Child Language Development Vocabulary

Language

a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols that is used in various modes for thought and communication

morphemes

the smallest units of language that carry meaning; combined to create words

referent

the aspect of the world to which the word refers

communication

the process of sharing information, such as thoughts, feelings, and ideas, among two or more persons

modularity

a cognitive science theory about how the human mind is organized within the structures of the brain

modules

regions of the brain developed to process specific types of information

domain specific

modules that can only process very specific types of information

domain general

modules that carry out very general tasks

inner language

individuals choose to keep thoughts and ideas to themselves

speech

the neuromuscular process by which humans turn language into a sound signal and transmit it through the air to a receiver

hearing

the sensory system that allows speech to enter into and be processed by the human brain

model

a way to represent an unknown event on the basis of the best current evidence governing the event

feedback

relays information about speech output back to the origination of the perceptual target and motor schema

audition

the perception of sound, which includes both general auditory perception and speech perception

acoustics

study of sound

speech perception

how the brain processes speech and language

auditory perception

how the brain processes any type of auditory information

statistical learning

a domain-general learning mechanism whereby infants compute the statistical properties of the language they hear

symbolic communication (referential communication)

when an individual communicates about a specific entity (an object or event) and the relationship between the entity and its referent (word) is arbitrary

preintentional communication

communication in which other people assume the relationship between a communicative behavior and its referent

intentional communication

communication that is relatively precise in its intent and the relationship between the communicative behavior and its referent is not arbitrary

iconic communication

transparent form of intentional communication

linguistic feedback

feedback from the receiver via speaking

nonlinguistic feedback (extralinguistic feedback)

the use of eye contact, facial expression, posture, and proximity to give feedback

paralinguistic feedback

the use of pitch, loudness, and pausing as a form of feedback

form

how words, sentences, and sounds are organized and arranged to convey context

content

the meaning of language; the words used and the meaning behind them

use

how people draw on language functionally to meet personal and social needs

contextualized language

language that focuses on the immediate context; concrete and supported by cues within the environment

decontextualized language

when we share language with little reliance on the context for conveying content

phonology

the rules of language governing the sounds that make syllables and words

morphology

the rules of language governing the internal organization of words

semantics

the rules of language governing the meaning of individual words and word combinations

pragmatics

the rules governing language use for social purposes

universality

the idea that all persons around the world have a cognitive infrastructure that they apply to the task of learning language

semanticity (displacement)

the species-specific aspect of language that allows people to represent the world; allows people to represent decontextualized events

arbitrary

a property of human language; describes the notion that there is no relationship between a referent and the language used to describe it

productivity

describes the principle of combination; the combination of a small number of discrete units into seemingly infinite novel creations

language difference

describes the variability among language users

code switching

in bilingual children, the interchange between the syntax and the vocabulary of the two languages they are learning

caregiver responsiveness

the promptness, contingency, and appropriateness of caregiver responses to children’s bids for communication through words or other means

traumatic brain injury

brain damage resulting from physical trauma, particularly blunt trauma to the head

phonotactic rules

specify legal orders of sounds in syllables and words and the places where specific phonemes can and cannot occur

prosodic cues

word and syllable intonation and stress patterns in a language that allow infants to break into the speech stream

phonotactic cues

sounds following the phonotactic rules of a native language that allow infants to parse the speech stream

phonological knowledge

knowledge of internal representations of the phonemes composing a native language

phonological production

using the phonemes composing a native language to produce syllables and words

phonological awareness

an individual’s ability to attend to the phonological units of speech through implicit and explicit analysis

phonemic awareness

awareness of the individual phonemes of a language

grammatical (inflectional) morphemes

small units of language added to words to allow grammatical inflection of the words

derivational morphemes

prefixes and suffixes added to root words to create derived words

bound morphemes

morphemes that must be bound or attached to other morphemes

free morphemes

morphemes that can stand alone

obligatory contexts

situations in which a mature grammar specifies use of a grammatical marker

derivational relations

the relationship among a corpus of words that share a common root word

mean length of utterance

the average number of morphemes per utterance

negative sentences

express negation and rely on words such as no, not, can’t, don’t, and won’t

declarative sentences

make a statement

interrogative sentences

the act of questioning

phrasal coordination

the ability to connect phrases, such as with conjunctions

complex syntax

the use of phrase and clause structures, as well as conjunctive devices for organizing internal structures of sentences

simple syntax

grammatically well-formed utterances containing simple noun phrases and verb structures

lexicon

volume of words that he or she understands

receptive lexicon

the volume of words a person understands

expressive lexicon

the volume of words a person uses; “mental dictionary”

lead-in

when an adult labels an object or event that is outside of the child’s attentional focus

follow-in

when an adult labels an object or event that is currently the child’s attentional focus

semantic network

a network in which the entries in a person’s mental lexicon are stored according to their connective ties

spreading activation

a process in which activation of specific mental lexicon entries spreads across the semantic network according to the strength of connections among the entries

communication function

the intention behind language use in social contexts

intentionality hypothesis

children’s experiences using language to engage with other people fosters their development of form and content

schema

the building blocks of cognition that are internalized representations of the organizational structures of various events

register

stylistic variations in language that occur in different situational contexts

temperament

the way in which an individual approaches a situation, particularly one that is unfamiliar