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Language Development Flashcards
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Language Development Flashcards
Language Development Flashcards
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1
Question
Who are psycholinguists?
Answer
Those who study the structure and development of children's language.
2
Question
What is phonology?
Answer
The sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce meaningful units of speech.
3
Question
What are phonemes?
Answer
The basic units of sound that are used in a spoken language.
4
Question
What is morphology?
Answer
The rules governing the formation of meaningful words from sounds.
5
Question
What are morphemes?
Answer
Smallest meaningful language units.
6
Question
What are semantics?
Answer
The expressed meaning of words and sentences.
7
Question
What are morphemes?
Answer
Smallest meaningful units of language; can be free (stand alone) or bound (attached to free morphemes).
8
Question
What are free morphemes?
Answer
Can stand alone as words (e.g., dog, cat, go, yellow).
9
Question
What are bound morphemes?
Answer
Cannot stand alone; change meaning when attached to a free morpheme (e.g., -s in dogs, -ed in walked).
10
Question
What is syntax?
Answer
The structure of language; rules specifying how words are combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences.
11
Question
What is semantics?
Answer
Meanings expressed in words and sentences.
12
Question
What are phonological rules?
Answer
Rules that specify proper combinations of sounds to form meaningful words (e.g., flow vs. vlow).
13
Question
What is pragmatics?
Answer
Refers to the practical aspects of language use, including social context, body language, and prior knowledge.
14
Question
What is pragmatics of language?
Answer
Knowledge of how principles underlying effective language use can be used to communicate effectively in social contexts.
15
Question
What is sociolinguistic knowledge?
Answer
Culturally specific rules that dictate how language should be structured and used in particular social contexts; also called registers.
16
Question
What are examples of nonverbal signals?
Answer
Facial expressions, gestures, etc., which clarify verbal messages and are important means of communication.
17
Question
What does the example of Japanese and French-speaking children illustrate about language acquisition?
Answer
Children acquire Japanese, French, etc., based on their environment.
18
Question
What is a linguistic universal, according to nativists?
Answer
An aspect of language development that all children share, suggesting a biologically programmed activity.
19
Question
According to learning theorists, what processes do children use to learn language?
Answer
Imitation, reinforcement, and correction.
20
Question
How did B.F. Skinner believe adults shape a child's speech?
Answer
Adults selectively reinforcing aspects of babbling that resemble words.
21
Question
According to social-learning theorists, how do children acquire much of their linguistic knowledge?
Answer
Listening to and imitating the language of older companions.
22
Question
What evidence supports the learning perspective of language acquisition?
Answer
Imitation and reinforcement play a role in early language development; children speak the same language as their parents and acquire names for novel toys when reinforced.
23
Question
How does parental conversation style influence a child's language development?
Answer
Parents who encourage conversations and use diverse vocabulary have children with more advanced language development.
24
Question
What evidence challenges the idea that caregivers directly shape a child's language learning and grammar?
Answer
Bidirectional imitation between mothers and infants, and the fact that parental approval depends more on the truth value of a child's statement than grammatical correctness.
25
Question
Why is it unlikely that children acquire grammatical rules solely by imitating adult speech?
Answer
A child's earliest sentences are often highly creative, suggesting they are not simply imitating adult speech.
26
Question
What is the Nativist perspective on language development?
Answer
Human beings are biologically programmed to acquire language.
27
Question
Who proposed the concept of a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)?
Answer
Noam Chomsky
28
Question
What is Universal Grammar according to Chomsky?
Answer
Knowledge of universal rules common to all languages, contained within the LAD.
29
Question
What does LAD enable children to do?
Answer
Combine words into novel, rule-bound utterances and understand much of what they hear.
30
Question
What is the Language-Making Capacity (LMC) proposed by Dan Slobin?
Answer
An inborn set of cognitive and perceptual abilities highly specialized for language learning.