Language Acquisition Exam 2

Content morphemes

Have a concrete meaning; can accept addition of new morphemes (dog, chair)

Function morphemes

Word endings that modify the meaning of a word; can standalone or connect (the, -ing)

Bound morphemes

Can’t be by themselves, must be connected to something (-ed)

Free morphemes

Can be by itself in a sentence (the)

Inflectional morphemes

Changes the tense; small change in meaning (-ed)

Derivational morphemes

Changes the grammatical class; big change in meaning (-able, -er)

Allomorphs for -s

/s/ /z/ /ɪz/

Allomorphs for -ed

/d/ /t/ /ɪd/

Present progressive -ing

1st; indicates ongoing action (stage 2)

In

2nd; preposition (mastered stage 2)

On

3rd, same times as in; preposition (mastered stage 2)

Regular plural /s/

4th; indicate plurality, no irregulars (mastered stage 2)

Irregular past tense

5th; originally learned as lexical items, only irregulars before -ed (mastered stage 2)

Possessive /s/

6th; initially based on associations not ownership (mastered stage 3)

Uncontractible copula

7th; am, is, are, was, were (mastered stage 3-5+)

Articles

8th; only a and the (emerge stage 2)

Regular past tense -ed

9th; earliest version are verbs that refer to short duration events (start around 27 mo)

3rd person regular present

10th; singular -s (appear stage 2, mastered stage 5)

3rd person irregular

11th; do/does, have/has (appear stage 2, mastered stage 5)

Uncontractible auxiliary

12th; present and past forms of to be: am, is, are, was, were (mastered stage 5)

Contractible copula

13th; is, are, am (mastered over time, age 2)

Contractible auxiliary

14th: is (mastered over time, age 2)

Factors that affect order of acquisition

1. Frequency in the input

2. Regular pattern

3. Perceptual factors

4. Cognitive factors

Frequency in the input

Commonly experienced things are acquired before less commonly experienced things

Regular form

The more regular the pattern, the easier it is to learn

Perceptual factors

Easiest to hear sounds are learned earlier (vowels and nasals); whole syllables, end of sentence, stress

Cognitive factors

Concepts that are easily understood are learned earlier than things that aren’t

Mean length of utterance

Based on the average length of a child’s utterances scored from spontaneous speech, length determines by number of morphemes

What is flexible morphological use?

Using the rule flexibly and in new contexts; same morphemes with 3 or more stems, using the same stem with 3 or more morphemes

How is the wug test used to measure mastery?

Using the morpheme with nonsense words; shows understanding of morpheme and allomorphs

What is overregularizing?

Using the rule too much (went: goed, wented)

What is U-shaped development? How does it apply to the development of past tense -ed?

At first appear proficient (memorization), get worse, improve again (mastery)

Types of sentences

1. Declarative

2. Negative

3. Interrogative

Declarative sentence

Simple statements

Negative sentence

Falsifying something

Interrogative sentence

Question

Early declaratives

SVO (~30 mo), “I eat toast”

Mid declaratives

Auxiliaries (~33 mo), “I am eating toast”

What are modal auxiliaries?

Concepts of possibility: will, shall, can, may, must

Late declaratives

Indirect objects & double objects (~44 mo), "I gave it to Bobby” “Mommy buy me a book”

Early negatives

• One-word stage “no”

• Negative + X “no boots” (23-25 mo)

Mid negatives

• Internal negative markers “I not make mess” (31-41 mo)

• Auxiliary markers “I don’t want it” (35-50 mo)

Late negatives

• Negative interrogatives “Don’t you like pizzas?” (5+ yo)

• Indefinite forms: nobody, no one, nothing “No one ate the cookies” (5+ yo)

Early interrogatives

• Use of intonation/pitch

• What + NP, What + NP + doing

• Where + NP, Where + NP + going

Mid interrogatives

• Wh word + NP + VP

• Subject verb inversion

Late interrogatives

• Subject verb inversion gets more consistent for y/n

• Subject verb inversion appears for wh questions

What is the typical order of acquisition of Wh words?

1. Where, what (2 yo)

2. Who

3. How

4. Why

5. Which, whose, when (3+ yo)

What are the two types of interrogatives?

1. Yes/no questions

2. Wh- questions

What is a noun phrase?

Serve the function of the noun in the sentence; have noun or pronoun as a head

What is a verb phrase?

