Chapter 6 Review: Language Development

what are the properties of language?

1. language is a social tool

2. language is rule-governed

3. language is a generative system

how is language a generative system?

• knowledge of the rules permits speakers to generate meaningful utterances

• from a finite number of words and word categories, can create an almost infinite number of sentences

what are the 4 core components of language?

1. phonology

2. syntax

3. semantics

4. pragmatics

what is phonology?

includes the important sounds, rules for combining them + the stress and intonation patterns that accompany them

what is a phoneme?

the smallest unit of sound, DOES NOT carry meaning, but distinguishes words from each other (/t/ vs /d/ = ‘ten’ vs ‘den’

what is a morpheme?

smallest unit of meaning (e.g. dogs = ‘dog’ and ‘s’, deconstructed = ‘de’, ‘construct’, ‘ed’)

what is syntax?

includes rules for how to combine words into phrases and sentences + how to transform sentences into other sentences (which word combos are acceptable, what order they go in)

what is the basic word order?

subject - verb - object

what is adjective order?

quantity, opinion, size, shape, age, colour, origin, material purpose (e.g. a beautiful large round old blue italian wooden dining table)

what are pragmatics?

the use of language to express one’s intentions and get things done in the world; concerned with the way language is used to communicate

what is an indirect requesting pragmatically?

“can you pass the salt?” is not about ability, its a polite request for the salt

what is an example of figurative language?

“i’m dying of laughter”, not literal, just means something is very funny

what is required for language?

• the human brain; only humans can acquire language + do it without explicit teaching

• sensitive period

what is an example of the sensitive period of learning language?

different neural mechanisms to process language in adults who learned second language after puberty vs those who learned in infancy

what are the implications of learning language?

1. deaf children should be exposed to sign language asap

2. to achieve native-level language skills, a child needs to be exposed to second language asap

how does being bilingual impact development?

• it does not have negative impacts (systemic factors instead)

• 1-2 year old infants exposed to 2 languages progress slower at first but catch up

• have better developed language skills

• have better developed other skills such as inhibition and working memory

what is infant-directed speech?

the distinctive mode of speech when speaking to infants and toddlers (greater pitch variability, slower speech, shorter utterances, and clearer vowels)

why is infant directed speech so important for language development?

• it is consistent across 21 cultures

• preferred over adult-directed speech, even if in a different language

what is prosody

the characteristic rhythm and intonational patterns with which a language is spoken

can infants hear phonemes/sounds?

yes, starts in utero (cat in the hat study), learning prosody

can infants differentiate between different sounds?

yes, as early as 1 month

what is categorical percpetion?

the perception of phonemes belonging to discrete categories

what is voice onset time?

the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating

what does it mean that adults are “native listeners”?

they tune into the sounds of the language(s) they speak

what does it mean that infants are “universal listeners”?

they may be able to discriminate all speech contrasts from the languages of the world

what did werker & tee’s study on speech perception find?

1. at 6-8 months, infants can differentiate between all phonemes

2. by 10-12 months, infants lose this ability and only differentiate between sounds of their native language

what is word segmentation?

discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech

what are distributional properties of speech?

in any language, certain sounds are more likely to occur together than are others

in english, what is the stress pattern of words?

it is frequently trochaic (STRONG/weak) (e.g. PREtty BAby)

what is iambic stress pattern?

weak/STRONG (e.g. aWAY, beLIEVE)

when do infants recognize their own names?

by 4.5 months

when do infants recognize “mommy” and “daddy” + link to own correct parent?

by 6 months

what are the 3 different types of cues infants use to segment speech?

1. stress patterns

2. frequently used words

3. statistics

when do babies start cooing (vowel-like sounds)?

2 months

when do babies start babbling (speech-like sound that has no meaning)?

6 months

when does babbling start to include intonation (rising or falling pitch)?

8-11 months

when do first words appear?

around 1st birthday

what are the stages of speech production?

1. cooing (2 months)

2. babbling (6 months)

3. babbling w/ intonation (8-11 months)

4. first words (12 months)

what are the 2 key criteria of speech production?

1. phonetic relationship to some adult word

2. must use word referentially

what are common errors in word learning?

under extension and over extension

what is overextension?

when a child applies a word too broadly, using it for things that are similar in some way but are not actually the same category (e.g. animals that look similar, wolf, puppy, raccoon); suggests issues with accommodation

what is underextension?

when a child applies a word too narrowly, using it only for a specific object instead of the broader category (issues with assimilation)

how many words do 15 month old children learn per week?

