DS - Chapter 6

symbols

involves systems of representing our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge, and for communicating them to other people

comprehension

required to develop language skills; refers to understanding what others say (or sign / write)

production

refers to speaking (or signing / writing)

generative (components of language)

system where a finite set of words can be combined to generate an infinte number of sentences

phonemes (components of language)

smallest units of meaningful sound

morphemes (components of language)

smallest units of meaning in a language, composed of one or more phonemes

syntax (components of language)

rules specifying how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) can be combined

pragmatics (components of language)

knowledge about how language is used.

phonological development

acquisition of knowledge about phonemes, the elementary units of sound that distinguish meaning

semantic development

learning the system for expressing meaning in a language, beginning with morphemes, the smallest unit of meaning in a language

syntactic development

learning the syntax or rules for combining words

pragmatic development

acquiring knowledge of how language is used, which includes understanding a variety of conversational conventions

sensitive period

there may be a ___ ___ for language acquisition

species-specific behavior

only humans acquire a communication system with the complexity, structure, and generativity of language

species-universal

nearly all humans develop language

independent

language is ___ of modality

comprehension

generally precedes production

prosody

the characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody, intonational patterns, etc., with which a language is spoken

categorical perception

perceiving in categories, rather than as a continuous spectrum of sounds

word segmentation

the process of discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech

distributional properties

the phenomenon that, in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear than are others

stress patterns

english : nouns, adjective, first syllable, verbs, second syllable

high-frequency items

very frequent words may be recognized; “bottle”, “baby”

parentese

altering the intonation to engage infants

distributional patterns

facilitate identification of words and phonemes

six months

by ___ ___ infants show the evidence of understanding the meaning of some nouns

cooing → reduplicated babble → variegated babble

early language production unfolds in a predictable pattern :

6-8 weeks

around ___ ___ weeks, infants begin to make cooing sounds with an open vocal tract

six months

around ___ ___, reduplicated babbling begins, with repeated sounds made with open and then closed vocal tract

babbling

occurs on the hands for infants learning sign language

reduplicated babbling

after ___ ___ infants produce variegated babble, with a variety of sounds

the “Gavagai” problem

words are always ambiguous; there are a variety of cues to a words’ meaning

cross-situational

young children can learn words from ___-___ statistics

mutual exclusivity

novel words are mapped to novel objects, the principle of ___ ___; "“show me the dax" example

social cues

source of information for language learners

overgeneralizations (undergeneralize)

reveal that children do not always generalize appropriately

telegraphic speech

short utterances that leave out non-essential words; generally two-word utterances.

overregularization (mistakes)

provide evidence that children are learning rules and not just copying the input

behaviorist

____ argument is that language learned by standard processes of operant and classical conditioning

skinner

correct usage is reinforced, incorrect usage is not

____ argue that language is too complex to be learned so easily and quickly by cognitively unsophisticated children; “children don’t need to learn it!”

LAD (Language Acquisition Device)

Noam Chomsky suggested there is a ___ with innate biases that shape learning.

connectionist

____ argument is that language learning can emerge from general-purpose learning mechanisms (e.g., statistical learning) operating over large amounts of data

interactionist

____ perspective focuses on communicative function of language (to interact with others)

language development

participating in conversation supports ___ ___