Language Development

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Language Development
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War of Words

• Chomsky vs. Skinner
• Chomsky
• Internal LAD (language acquisition device)
• Nature
• Skinner
• Reinforcements
• Nurture

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BOTH ARE CORRECT!!!

• Wiring for language
• Think about Genie
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Infants have the ability to hear every sound
  possible

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Building Blocks for Language

• Phonemes
• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive
  sound unit
• Phonemes in ship
• 3 sh/i/p

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Building Blocks for Language

• Morpheme smallest unit that carries meaning
• Can be part of a word (prefix or suffix) or a
  word
• Pizza
• Unbreakable
• Un not
• Able ability

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Building Blocks for Language

• Grammar rules in a language that we use to
  communicate and understand others
• Needs to be agreed on by the culture

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Building Blocks for Language

• Semantics a set of rules by which we derive
  meaning in a language
• Add ed in English
• Adding a in Spanish

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Building Blocks for Language

• Syntax the rules for combining words into
  grammatically correct sentences
• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but in
  Spanish, nouns come before adjectives
• White House or Casa Blanca

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Developmental Stages

• Crying born
• Babbling Stage 3 months 1 year
• Ability to make ALL sounds

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Developmental Stages

• One Word Stage children ages 1-2
• NO
• Mama
• Please

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Developmental Stages

• Two Word Stage by age 2, they combine 2 words
  together
• Often called telegraphic speech
• Play ball, I go, no Mommy etc.

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Silly Mistakes

• Overextension applying a category label to
  something that doesnt fit that category
• Calling a 4-legged animal a doggie

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Another Silly Mistake

• Overregularization incorrectly applying
  grammatical rules
• I goed to the store and buyed mouses

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Linguistic Determinism

• Language determines thought
• Benjamin Whorf
• Battled Piaget

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Metalinguistic Awareness

• Becoming aware facets of language
• Develops around age 8
• Marked by understanding play on words, etc.