Language Acquisition and Speech Development

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering language acquisition theories, brain structures, speech design features, and cognitive developmental stages.

Communication

Sending and receiving of information, ideas, feelings, or messages.

Language

A shared system of symbols and rules used to communicate

Receptive Language

Listening to and understanding what is communicated; the ability to comprehend a message.

Expressive Language

Producing and conveying communicative messages through speaking, writing, signing, or gestures.

Pragmatics

Using language appropriately in social situations

Semantics

The meaning of words and sentences.

Syntax

Rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences; sentence structure.

Morpheme

Smallest grammatical unit in a language that conveys meaning.

Speech

Oral expression of language.

Echolalia

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

Suprasegmental

Features of speech, such as stress, pitch, and duration, that accompany individual speech sounds, words, and sentences.

Vocal-Auditory Channel

Idea language occurs when air is forced through the vocal folds of the larynx, breaking the vibrating air stream into sounds of speech, which are organized into words and sentences and perceived through a listener’s ears; Charles Hockett’s first “design feature” of language.

Broadcast Transmission

Speech sounds travel in all directions, but we hear them as coming from one direction; Charles Hockett’s second “design feature” of language.

Directional Reception

Using both ears to figure out where a sound is coming from; Charles Hockett’s second “design feature” of language.

Rapid Fading

Speech disappears quickly after it is spoken; Charles Hockett’s third “design feature” of language.

Total Feedback

You hear yourself speaking and can adjust your speech as you talk; Charles Hockett’s fifth “design feature” of language.

Specialization

Human speech organs are specially designed and controlled for communication; Charles Hockett’s sixth “design feature” of language.

Arbitrariness

There is no natural connection between a word’s sound and its meaning; Charles Hockett’s eighth “design feature” of language.

Discreteness

Language uses a limited set of distinct sounds that can be combined to create words; Charles Hockett’s ninth “design feature” of language.

Traditional Transmission

Humans are born able to learn language, but they must learn the specific language and its rules from others; Charles Hockett’s 13th and last “design feature” of language.

Interchangeability

If you can hear a sound, you can also produce that sound yourself; Charles Hockett’s fourth “design feature” of language.

Semanticity

Words and sounds have specific meanings that communicate specific messages; Charles Hockett’s seventh “design feature” of language.

Indexicality

The meaning of a message depends on the situation or context

Presemantics

Using past and current experiences to understand what words mean in a specific situation.

Postsemantic Information

Figuring out if a message is true, accurate, and complete.

Extrasemantic Information

Social and psychological factors that can shade or shape meaning.

Productivity

The ability to create new and unique messages using a limited number of sounds and words; Charles Hockett’s 11th “design feature” of language.

Displacement

The ability to talk about things that aren’t happening right now or aren’t here; Charles Hockett’s 10th “design feature” of language.

Duality of Patterning

A small number of sounds can be combined in many ways to create words and sentences; Charles Hockett’s 12th “design feature” of language.

Recursion

The ability to use what we know to create new thoughts and language, including thinking about ourselves, others, and the past or future

Prevarication

Ability of humans to intentionally deceive others in their communications.

Reflexiveness (Metalinguistic Ability)

Human ability to use language to think and talk about language.

Learnability

Learning happens when you have the ability to learn, an environment to learn in, and motivation to learn.

Speech Chain

A model that describes how spoken communication moves from a speaker's thoughts to a listener's understanding.

Wernicke’s Area

Region in the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain associated with language comprehension (receptive language).

Arcuate Fasciculus

Bundle of nerve fibers that serves as the neural pathway to connect the expressive (Broca’s area) and receptive (Wernicke’s area) language areas to each other.

Broca’s Area

Region in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain associated with language production (expressive language), helps produce and organize speech

Motor Cortex

Region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, control, and controls the muscle movements needed for speech

Primary Motor Strip

Brain area that controls movements for speech and swallowing.

Mirror Neurons

Brain cells that help us imitate and understand other people’s actions

Plasticity

The brain’s ability to change and adapt as we learn.

Self-Organizing Neural Network

A connected brain system where learning in one area affects learning in other areas.

Naming Deficit

A short period when a toddler has trouble remembering words because their vocabulary is growing quickly. (typically 18-20 months)

Age of Acquisition Effect

Words learned earlier in life are usually easier and faster to remember.

