Language Development

Language

A system of socially shared, rule-governed symbols used to communicate meaning.

Communication

The broader process of exchanging information, which can occur through language or nonverbal means.

Kinesics

Communication through body movement, including gestures, facial expressions, and posture.

Proxemics

Communication through the use of physical space and interpersonal distance.

Chronemics

Communication involving the use and perception of time.

Displacement (Language Property)

The ability to communicate about things not present in the immediate environment, including the past, future, or imaginary events.

Generative / Productive Capacity

The ability to create and understand an unlimited number of novel sentences.

Prevarication

The ability to use language to communicate information that is false or deceptive.

Reflexiveness

The ability to use language to discuss and analyze language itself.

Language Form

The structural components of language, comprising phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Language Content

The meaning component of language, primarily represented by semantics.

Language Use

The social and functional application of language, represented by pragmatics.

Phonology

The sound system of a language and the rules governing sound combinations.

Morphology

The study of the structure of words and the combination of morphemes.

Syntax

The rules for combining words into meaningful and grammatical sentences.

Semantics

The system of rules governing the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences.

Pragmatics

The rules governing the appropriate use of language in varied social contexts.

Generative / Nativist Theory

The theoretical framework proposing that humans possess innate biological abilities supporting language acquisition.

Noam Chomsky

The theorist most closely associated with the generative/nativist approach and Universal Grammar.

Universal Grammar

The concept that humans are born with innate principles and constraints guiding language learning.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

A theoretical innate biological mechanism proposed to help children extract language rules.

Interactionalist Theory

The view that language acquisition results from an interplay between biological/cognitive abilities and social experience.

Intention Reading

The social-cognitive ability to determine what another person intends to communicate.

Pattern Finding

The cognitive capability to extract recurring structural patterns from heard language.

B.F. Skinner

The theorist associated with the behaviorist approach to language development through operant conditioning.

Behaviorist View Limitation

The difficulty in explaining children's ability to produce novel sentences or unmodeled grammatical errors.

Lev Vygotsky

The psychologist associated with Social Interactionist Theory and the Zone of Proximal Development.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The distance between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with assistance.

Scaffolding

Temporary support provided by a more knowledgeable individual to help a learner master a task.

Jean Piaget

The developmental theorist who linked language acquisition directly to general cognitive development.

Assimilation vs. Accommodation

Assimilation uses existing schemes for new data; accommodation alters schemes when new data does not fit.

Broca's Area

A frontal lobe region associated with speech production and grammatical processing.

Wernicke's Area

A temporal lobe region associated with language comprehension.

Arcuate Fasciculus

The white-matter pathway connecting temporal and frontal language regions.

Synaptogenesis and Pruning

Synaptogenesis forms new neural connections, while synaptic pruning eliminates underused connections.

Selective Attention

The ability to focus on relevant information while filtering out competing stimuli.

Verbal Working Memory

The cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating verbal information.

Protoimperative Gesture

A gesture used by an infant to request an object or action ("I want that").

Protodeclarative Gesture

A gesture used by an infant to share attention or interest in an object ("Look at that").

High-Amplitude Sucking (HAS)

An experimental paradigm measuring infant sucking rate to determine stimulus discrimination or preference.

Statistical Learning

The cognitive ability to track probabilities of sound or syllable sequences to locate word boundaries.

Infant-Directed Speech (IDS)

Speech to infants featuring higher pitch, exaggerated intonation, and simplified patterns that aid language processing.