Syntactic element that expresses existence, action, or occurrence; have verb as a head

Elements of noun phrase

• Noun/pronoun

• Modifier

  • Determiner - quantifier, article, demonstrative, numerical term

  • Adjective

  • Post noun modifier (prepositional phrase)

Elements of verb phrase

• Main verb

• Auxiliary

• Copula

• Negative

• Adverbs

Development of phrase structure

• Two element phrases (18-24 mo)

• Three element phrases (24-30 mo)

• Four element phrases (30-36 mo)

• Recursive elements (36-42 mo)

What are clauses?

A group of words that are unified by meaning, have their own subject and predicate, must have a verb

Simple clauses

1 independent clause

Compound clauses

2 or more independent clauses combined with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOY)

Complex clauses

1 independent clause combined with one or more dependent clause with subordinating conjunction

Communicative functions that preschoolers use

• Requesting permission

• Suggestion

• Offer

• Indirect requests

• Exclamations

• Primitive narrative development

Ways to elicit communicative functions through naturalistic observations

“The Peanut Butter Protocol”

Ways in which pragmatic language changes in preschoolers

Understanding social cues, turn-taking, and context

Cultural responsivity considerations

• Regularity of interaction with items

• Cultural views of child-caregiver relationship

• Ask caregiver if evaluation is representative of child’s skills

What are narratives?

Involves the telling of stories or accounts that have a beginning, middle, and end; monologue

What is the structure of narratives?

Story grammar - an internal structure, elements, how it flows

How are narratives different from conversation and exposition?

Shared knowledge must be considered, governed by cultural norms and values

What are the cultural and linguistic considerations for narratives?

1. Narrative information and organization

2. Effects of experience and world knowledge

3. Narrative elicitation tasks

4. Audience involvement

5. Paralinguistic strategies

What is discourse?

A dialogue between people; requires form, content,a dn use

What are the different kinds of discourse?

Conversational, expository, and narrative

How does topic maintenance change over time?

Improves with age and experience

What are the different requirements for producing a contingent response?

• Retrieving information from memory

• Attending to ongoing interactions

• Attending to content of prior messages

What is a contextually contingent response?

Reponse that refers to something dependent on or influenced by the specific situation or circumstances of a conversation or interaction; “Where is the other sock?” “See my sitting on it”

What is a linguistically contingent response?

Response that relates to dependencies or variations based on the language used or linguistic knowledge; “Where is the other sock?” “It is under the table”

What does it mean for something to be decontextualized?

Shown or considered without context

What changes mark development in children’s narrative production?

• Growing independence

• Increased frequency of spontaneous mention of past events

• Increased length

• Increased structural complexity

• Increased use of narrative devices

Personal narratives

Ask children to describe something they have experienced

Spontaneous story generation

Have children give story to a wordless storybook, encourage to tell story so that someone who couldn’t see the book would still understand it

Story retells

Use wordless storybook or ask the children to listen to the story, then have them repeat the story back

Setting

Time and place; provides context

Initiating event

Sets the story in motion; a problem or function

Internal response

Character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions

Internal plan

Plan of the main character to deal with the initiating event

Attempt

Actions to solve the problem

Outcome

Results of attempts; can be positive or negative

Resolution

Ending to the story

What must a clause contain?

Must contain a verb

Dependent clauses

Ideas that are not equal to the main clause

Independent clauses

The main idea in the sentence

Subordinating conjunctions

Although, because, when, than

Coordinating conjunctions

FANBOY: for, and, nor, but, or, yet

C-unit

Independent clause with modifiers and subordinate conjunctions; cannot be divided without affecting meaning

Conversation

Language used in everyday communication exchanges between individuals; dynamic

Narratives

Involves the telling of stories or accounts that have a beginning, middle, and end; one speaker

Expository

Focuses on explaining, describing, or providing information about a specific topic or concept; logical and organized structure

Brown’s 1st stage language of development

Two word sentences, telegraphic speech, semantic relations (1-2 yo)

Brown’s 2nd stage language of development

Morphological development (27-30 mo)

Brown’s 3rd stage language of development

Sentence forms (31-34 mo)

Brown’s 4th stage language of development

Embedding (35-40 mo)

Brown’s 5th stage language of development

Conjoining of clauses (41-46 mo)

Copula

Verbs that serve a grammatical purpose, main verb of the sentence; links subject to adjective or noun

Auxiliary

Helping verb, must be another verb in the sentence; links subject with another verb

Contractibility

Can be contracted with the subject (I am = I’m)