?

As a process of composition where nouns, verbs, and adjectives are chosen and arranged, with autoclitics adding relations — more complex than Skinner’’s insertion model  

What do Chomsky’s obligatory and optional rules refer to?

Obligatory rules must be applied in sentence generation; optional rules involve choices and variation

What is the “Problem of Word Meaning?”

The challenged of how words can refer to an infinite number of possible objects or ideas in different context and how children learn precise meanings. 

What are the 3 major temes from DCN research (johnson)?

1. The brain is a self-organizing, constructive systems

2. Brain regions become increasingly specialized through experience 

3. Developmental trajectories can diverge, especially in atypical cases like autism 

What evidence supports the constructivist theme?

1. babies actively seek out social & environmental stimuli (e.g. faces), which influence brain development, exemplified by their preference for faces & gaze cues

How does specialization of function change in the brain during development?

1. brain regions are broadly responsive early but become more selective; for example, face-processing areas respond specficially to faces in adults, but respond to more stimuli in infants

What are 1) experience-expectant and 2) experience-dependant processses?

1. brain processes that rely on universal experiences (e.g. visual input, language exposure) during sensitive periods

2. processes shaped by indivdual, unique experiences over the lifespan (learning a musical instrument)

What is the role of the prefrontal cortex in development according to recent DCN findings? (johnson)

it is active early in life, supporting the acquisition of motor & perceptual skills, contrary to previous beliefs that it is silent during the first year

How does brain plasticity manifest in infants & children?

through redundancy & remapping, such as in cases of early brain injury where functions are taken over by other areas, showing high adaptability 

What is categorical perception?

1. the phenomenon where speech sounds are perceived as belonging to distinct categories (e.g. ba vs pa) which develops with age and experience

how does language-specific speech sound discrimination develop?

1. infants can discriminate all phonemes early, but by around 9 months, they become attuned to native language sounds, losing sensitivity to non-native contrasts

What role does statistical learning play in phonological development?

babies track the frequency and patterns of sounds in speech input, helping them recognize phonotactic rules and segment speech

What are some research methods used to study phonological development?

1. habituation

2. head-turn preference

3. conditioned head-turn

4. preferential looking

5. eye tracking

What is perceptual constancy?

recognizing that sounds or objects remain the same despite changes in appearance, context, or speaker

What are 1) protoimperatives and 2) protodeclaratives?

1. gestures or sounds to REQUEST something

2. gestures to SHARE attention or comment on something 

How do infants develop their first words?

through a sequence involving reflexive sounds, cooing, babbling, gestures, and finally, meaningful words around 12-16 months, often with a vocabulary spurt at 18 months 

What is the “Problem of Word Meaning?”

1. the difficulty children face in figuring out which specific object or idea a words refers to, given the infinite possibilites

What social-pragmatic cues do children use for word learning?

1. Gaze

2. Pointing

3. Facial expressions

4. contextual cues

   1. all that reveal the speaker’s intentions 

What are Markman’s lexical principles?:

1. Whole Object Assumption: words refer to entire objects, not parts or properties

2. Taxonomic Assumption: words generalize to category members

3. Mutual Exclusivity: children assume objects have only one label; if they know one term, they infer new words refer to new objects 

How do syntactic cues help children learn word meanings?

by analyzing sentence structure, children infer whether a word is a noun, verb, or adjective; for example, nouns often refer to objects, verbs to actions

What is Naigles’ research on transitive vs intransitive verbs?

children use syntactic frames to distinguish between actions involving objects (transitive) and those without objects (intransitive), aiding in word comprehension 

What is the typical sequence of speech production development?

1. reflexive crying, cooing, vocal play, reduplicated babbling, variegated babbling, protowords, and then first words (~12-16 months), with a vocabulary spurt around 18 months 

How does babbling relate to native language?

1. babbling initially universal, but ‘babbling drift’ shows that by 8 months, infants’ babbles begin to resemble the phonetic patterns of their native language 

How does gesture development support language learning?

1. gestures like pointing, precede & support the development of words, helping children establish referents and intentions

What is absent reference?

using language or gestures to refer to objects, events, or ideas that are not currently perceptible or present

At what age do children typically develop the ability for absent reference>

around 16 months, with more refined ability by 22-36 months, allowing for talking about absent or abstract concepts

How does language support abstract reasoning?

by enabling talk about mental states, hypothetical scenarios, and non-present objects, langauge extends cognition beyond immediate perceptions 

According to Luchkina & Waxman, what is the CORE function of the capacity for absent reference?

to enable indivduals to call to mind objects, events, or ideas that are NOT perceptually available by forming, accessing, and modifying mental representations based solely on language input

1. this capacity is fundamental for LEARNING and REASONING about phenomena BEYOND immediate perception 

What was one piece of evidence of children’s ability for absent reference in Luchkina?

