AOS2: Language acquisition

phonetics

the study of speech sounds

monophtong

one vowel sound (i, u)

diphthong

two vowel sounds in one syllable (ai as in my)

assimilation

sound changes to become more like a nearby sound (handbag → hambag)

elision

omision of a sound (friendship → frenship)

vowel reduction

vowel becomes a schwa (to → te)

insertion

adding a sound (drawing → draw-ring)

tempo

speed of speech

volume

loudness

intonation

rise and fall of pitch

stress

emphasis on certain words/syllables

pitch

highness or lowness of voice

pre-linguistic stage (0-6 months)

crying, cooing

babbling (6-12 months)

repeated consonant/vowel sounds (ba-ba, da-da)

holophrastic (12-18 months)

single words with complex meaning (milk)

two-word (18-24 months)

want juice, go car

telegraphic (24-30 months)

missing function words/grammatical concepts (me want ball)

multi-word (30+ months)

full sentences begin forming

language acquisition stages in order

pre-linguistic → babbling → holophrastic → two-word → telegraphic → multi-word

phonological development

how a child learns to recognise, produce and simplify sounds in their language.

key features: babbling → clear sound production

use of phonological processes like:

• final consonant deletion (cat → ca)

• assimilation (dog → gog)

• reduplication (bottle → baba)

• consonant cluster reduction (stop → top)

morphological development

how a child learns to use morphemes (the smallest units of meaning) like -s, -ed, -ing)

key features:

• using inflectional morphemes to show tense, number, etc.

• later, using derivational morphemes to form new words

• overgeneralisation of rules (e.g. runned, goed)

lexical development

the process of building a vocabulary (lexicon), from basic words to more specific or abstract terms.

key features:

• Rapid growth in vocabulary after 18 months

• Use of overextension (dog for all animals)

• Use of underextension (milk only for their cup)

syntactic development

how children learn to construct phrases and sentences, including word order and grammar rules.

Key features:

• Starts with two-word utterances (want toy)

• Moves into telegraphic speech (me want ball)

• Eventually forms complex sentences with correct syntax

semantic development

the process of understanding and assigning meaning to words and sentences.

Key features:

• Learning word meanings, categories, relationships

• Understanding ambiguity, synonyms, antonyms

• Making meaning even when words are limited

usage based theory

language is learned through repetition and interaction

universal grammar theory (chomsky)

children are born with innate rules for language, and just need input

phonological development example response

The child is simplifying pronunciation by deleting the final consonant sound, which shows ongoing phonological development. This is typical as children gradually learn to produce more complex sound combinations.

morphological development example response

The child is developing awareness of grammatical rules by applying a regular past tense morpheme -ed, even to irregular verbs. This is a sign of morphological development.

lexical development example response

The child is acquiring new words rapidly, showing strong lexical development. Errors such as overextension reflect an early attempt to categorise objects.

syntactic development example question

The child’s use of subject-verb-object structure shows increasing control over syntax. Errors in word order or missing function words are expected in early syntactic development.

semantic development example response

The child is developing semantic awareness by using words that relate to their immediate context and experience. Errors like overextension reflect ongoing semantic development.