Week 5 - Language

Question 1

What is Communication?

Answer 1

• A signal given by organism is perceived by and influences the behavior of another organism
  • Many animals communicate

Question 2

Why is human communication special?

Answer 2

• Intention

• Sensitive to the state of the receiver

Question 3

Precursors to Language

Answer 3

• following gaze

- pointing or other similar movements

Question 4

What is Language?

Answer 4

Intricate system of sounds or gestured symbols that people use to communicate with each other

Question 5

Generativity

Answer 5

Using a relatively small number of linguistic components and rules, we can create an infinite number of expressions

Question 6

Natural language

Answer 6

• Language acquired without intentional effort

• Nearly all children acquire a language that way

Question 7

Phonetics & Phonology

Answer 7

Learning about the sound system of a language

Question 8

Semantics

Answer 8

Learning about expressing meaning (e.g., word learning)

Question 9

Syntax

Answer 9

Learning the rules that determine how words go together in a sentence

Question 10

Pragmatics

Answer 10

Learning how language is used in social context

Question 11

4 Components of Language

Answer 11

Phonetics/Phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics

Question 12

Drive to Create Language

Answer 12

When children are raised in an environment with no language, they will create their own communication
system
• Children who are deaf and who are not exposed to American sign language will create gestures to communicate with their family

Question 13

Language in fetuses

Answer 13

• Fetuses can learn about auditory stimuli
  • Play full-term fetuses recordings of their mom reading a poem or a stranger reading a poem
  • Changes in heartbeat indicate that they could tell the difference

Question 14

How do we know what words children can understand?

Answer 14

Head-turn preference procedure

Question 15

Language comprehension at 5 months

Answer 15

Infants prefer listening to a recording of their own name than a stress-matched word

Question 16

Language comprehension at 6 months

Answer 16

• Prefer to listen to familiar words like “baby”
• Understand the referent of common words
• -> when word mom or dad was said would turn to corresponding parent

Question 17

Language comprehension at 8 months

Answer 17

Infants demonstrate understanding of basic phrases

Question 18

Language comprehension at 10 months

Answer 18

Infants have a receptive vocabulary of from 11 to 154 words

Question 19

Production of language from 0 to 6 months

Answer 19

0 to 2 months: Reflexive vocalizations
2 to 3 months: Cooing
4 to 6 months: Experimenting with their voice

Question 20

Production of language 6-10 months

Answer 20

Babbling
• Canonical babbling
• Babbling with real syllables
• Reduplicated babbling• (mamama)
• Variegated babbling• (bamananapapa)

Question 21

Gestures

Answer 21

8- to 12-months
• First gestures
• Holding something up
• Pointing
• Declarative
• Imperative
12-months
• Iconic gestures

Question 22

First words

Answer 22

12 months 
• On average, babies say first word
- usually first words are nouns
• 18 months
• Around 50 words
• Holophrases
• Bottle!
• Hug!

Question 23

First Words and Gestures

Answer 23

Children will combine gestures and words
• Gesture is linked to later language production
• The more a child gestures early, the more words they produce later

Question 24

Putting Words Together

Answer 24

12 months: Speaking first words

• 18 months: Putting two or three words together

Question 25

Learning the Rules of Language

Answer 25

``` Syntax: Word order • Other rules: • Plurals • Verb tenses • Children learn the rules of their language implicitly ```

Question 26

Overregularization

Answer 26

Once children know the rule, they begin to apply it in novel circumstances • Get irregular forms incorrect ex: past tense in english

Question 27

Why is Overregularization Occurring?: Dual-Mechanism Model

Answer 27

Interaction of rule and memory • Blocking principal • Retrieval of irregular form blocks application of the rule • Retrieval failure • To retrieve successfully, you need repeated encounters with the form

Question 28

Behaviorism in language

Answer 28

Language develops from operant conditioning • Input: Lots • Domain specific: No • Weaknesses • Reinforcement is rare/not necessary/often ineffective • Theory predicts that children learning multiple languages at once should be slower, and they are not

Question 29

Connectionism in language

Answer 29

Language results from environmental input • BUT the brain can handle many kinds of information simultaneously • Can generate rules, even when that rule was never explicitly stated • Input: Lots • Domain specific: No

Question 30

Early Empirical Approaches to language

Answer 30

- behaviorism | - connectionism

Question 31

Nativist Approaches

Answer 31

``` Language Acquisition Device • Can acquire all natural languages • Does not have specific rules • Includes abstract principles that guide learning in any language • Input: Little needed • Domain-specific: Yes ```

Question 32

Statistical Learning Approach

Answer 32

Children figure language out by getting lots of input and then working out the patterns

Question 33

Word Segmentation

Answer 33

where the boundaries between words are - can be hard to tell apart sometimes - Some sounds are more likely to go together in a word than are others

Question 34

Transitional probability

Answer 34

likelihood of one sound given a previous sound | - infants as young as 8 mo use statistics to figure out language

Question 35

Fast mapping

Answer 35

The process of rapidly learning a new word through incidental exposure rather than direct teaching - can do this from 2 yo - Fast mapping not limited to word learning • May be limited to linguistically presented material

Question 36

Constraints on Word Meanings

Answer 36

``` Riddle of reference (How do you know what a word refers to?) Shape bias (things with same shape have same name) Whole-object bias (Prefer to label whole objects rather than their parts) Mutual exclusivity (Each object only has one label) ```

Question 37

Children are able to learn new words with limited exposure and without direct exposure How is this possible?

Answer 37

(1) Assumptions about what words mean | (2) Use of social information

Question 38

Can Children Learn New Vocabulary from watching videos?

Answer 38

Older children can learn new vocabulary from a video

Question 39

Can Children Learn to Discriminate Phonemes from Watching Videos?

Answer 39

No, audio/visual stimulation is not enough they need a real person to be there

Question 40

Do Children Learn New Vocabulary from the Television They are Watching ?

Answer 40

- More time viewing Sesame Street predicted greater receptive vocabulary 2 years later, after accounting for receptive vocabulary at Time 1 • Watching other shows did not predict greater vocabulary

Question 41

Do Children Learn Language Equally Well from All Speakers?

Answer 41

infants prefer infant directed speech (IDS) | learn better from IDS than ADS

Question 42

Infant-Directed Speech (IDS)

Answer 42

May make word segmentation easier • Enables learning of new words that children did not learn when they heard them in adult-directed speech (ADS) • Younger infants remember words they heard in IDS better than those they heard in ADS

Question 43

Are Children Choosy About from Whom They Learn Language?

Answer 43

When learning language, children prefer: • Knowledgeable speakers to speakers who express uncertainty • Adults to children; however, children prefer a reliable child to an unreliable grown up • Older 4-year-olds prefer a speaker who uses correct grammar (This is a cup) to one who used incorrect grammar (That are a cup)

Question 44

Critical Period for First Language Learning

Answer 44

Difficult to master syntax after a certain age but not clear what this critical period is

Question 45

Critical period for second language learning

Answer 45

thought to end at around puberty (12-13 years) • Multiple critical periods depending on the aspect of language • For example, earlier exposure may be necessary to achieve optimal understanding of grammar