Sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics review

Three types of isolation that can produce language variation

1. Physical (geographic)

2. Social

3. Linguistic

Two possible linguistic outcomes of language contact

1. Convergence: bilingualism & language transfer

2. Divergence: emphasized difference

Lingua franca

Common language used for communication

Pidgin

Very basic language with no native speakers (often used as a lingua franca)

Creole

Pidgin that has expanded greatly in use and complexity, usually after 1-2 generations

Two methods of studying child language acquisition

Longitudinal and cross sectional (pseudo-longitudinal)

First stage of a child’s phonetic development

Babbling

Two errors children make in meaning development

1. Overextension (vocab is used to make hypotheses about similar items)

2. Underextension (vocab is used for very specific things bc of specific referent)

Simultaneous bilingual

Person who learned 2 or more languages as L1s

Sequential bilingual

L2 is acquired later in life

Three classifications for languages

1. Typological: identifying language universals

2. Genetic: relationship (historically), language family

3. Areal: geographic similarities

Interlanguage

Systemic mental language organization (aka grammar)

Similarity differential rate hypothesis

Traits in L2 which are less similar than L1 will be acquired faster

Marked differential rate hypothesis

Features that are more different (marked) in L2 (compared to L1) will be harder to acquire

Subset principle

Learner is working to reset parameters to accommodate languages

Positive evidence

Grammatical input the learner receives

Negative evidence

Direct (ungrammatical), indirect (inference)

Psycholinguistics

The study of language processing mechanisms

Broca’s aphasia

In broca’s area: characterized by nonfluency, difficulty with speech, speakers are unaware of difficulty

Wernicke’s aphasia

No difficulty in speech production, but difficulty in selecting, monitoring, and organizing language. Speakers are aware of difficulty

Three main factors affecting SLA

Age, affective factors (self-efficacy), individual difference