Speech and Language Acquisition - quiz 1

Communication

Process of sharing information among 2 or more persons, has a sender and a receiver of a message

Model of communication

Symbolic vs non symbolic communication

Symbolic - shared message, uses symbols

Non symbolic - does not use symbols, no shared meaning; ex infants crying

Speech and speech production

Speech - Neuromuscular process by which humans turn language into a sound signal and transmit it through the air (or another medium) to a receiver

Simple: using muscles to produce sound

Systems involved:

1) Respiratory system - lungs provide a breath of air

2) Laryngeal/phonotory system - vocal chords turn the air into vibrations (noise)

3+4) Articulatory system and resonatory system - shape it into actual speech sounds

Language

A socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols (doesn’t have to be spoken)

Simple: a shared system of symbols that have meaning

Can have language without speech, can’t have speech without language

Receptive vs expressive language

Receptive - understanding/comprehending language; ex reading, listening

Expressive - producing language; ex speaking, signing, writing

Hearing + steps

The perception of sound, including both general auditory perception and speech perception

1. Creation of a sound source

2. Vibration of air particles

3. Reception by the ear

4. Comprehension by the brain

Semantics + importance

The meaning (and storage) of words and combinations of words in a language; vocabulary

Words are learned very quickly, important to intervene bc children can fall behind quickly

Lexicon

Mental dictionary; the volume of words a person understands (receptive lexicon) and uses (expressive lexicon).

Pragmatics

The rules associated with the use of language in conversation and broader social situations

Simple: social rules of language

Joint attention

2 people pay attention to the same thing for social reasons; ex baby video

Discourse

Stretches of speech (longer than a sentence) are connected discourse; when they involve others they are conversational discourse

Theory of mind

Ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes/understand other perspectives

Prosody

Properties of syllables and larger units of speech; included linguistic functions such as intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm

Rhythm of what we say

Phonology

The rule governed system of speech sound sequences and distribution in a language

Simple: what sounds exist in a language and the rules about how we can put those sounds together to form words

Phonemes

Smallest meaningful unit of sound

• Not all sounds are phonemes - coughing, etc

• A phoneme is a phoneme if you swap out one sound for another and it changes the meaning

  • Bat vs sat are completely different words - “buh” vs “sss”

Phonological awareness

Knowledge of phonology; ex speakers of English know that the plural-s at the end of “bug” sounds like a /z/ but at the end of “bike” it sounds like an /s/

Ability to identify and play with sounds

Morphology

The rules governing the smallest meaningful units from which words are created

Morphemes

The smallest meaningful unit of language

Free vs bound morphemes

Bound - a bound morpheme is a word element that cannot stand alone as a word, including both prefixes and suffixes

• Ex: tidal (tide - al), tumbling (tumble - ing), occasionally (occasion - ally), Hills (hill - s), Henry’s (Henry - ‘s)

Free - can stand alone as a word, cannot be broken down further into other word elements

• Ex: girl, cat, between, little, lagoon

• Cats would have 2 morphemes, cat and s

More examples:

Elephant - 1 morpheme, free

Believed - believe (free) - ed (bound); 2 morphemes

Dogs - dog (free) - s (bound); 2 morphemes

Finger - 1 morpheme, free

Katie’s - Katie (free) - ‘s (bound); 2 morphemes

Brown’s morphemes

Predictable stages of typical expressive language development (English)

Syntax

The rules that govern the ordering of words in sentences; grammar

Sentence functions

Declarative - a sentence in the form of a statement

Imperative - a sentence that gives advice or instructions or that expresses a request or command

Exclamatory - sentence that expresses great emotion such as excitement, surprise, happiness and anger

Interrogative - sentence that asks a question

Domains of language