Lang Acquisition Lectures

language is

a code/system that represents concepts

language is socially

shared

symbols in language are

arbitrary

language is the ______ of human communication

principal method

speech is

neuromuscular activity

5 parameters of language

phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics

effective use of language requires understanding of

human interaction, nonverbal cues, motivation, sociocultural roles

Bloom + Lahey elements of language

form, content, and use

phonology

study of the sound system, sounds, and their rules

Phoneme

smallest linguistic unit of sound

morphology

the system governing the structure of words

morpheme

smallest unit of meaning

free morpheme

can stand alone, ex. run

bound morpheme

cannot stand alone, ex. ing

syntax

how to combine words into acceptable phrases and sentences

semantics

governs the meaning of words and relationships between them

lexicon

mental dictionary

pragmatics

rules for use of language in social contexts, needed for communicative competence

communication

the exchange of information between a sender and receiver through a common system of symbols, signs, or behaviour

in humans language is

unique and uniform

bee waggle dance communicates

distance and direction of food source

human language specific characteristics

productivity, semanticity, displacement

productivity

can make new utterances and recombine forms you’ve already learned to make something you haven’t heard before

semanticity

represents ideas/events/objects symbolically

displacement

not tied to the immediate context, able to communicate about the past/future

order of appearance of milestones not affected by

culture or language learned

interdependence model

child in constant contact w/ caregiver, member of community, less spoken to

autonomy model

child as an independent agent, lots of talk to child, desire to see independence develop

Lauren + Still study groups

Eastern Nepal vs West Germany

Lauren + Still study findings

similar onset of emerging communicative skills but different rate (ex. German children pointed more)

Callahan study groups

rural India + Peru vs. Canadian university town, 8mos and 3.5 yrs

Callahan study findings

reached milestones at similar ages but some differences as children got older