Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Development (EXAM 1)
What is Syntactic Development?
Syntactic Development: This is how children learn the rules for organizing words into sentences.
Grammar: These are the rules native speakers use to build sentences.
These grammatical rules are naturally understood by native speakers, helping them create and understand longer sentences easily.
Children use a limited number of language components (words and morphemes) to create endless sentence combinations.
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
MLU: This is the average number of morphemes (smallest units of meaning) per utterance, not words.
MLU is useful for estimating how complex a child's sentences are during the first 5 years of life, after which it becomes less reliable.
By age 6, children's utterances are almost as long as adults', indicating more morphemes and greater syntactic complexity.
How to Calculate MLU: You transcribe a child's speech, count the morphemes in each utterance, and then divide this by the total number of utterances (at least 50 utterances are needed, but 100 is ideal).
Longer sentences generally mean a more developed grammatical structure.
Sentence Modalities - Declarative
Declarative sentences: These are statements.
By age 3, most children have mastered the basic patterns for making declarative sentences.
They can use conjunctions (like "and," "because," "so") to link two independent clauses.
Sentence Modalities - Negative
Negative sentences: These sentences express negation using words like "no," "not," "can't," "don't," and "won't."
Initially, children place "no" at the beginning of a sentence (e.g., "No go.").
Later, the negative word moves inside the sentence, next to the main verb.
By age 4, children's negative sentences sound more like adults'.
Sentence Modalities - Interrogative
Interrogative sentences: These are questions.
Early questions often use a rising intonation rather than specific question words.
Early interrogatives include "wh-" words such as "what," "where," and "why."
During preschool, this expands to include "who," "whose," "when," "which," and "how."
Yes/no questions are also a type of interrogative sentence.
Complex Syntax: Linking Phrases and Clauses
Complex Syntax: This refers to using phrases, clauses, and conjunctions to create more intricate sentence structures.
Clause: A part of a sentence that contains a verb or verb phrase, used to build longer sentences (it always has a verb but not always a subject).
Independent Clause: A complete thought with a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence (e.g., "I ride my bike."). When you combine two independent clauses, it forms a compound sentence.
Dependent Clause: Contains a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone as a complete thought (e.g., "To the grocery store."). It needs to be combined with an independent clause to make sense, thus making the sentence complex.
Children usually master joining and embedding clauses by age 3.
Influences on Syntactic Development
Learning-from-input hypothesis: This theory suggests children learn grammar based on the language they hear.
Child-directed speech (CDS): This is the way adults and caregivers adjust their speech when talking to children (slower pace, use of prosodic cues, etc.).
A child's exposure to different types of syntax significantly impacts their syntactic development.
Children frequently hear simple syntax, which means grammatically correct sentences with basic noun and verb structures.
Children exposed to more complex syntax (e.g., through reading books) tend to produce complex sentences at an earlier age, which also helps with semantics, morphemes, and phonology.
Language Impairment and Syntax
Developmental and acquired language disorders often interfere with understanding and producing syntax.
Primary language disorder (Specific Language Impairment - SLI): This is when language is the only skill affected, often with a genetic component.
Secondary Language Disorder: Language impairment that occurs as a result of another disability (e.g., hearing loss, autism).
Children with language impairment typically use shorter sentences and struggle with correct verb tense.
Semantic Development
Semantic Development: This is how an individual learns and stores the meanings of words (the rules dictating word meaning).
Semantic and syntactic development are closely linked and can evolve at the same time, helping children understand language.
It involves three main tasks:
Building a mental lexicon of about 60,000 words.
Quickly learning new words.
Organizing words into a semantic network.
Lexicon
Mental Lexicon: The total number of words a person understands (receptive) and uses (expressive).
Receptive lexicon: The words a person understands. It is usually larger than the expressive lexicon.
Expressive lexicon: The words a person uses.
Children learn approximately 860860 words per year between ages 11 and 17.
Vocabulary spurt: Around 25% of children experience a rapid increase in word learning, typically starting near the end of their second year and continuing.
Contextual Conditions for Learning New Words
New words are easily forgotten until a child has a deep understanding of them (e.g., the word "kitty").
Contextual conditions assist word learning:
Lead-in: An adult labels an object or event that the child is not currently focused on.
Follow-in: An adult labels an object or event the child is currently focused on. This is more effective for vocabulary growth because the child is more emotionally and physically engaged.
Children learn words better when extralinguistic cues (non-verbal cues) are combined with the word, creating a stronger connection (e.g., pointing while talking).
Semantic Network
Semantic network:
Young children often make naming errors, especially around age 2.
Connections between words vary in strength and are based on syntactic, phonological, and semantic features:
Syntactic: "him" and "her" (based on grammatical role).
Phonological: "pin" and "pit" (based on sound).
Semantic: "whale" and "dolphin" (based on meaning).
Influences on Semantic Development
Gender: * Girls often have larger vocabularies and learn words more easily.
These differences typically disappear around ages 66 to 77.
This is due to a mix of biological, psychological, and social factors.
Language Impairment: * Children with SLI may have smaller vocabularies.
They often struggle to learn new words and have poorly organized semantic networks.
Children with SLI usually need more practice to learn a new word.
They may also experience word-finding difficulties and slower word retrieval.
Language Exposure: * Many studies show a strong link between the quantity and types of words a child hears and the size of their vocabulary.
Children from low Socioeconomic Status (SES) households might hear fewer words, leading to smaller vocabularies.
Pragmatic Development
Pragmatic Development: This is about learning the social rules for using language.
Three key aspects:
Using language for various communication functions.
Developing conversational skills.
Becoming sensitive to extralinguistic cues.
Communication Functions
Communication Functions: The purpose or intention behind what someone says.
Children learn a basic range of communication functions early in life.
Mastering these functions allows individuals to express their thoughts and feelings and use language for social interaction.
Children need to use all their language skills (from different domains) to express various communicative functions.
If skills in one domain are weak, communication can break down (e.g., issues with language form can significantly impact communication).
Conversational Skills
Conversations: Back-and-forth exchanges with others.
Schema (plural: Schemata): Mental frameworks or blueprints for how events are organized (e.g., a child expecting a lollipop when their mom goes to the bank).
When children have a good understanding of event structures (like language events), they can learn new information more easily.
Conversational schema involves:
Starting and establishing a topic.
Taking turns that keep or change the topic.
Concluding the conversation.
To join a conversation, children need to understand the current topic and show they share that understanding.
The development of conversational schema starts soon after birth through joint attention with caregivers.
Joint attention: When a child and caregiver focus on the same object.
Protoconversations: Early interactions where adults interpret infants' sounds and gestures, helping them learn conversational patterns by guiding them back to the topic.
Conversational Skills Cont.
By first grade, children can:
Successfully join conversations with peers.
Contribute something to a conversation within one minute of joining.
Actively participate, averaging 6161 utterances in just 1010 minutes.
Children quickly transition from being passive listeners to active participants in conversations.
Extralinguistic Cues
Extralinguistic cues: Non-verbal signals that help add meaning to conversations.
These include: Posture, Gesture, Facial expression, Eye contact, Proximity, Pitch, Loudness, and Pausing.
Children use facial expressions, gestures, stress patterns, and loudness to convey their intentions more clearly.
Influences on Pragmatic Development
Temperament: * This refers to a person's behavioral style or personality type.
A child's temperament can be seen in their pragmatic (social language) style (e.g., shy vs. outgoing children).
Social and Cultural Contexts: * Different communities have unique rules for how language is used.
A child's progress in pragmatics reflects the socialization they experience at home, school, and within their community.