Experiment:

1. Children told about a toy frog named “Lucy”; they convey that she got wet. Children were then presented with two identical frog toys, and asked: who is lucy?. Children selected the WET toy even though they had never seen Lucy before and the other toy was identical. This is because children were able to shape and modify their mental representations of an absent referent based on language input ALONE 

Describe the experimental paradigm used by Luchkina to assess infants’ ability to form new object representations from language:

1. infants were shown familiar objects and their names, then introduced to a novel object that they had never saw but heard labeled (Oh a MODI!), with the object occluded so they never saw it. At test, infants chose between 2 objects: one from the same semantic category as the labeled object and one from a different category. Infants looked longer at the semntically related object, showing they formed a mental representation from linguistic input alone, demonstrating the capacity for absent reference. 

How does gesture support absent and abstract reference in infants & what limitations does it have compared to language?

1. Gestures like pointing can support reference to absent objects or events by creating placeholders or mental representations, espeically in early development

2. HOWEVER, they lack the referential precision of language, often conveying only broad or context-dependent information

3. Gestures are LESS capable of representing complex or abstract phenomena, and their referential specificity is limited compared to words

What does the lecture say about the role of child-directed speech, and how does this connect to Vygotsky’s social interactionist theory?

1. the lecture describes child-directed speech as an adaptive, exaggerated, & simplified speech style that helps children learn language. This aligns with Vygotsky’s idea that social interaction & scaffolding (where adults support children’s learning") are crucial in language development

According to the Kuhl TEDtalk, what role does social interaction play in infants’ phonetic learning, & how does this relate to the lecture’s emphasis on social input?

1. kuhl emphasizes that social interaction, such as infant-caregiver face-to-face exchanges, is essential for phonetic learning — more so than passive exposure. This connects to the focus on social cues (like gaze & joint attention) as critical for language development, supported by evidence that social context shapes neural and cognitive processes involved in language 

What is the significance of the finding that nearly alll brain regions respond broadly to stimuli early in development ? (johnson)

1. it indicates that early in life, brain regions are not highly specialized but are broadly responsive, and through experience and development, responses become more specific. Underpins the importance of specialized functions, like face recognition or language 

How does Chomsky relate the critical period to langauge acquisition?

the critical period is a window during which language acquisition is MOST effective; beyond this window, the LAD’s capacity diminishes, making language learning more difficult 

What happens in visual development if one eye is deprived during the critical period?

1. the visual cortex reorganizes, with the columns for the deprived eye shrinking and those for the open eye enlarging, illustrating the importance of input during the critical period for proper development 

How do EEG / ERP studies reveal the development of speech perception in infants?

1. they show that by 6 months, infants’ brain responses to native language phonetic contrasts are MORE pronounced in the temporal regions, indicating speech specialization; by 12 months, activation shifts to areas like Wernicke’s and Broca’s regions 

What are the typical injury outcomes in children with earrly brain damage, and what does this reveal about plasticity?

1. children can recover language & cognitive functions even after extensive early damage, such as hemispherectomy, demonstrating high plasticity and the brain’s ability to remap functions to intact areas 

According to Jakobson, what is the primary contrast children use in their first speech productions?

1. they start with the most distinctive sound contrast, such as differentiating b & p, which are acoustically distinct 

How do children avoid producing difficult words, according to Schwartz & Leonard?

1. they use avoidance strategies,

   1. substituting easier sounds or syllables,

   2. omitting difficult consonants

   3. creating templates to simplify word production 

What functions are associated with Broca’s areas, & how was this discovered?

1. primarily involved in speech production

2. identified through patients with damage to that area in which they had difficulty generating fluent speech but retained comprehension

3. damage to this area results in non-fluent, effortful speech 

What functions are linked to Wernicke’s area and how was this established?

1. involved in SPEECH COMPREHENSION & interpretation of grammar. Patients with aphasia in this area produce fluent but incoherent speech with poor comprehension, often speaking in ‘invented’ words or jargon.

2. Damage here impairs understanding & meaningful language use 

What evidence supports the lateralization of language to the left hemisphere?

1. studies of patients with brain injuries show that most language functions are localized in the left hemisphere, especially in right-handed individuals. For example, damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas in the left hemisphere results in aphasia, whereas right hemisphere damage rarely affects core language functions

What is an example of plasticity in children with extensive early brain damage?

1. Daniel Carr had extensive damage in both hemispheres due to perinatal stroke but developed normal vision and language abilities. His brain REMAPPED functions, with sensory areas recruited fro motor control, demonstrating high plasticity 

How does Bates describe the relationship between form, function, and effect in language development?

1. he emphasizes that language development involves understanding the form (words, sentences), the function (intended meaning or use), and the effect (listener’s response), with early development focusing on effects such as crying & giggles before understanding functions 

How does Tomasello’s usage-based approach explain the emeregence of grammar?

1. it emerges from actual usage and communication, driven by children’s intention reading (understanding what others want to communicate) and pattern finding ( identifying recurring structures in speech input) 

What evidence supports the idea that brain regions become more specialized through experience? (johnson)

1. studies show that face-processing areas like the fusiform face area, start broad and respond to various stimuli early but become highly selective for faces with age