Chapter 4: Language Development - Infancy

child-directed speech

modified adult speech to a child

adult-directed speech

adult speech directed to other older children or adults

infant-directed singing

used cross-culturally and share many characteristics to motherese/parentese

- mothers moderate their voice in different ways when engaging in this with infants (higher pitch, greater emotional expressions, sustained vowels, slow tempo, gliding between pitch levels)

rhymes

patterned alliterations, rhythms, and repetitions of words in combination with sequenced actions of the parent and child provide a social structure for engaging in the routine

storytelling

structured, narrative-style speech that is typically very simple in terms of structure (predictable or repetitive phrases throughout)

contingent responding

reciprocal interaction between caregiver and infant

joint reference/joint attention

allow both to engage with each other on a specific topic

stage 1 of joint reference

4-6 weeks: caregiver places object where child can see it and calls attention to the object "look!"

6 months: child may recognize caregiver's pitch pattern as a signal to establish joint attention

stage 2 of joint reference

7 months: child begins to demonstrate efforts to communicate intentionally (pointing)

8 months: child may reach for an object and look at caregiver for a response

stage 3 of joint reference

8-12 months: child uses combination of gestures and vocalizations to indicate interests in objects

stage 4 of joint reference

12 months: child exercises control over topic; produces names of objects and events

characteristics of child-directed speech

acoustic: higher pitcher levels, loudness range

timing: more regular rhythm, slower speaking, pausing increased

syntactic: simpler syntactic constructions, repetition

other: exaggerated facial expressions, references to objects

expansion

using the utterance in a more complex adult-like phrase or sentence

- child: "mommy work"

- caregiver: "mommy went to work"

extension

extending past simple expansion to include additional semantic information

- child: "mommy go"

- caregiver: "mommy went to work"

importance of child-directed speech in early development

- impact a child's language and cognitive development

- impact academic success

- children with disabilities (autism): very important!

auditory processing of speech: development

1st year: processing of language (sounds, syllables, etc)

2nd year: early vocab development (50 words) and sorting out meanings

3rd year: child will have vocab of 500 words

fast mapping

act of learning a new concept after limited exposure, commonly used by young children when acquiring language

slow mapping

gradual process over time of expanding, reorganizing, and fine-tuning word meanings as words are acquired and the relationship between words develops along with cognition and linguistic attainments

acquisition of words divided into 3 hypotheses

1. semantic feature

2. functional core

3. prototype

semantic feature hypothesis

idea that the order of appearance of words in the course of a child's language acquisition is governed by the type and complexity of the semantic features they contain

(ex: dog = furry, 4 legs, etc.)

functional core hypothesis

idea that children do not categorize things according to perceptual attributes (e.g., shapes and size), but rather develop meanings of early words based on their actions if they are animate objects, or on the objects performed on them if they are inanimate objects; children form concepts by viewing objects in terms of the whole, not a sum of parts or features

(ex: dog = bark)

prototype hypothesis

idea that children rely on both perceptual features and functions of words to develop early meanings; children build mental models of a conceptual category—an ideal or representative example (prototype) that other members of this group must resemble

(ex: new experience compared to old)

reflexive crying

a newborn cries automatically in response to discomfort, such as being cold or hungry

cooing

a baby produces early vowel-like sounds, such as "ahh" and "ooo"

echolalia

imitation or repetition of words, phrases, or whole sentences spoken by another person

transitional/marginal babbling

consists of single consonants and vowels that are made in a row, such as "a, a, a," and "da, da, da"

reduplicated babbling

more specific term for babbling involving repeated consonant/vowel (CV) syllables (e.g., "mamama")

variegated babbling

changes in consonant/vowel combinations "dadu"

jargon babbling

intonational changes added to syllable productions to give impression of sentence-like behavior

protowords (vocables)

a baby consistently uses a made-up sound, such as "gaga", to refer to their favorite stuffed animal