Nativist Theory

View that oral language is natural in humans; learned not taught.

Noam Chomsky

The theorist most closely associated with the nativist view of language acquisition.

Linguistic Universals

Patterns, traits, or structural rules shared by all or most human languages.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Concept of the nativist theory that humans are born with an innate device for acquiring language.

Transformational Generative Grammar

Chomsky’s theory that explains how people can create and understand an unlimited number of grammatical sentences.

Phrase Structure Rules

Rules that show how words and phrases are organized to form sentences.

Deep Structure Level

The underlying meaning and basic structure of a sentence.

Transformations

Nonuniversal rules or conventions that describe a language’s deep structure and surface structure.

Surface Structure Level

The way a sentence is actually spoken or written.

Passive Transformation

Changing a sentence so the subject receives the action

Behaviorist Theories

View that language is taught, not learned.

B.F. Skinner

Theorist who viewed speech as learned behavior based on operant conditioning principles.

Operant Conditioning

A method of learning where behavior is shaped by rewards (reinforcement) or punishments.

Shaping

Developing a behavior through small steps that gradually approximate the target behavior.

Chaining

Instructional procedure involving reinforcing individual responses in a sequence to form a complex behavior.

Echoic

Imitation of a model when objects or ideas are present (e.g., parent says 'cookie', child repeats 'cookie').

Tact

Verbal behavior that associates a name with an object, action, or event.

Mand

Verbal behavior used to request or demand.

Intraverbal

Social talk freely associated in situational contexts.

Autoclitic

Linking words into sentences based on observations and experiences.

Classical Conditioning

Learning by repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with something that naturally causes a response

Interactionist Theories

The idea that people learn and behave through social interactions with others

Cross-Linguistic Studies

Research that compares different languages to find patterns they have in common.

Semantic View

Children learn language by learning how to express meaning with words and sentences

Cognitive View

Language develops as children’s thinking and understanding develop.

Social Interactionist View

Language develops through interactions with other people, influenced by both biology and the environment.

Speech Act Theory

Language is used to do things or accomplish a purpose.

Case Grammar

A theory that explains sentence meaning by looking at the verb and how other words relate to it

Modality

Features of a sentence that show tense, questions, or negation.

Proposition

The main idea or meaning of a sentence—how the nouns and verbs relate.

Agentive

The initiator of an action, usually animate.

Dative

The person or thing that receives or is affected by the action.

Experiencer

The person or being who feels or experiences something.

Factitive

The person or thing that is created or produced by the action.

Instrumental

The object or tool used to perform an action

Locative

The place or location where an action happens.

Objective

The person or thing that the verb’s action is happening to.

Information Processing Theory

How the brain takes in, stores, and uses information to learn language.

Parallel Patterns of Language Acquisition

Learning multiple parts of language at the same time.

Serial Patterns of Language Acquisition

Language processes happening one after another, in sequence.

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)

The brain processes different parts of language at the same time.

Language Acquisition Support Structure (LASS)

Concept by Bruner that language acquisition is a product of social interactions with important people.

Motherese/Parentese

The simple, higher-pitched way adults often talk to babies and young children.

Expansion

Repeating what a child says and adding more words to make it more complete

Locutionary Act

Simply saying or producing words through speaking, signing, or communication devices.

Illocutionary Act

Purpose or motive underlying an utterance.

Perlocutionary Act

Effect a locutionary act might have on a listener.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

The idea that people have different types of intelligence, not just one.

Jean Piaget

A theorist who believed children learn by exploring and interacting with their environment.

Adaptations

Changes children make to their thinking to fit new experiences.

Schema

Cognitive structure that helps children process, identify, organize, and store information.

Assimilation

Cognitive process whereby a new stimulus is fitted into an existing schema.

Accommodation

Cognitive process whereby new schemes are created for information that does not fit existing schemes.

Equilibrium

Keeping a balance between what you already know and learning something new.

Sensorimotor Intelligence

Piagetian stage (Birth–2 years) where children learn through sensory experiences and physical actions.

Preoperational Thought

Piagetian stage (2–7 years) where children use mental representations and symbols, but thinking is not fully logical.