2. * Cognition: mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge

3. * Language: symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages

4. * Language is… * Symbolic: spoken sounds, written words * Semantic: meaningful * Generative: limited number of symbols can be combined to generate limitless array of messages * Structured: rules govern arrangement of words into phrases and sentences

5. * Phonemes: smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually * The smallest units of sound * Only 40 in English language

6. * Morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language * Semantics: the area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations * Consists of denotation and connotation

7. * Syntax: a system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences * Noun, verb, etc..

9. * 1 st 6 months: crying, cooing, laughter * Then babbling until around 18 months * 10 to 13 months: utter sounds that resemble words

10. * 3 to 50 words by 18 months * Receptive vocabulary is larger than productive vocabulary * Acquire nouns before verbs * 18-24 months: vocabulary spurt * 10,000 words by first grade

11. * Fast mapping: process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure

12. * Overextension: when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it is meant to * Underextension: when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to

13. * End of 2 nd year * Telegraphic speech: consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, and other less critical words are omitted

14. * Mean length of utterance: avg length of youngsters’ spoken statements (measured in morphemes) * Overregularizations: when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply

15. * School-age years receive formal training * Become interested in ambiguities * Shows they are developing Metalinguistic awareness: ability to reflect on the use of language

16. * DEF: the acquisition of 2 languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical rules * Acculturation: the degree to which a person is socially and psychologically integrated into a new culture

18. * Skinner: children learn language through imitation, reinforcement, other conditioning principles * Parents reinforce by responding

19. * Noam Chomsky: children learn the rules of language, not specific verbal responses * Humans are equipped w/a language acquisition device(LAD): innate mechanism or process that facilitates learning of language

20. * Biology and experience make contributions * 2 varieties of theory: * 1)Cognitive: language development is an important aspect of more general cognitive developmen * 2)social communication: interpersonal comm. and social context

21. * Linguistic relativity: hypothesis that one’s language determines the nature of one’s thought