(productions unique to each child)

development of speech acts: perlocutionary

refers to the actual effect that the utterance has on the listener

development of speech acts: illocutionary

refers to the speaker's intended meaning or communicative force behind the utterance

development of speech acts: locutionary

refers to the literal meaning of an utterance

overextension

child refers "doggy" to any four legged animal with fur (too broad of a category)

underextension

child refers "book" to Peter Rabbit, then seeing Three Blind Mice book, refers "mice" to that item (instead of book)

deictic gestures

use of pointing, showing, or reaching for something to call attention to or indicate an object or event

representational gestures

signify some features of an object or its function; have meaning independent of the objects (e.g., holding a fist to the ear to mean "telephone")

Halliday's expanded functional list (1975)

1. interacting = to maintain contact with others

2. regulatory = to control the behavior of others

3. personal = to express emotion or interest

4. heuristic = to explore and categorize

5. instrumental = to satisfy needs or wants

6. imagine = to accompany or support a play activity

7. informative = to share knowledge with others

prodeclarative

primitive speech act used to establish social interaction and direct a caregiver's attention; use of a gesture (sometimes paired with a vocalization) to gain attention to an object or event

protoimperative

primitive speech act used as a request for objects or actions as well as to control and manipulate the behaviors of others

Dore's primitive speech acts (1975)

1. labeling = to identify an object

2. answering = to respond to caregiver's inquiry

3. requesting action = to elict an actionable response from caregiver

4. requesting answer = to elict a communicative response from caregiver

5. calling = to gain attention

6. greeting = to acknowledge

7. protesting = to reject an object or action

8. repeating/imitating = to reproduce at least part of what caregiver said

9. practicing = to produce verbal patterns without anyone in environment

substantive words

words that refer to objects or events that have perceptual or functional features in common (e.g., doggie, horsie, truck)

agents

words that refer to things that cause action

objects

words that refer to things receiving action

relational words

words that identify relationships among people, objects, and events; these words reflect a child's understanding of space, time, amount, dimensions, and kinship

presupposition

assumption that speakers make concerning what their listener knows about the subject of their conversation

Grammatical categories of word type (Nelson, 1973)

1. nominals (specific and general)

2. action words

3. modifiers

4. personal-social words

5. functional words

presupposition

an assumption the speaker makes concerning what the listener knows about the subject of the conversation

stage 1 of syntactic development

12-26 months: semantic roles and grammatical relations

stage 2 of syntactic development

27-30 months: grammatical morphemes and the modulation of meanings

stage 3 of syntactic development

31-34 months: modalities of the sample sentence

stage 4 of syntactic development

35-40 months: embedding of one sentence within another

stage 5 of syntactic development

41-46 months: coordination of simple sentences and propositional sentences

morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)

unbound/free morpheme

"root" of word (the "to pack" verb in "unpacks")

bound morpheme

morphemes that are attached to words and cannot stand alone (e.g., possessive form of -s)

derivational morpheme

morphemes added to the beginning (e.g., re-, un-) and end (e.g., -ly, -un) of words; prefixes and suffixes

(the "to undo" in "unpacks")

inflectional morpheme

suffixes that change the meaning of words by marking grammatical adjustments for things such as plurality, possession, and verb tense

(the 3rd-person present in "unpacks")

mean length of utterance (MLU)

a calculation of the average number of morphemes a child produces in a representative sample of utterances

310 morphemes/100 utterances = 3.1 MLU

early stage 1 MLU

using one-word utterances, MLU of 1-1.5, age range between 12 and 22 months

late stage 1 MLU

using two-word utterances, MLU of 1.5-2, age range between 22 and 26 months

pivot-open grammar

proposed primitive form of grammar which suggests that children have two classes of words: open and pivot; concept used to explain the structure behind two-word phrases often used by children

pivot words

words that cannot be used alone or combined with other pivot words but can be used in conjunction with almost any other word a child has learned, and are used in either the first or second position of two-word utterances

open words

words that can be used alone and in combination with other open words, in combination with pivot words, and in either the first or second position of two-word utterances

semantic-syntactic rules

underlying rules for combining words and grammar to produce meaningful utterances; concept that emphasizes that meaning precedes and influences form

semantic relations

agent + action ("doggy sit")

pragmatics

component of language regarding the ability to functionally use language in social contexts; the rules for social language needed to establish and maintain relationships with others

(the functions or intention: getting things done)

mathetic pragmatics

related to science or learning

informative pragmatics

giving new information to others