Chapter 10 Key Terms Vocabulary

slips‐of‐the‐tongue

Errors in speech production that reveal planning processes and structures of language in the mind

morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in language, including words, prefixes, and suffixes

gist

The overall meaning or general idea of spoken or written language, remembered better than exact details;

prosody

The patterns of intonation, stress, and rhythm in speech that convey emotion, structure, and meaning;

discourse

Linguistic units larger than a sentence, such as conversations or essays, used to study coherence and comprehension;

narrative

A type of discourse involving storytelling with structured sequences of events and characters;

gestures

Hand and body movements used alongside speech to enhance communication and meaning;

iconic gestures

Hand movements that resemble or represent the concept being spoken, often visual in nature;

deictic gestures

Pointing gestures used to direct attention to objects, people, or locations in space;

beat gestures

Simple, rhythmic hand movements used to emphasize speech without conveying semantic content;

embodied cognition

The theory that cognitive processes are influenced by the body’s interactions with the environment;

working memory

A temporary storage system involved in manipulating information needed for reasoning, comprehension, and learning;

phonological loop

A component of working memory that stores and rehearses verbal and auditory information;

visuospatial sketchpad

A component of working memory that holds and manipulates visual and spatial information;

prewriting

The planning and organizing phase before producing written text, relying on working memory and executive function;

bilingual speaker

Someone who is fluent in two languages, often showing cognitive flexibility and control;

multilingual speaker

Someone who is fluent in more than two languages, potentially enhancing cognitive and metalinguistic skills;

simultaneous bilingualism

The acquisition of two languages from early childhood, typically from birth;

sequential bilingualism

The process of learning a second language after the first has already been established;

first language

The language learned from birth, often referred to as the native language or L1;

second language

A language learned after the first language, often in school or later in life;

metalinguistics

The ability to reflect on and think about language as a system, important in bilingualism and literacy;

dementia

A cognitive disorder that impairs memory, language, and other mental functions, often affecting communication;

age of acquisition

The age at which a language is learned, influencing proficiency and accent in second language learning;

critical period hypothesis

The theory that there is a biologically optimal window during which language acquisition occurs most easily;

phonology

The study of the sound system of a language and how sounds are used and organized in speech;

translation

The process of converting written language from one language to another while preserving meaning;

interpreting

The real-time conversion of spoken language from one language to another, requiring rapid cognitive processing;