2-3 words

when vocabulary reaches ~50 words or at ~18 months, how many new words are learned?

up to eight words a day

what is fast mapping?

the process whereby a child learns a new word very quickly, often after only one exposure to the word

what is naming explosion / vocabulary spurt?

is a rapid acceleration of a toddler’s rate of spoken work acquisition

what the mean of words known at 18 months?

75 words

why are there individual differences in word learning?

• phonological memory

• exposure to language-rich environment

• think about sensory memory (information processing theory)

how can adults help with word learning?

1. gaze direction (which develops around 6-9 months)

2. joint attention (sharing attention focus with another + signals of understanding reference)

how does mutual exclusivity help with word learning?

as a default, objects can have only one name; thus new words map the nameless objects

how does other constraints on word names help with word learning (glorpie blimmie flooper)?

• name refers to a whole object (glorpie)

• if an object already has a name and another name is presented, then this becomes a subcategory (blimmie)

• with many similar category members, a word is applied to one member, becoming a proper noun (flooper)

what is syntactic bootstrapping?

using grammatical structures to infer the meaning of a new word

what kind of speech is common in 2 year olds?

telegraphic (e.g. want milk) with only critical content words

how are words put together over time?

grammatical morphemes (e.g. go-ing, dog-s) are gradually added, and a mastery of grammar is achieved by rule-based learning, errors of over-regularization occur

what is overregularization?

speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were together (e.g. instead of “went”, says “goed”)

when does spontaneous conversation turn-taking occur?

by 2 years

when do children try to elicit a response if the listener fails to respond?

by 3 years

what are collective monologues (2-5 years)?

are early conversations between children, take turns but the contents of the utterances are unrelated

what kinds of conversations do 5 year olds produce?

narratives, which are descriptions of past events organized into coherent stories (with a beginning, middle and end)

when do children start adjusting their speech based on the listener?

as young as 4

what is irony?

broader concept where something happens or is said in a way that contrasts with expectations, if often not meant to hurt anyone

what is sarcasm?

a type of verbal irony, but it’s often used to mock, criticize, or be humorous. it usually has a biting/exaggerated tone

how do children understand irony/sarcasm?

• 5-6 year olds know not to take these remarks seriously

• 9-10 year olds know why

what traits prove that sign languages are true languages?

• arbitrary units (signs do not have to be iconic)

• structured and meaningful (grammatical rules must be followed)

• displacement (can be used to discuss events displaced in time/place)

• generativity (can be used to create an infinite number of new utterances)

what is the evidence of language development in sign language?

• signed languages develop the same way spoken languages too (babbling, telegraphic speech)

• there is a critical period for acquiring signed languages

• seem to be acquired earlier than spoken languages

• many hearing families use “baby sign”

what is the behaviourist answer on how children acquire grammar?

via reinforcement of imitation

what are the criticisms of the behaviourist view of grammar acquisition?

• children produce novel sentences

• children’s speech has its own grammar

• parents rarely reinforce grammatical correctness

• grammatical rules seem too complex to be simply inferred

what is the nativist answer on how children acquire grammar?

via inborn mechanisms for language (think core knowledge theories)

what is the nativist view on grammar acquisition?

• there are specific regions in the brain for different language functions

• only humans learn grammar readily

• children develop linguistic communication with little or no formal input

• there is a critical period for learning language (isolated children, learning second language)

• development of vocab and grammar are closely related

what is the cognitive answer on how children acquire grammar?

some researchers believe that powerful cognitive skills can account for language learning: grammar may be learned by detecting regularities in the environment and patterns in grammatical structures (e.g. word boundaries)

what are examples of non-linguistic symbols?

pictures and scale models

when do toddlers understand that photos are representations of objects?

by 18 months

what is dual representation?

the idea that an artifact is both a real object and a representation for something other than itself (e.g. a map)

what did the scale model tasks by dr. judy deloache show?

• showed that dual representation is a challenge for young children under 3 years

• when it is not necessary to form a symbol-referent relationship between the model and the room, children aged 2.5 years can do the task

• when the challenge of dual representation is removed, young children can perform the task