Language development

Language Development – Definition & Cognitive Perspective

What is language development? How does cognitive psychology view it?

Language development: How humans learn to understand (comprehension) and produce (production) language over time.

Cognitive psychology perspective: Language is not isolated – it involves perception (hearing sounds), memory (storing words), attention, and thinking, all working together extremely quickly and efficiently.

Early Production – Infancy (Birth to 10 Months)

Describe the progression of early language production from birth to 10 months.

• Crying (birth): First communication; not linguistic but meaningful; elicits caregiver response.

• Cooing (2 months): Vowel-like sounds ("ooo", "aaa"); early control over vocal apparatus.

• Babbling (4-6 months): Consonant + vowel combinations ("dadada"); universal stage; gradually shaped by native language sounds.

• Intentional communication (8-10 months): Using actions to direct attention (pointing, handing objects); transition to goal-directed communication.

One-Word Utterance Stage (12-18 Months)

What are the key features of the one-word utterance stage? What two types of word errors occur?

Key features: First words around 12 months; one word expresses a full idea (e.g., "milk" = "I want milk").

Word errors:

• Overextension: Word applied too broadly (e.g., calling all animals "dog") – caused by failure of discrimination.

• Underextension: Word applied too narrowly – caused by failure of generalization.

One-Word Utterance Stage (12-18 Months)

What did Nelson (1973) find about early word types? Why is there a noun bias?

Early word types: Nominals (25% – objects/people), Action words (15%), Modifiers (12%), Personal social words (12%), Function words (9%).

Noun bias: Objects are concrete and visible, making them easier to map words to meaning.

Set 4: Telegraphic Speech (Two- and Three-Word Utterances)

What is telegraphic speech? Describe two-word and three-word combinations.

Telegraphic speech: Short, simplified sentences missing function words ("is," "the").

Two-word combinations (18-24 months, after 50-100 word vocabulary):

• Agent + action ("daddy go")

• Action + object ("eat cookie")

• Possessor + possession ("mommy toy")

Three-word utterances: More complex meaning (e.g., Agent + action + object: "mommy eat cookie").

Morphology – Inflectional vs. Derivational

What is morphology? Distinguish inflectional vs. derivational morphology.

Morphology: Study of morphemes (smallest units of meaning).

• Inflectional morphology: Changes tense/number but not word class (e.g., cat→cats, walk→walked). Children show overregularizations (e.g., "goed") and spelling errors (Nunes et al., 1997).

• Derivational morphology: Transforms word class (e.g., adjective→noun, verb→noun). Children have spelling difficulties when phonological relationship varies but spelling is same (e.g., heal-health; Carlisle, 1988).

Syntax and Pragmatics

What did Bloom et al. (1982) find about syntax development?

Children develop use of relative clauses and conjunctions. In questioning:

• Questions about concrete referents precede questions about abstract concepts.

• They learn to deal with auxiliary verbs and progressives.

Syntax and Pragmatics

What is pragmatics? What did Shatz & Gelman (1973) and Miller et al. (1985) study?

Pragmatics: Social rules of language – turn-taking, politeness, context-appropriate speech.

Concepts of Print (Preschoolers)

What do preschoolers understand about writing vs. drawing? (Lavine, 1977)

Children as young as 3 years can distinguish writing from drawing. However, 3-year-olds often think writing represents meaning directly, not sounds (e.g., thinking the word "elephant" should be long because the animal is big).

Comprehension – Speech Perception

What research findings show early speech perception abilities in infants?

• Eimas et al. (1971): 1–4 month olds distinguish speech sounds using habituation/dishabituation.

• Mandel et al. (1995): Infants recognize their own name by 5 months.

• Walker-Andrews (1986): Infants sensitive to intonation by 7 months.
  Old view (incorrect): Infants have no linguistic abilities before speech.

Comprehension – Word Knowledge & Fast-Mapping

What is fast-mapping? How do children's use of defining vs. characteristic features change with age?

Fast-mapping: Using context to quickly learn a word's meaning after minimal exposure.

Defining vs. characteristic features:

• Preschoolers & kindergartners: Rely on characteristic features (e.g., "bird flies").

• By 4th grade: Defining features predominate (e.g., "bird has feathers, beak").

Comprehension – Understanding Syntax

What evidence shows infants understand subject-verb-object (S-V-O) order?

Big Bird and Cookie Monster study: Infants looked longer at scenes matching correct S-V-O structure, showing early sensitivity to word order.

Comprehension – Understanding Syntax

What evidence shows infants understand subject-verb-object (S-V-O) order?

Big Bird and Cookie Monster study: Infants looked longer at scenes matching correct S-V-O structure, showing early sensitivity to word order.

Comprehension – Understanding Syntax

How do children distinguish nouns from adjectives using sentence context? (The "Zav" study)

Children distinguished whether "zav" referred to an object (noun) or a property (adjective) based on sentence context.

Comprehension – Understanding Syntax

When do children understand passive sentences?

3-year-olds struggle with passives that cannot be solved using functional constraints. "The ball was hit by the boy" is harder to understand than "The boy hit the ball."