language development

symbols

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

language comprehension

to understand what others way or sign or write

language production

ability to speak, sign, or write

generative theory

a system in which a finite set of words can be combined to generate an infinite number of sentences

phonemes

the smallest unit of meaningful sound

morpheme

smallest unit of meaning in a language

syntax

rules specifying how words from different categories can be combined

pragmatics

knowledge about how language is used

sensitive period

5 years to puberty where language learning is easier

infant directed speech

distinctive mode of speech adults adopt when talking to babies or young children

prosody

the rhythm and intonational patterns with which language is spoken

distributional properties of speech

certain sounds are more likely to occur together than others

categorical perception

humans perceive speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories

word segmentation

discovering when words begin and end

overextension

an overly broad interpretation of the meaning of a word

underextension

an overly narrow interpretation of the meaning of a word

pragmatic cues

aspects of social context used for word learning

cross-situational word learning

determining meaning by tracking the correlations between labels and meanings across scenes and contexts

syntactic bootstrapping

the strategy of using grammatical structure to infer meaning of a new word

telegraphic speech

short utterances that leave our non-essential words

overregularization

speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular

universal grammar

proposed set of highly abstract structures that are common to all languages

domain specific

neural/cognitive mechanisms for language learning specific to language development

domain general

neural/cognitive mechanisms for language learning support many different domains of learning

dual representation

treating a symbolic artefact both as a real object and as a symbol for something other than itself