what is language
a system that relates sounds (or gestures) to meaning
4 components to language
1) Has arbitrary units, therefore symbolic
2) Structured and meaningful
3) Shows displacement- can communicate events distant in time/space (not just here/now)
4) Characterized by generativity—can produce infinite number of utterance from languages vocabulary provided follows the structure
5 elements involved in spoken languages
1) phonology
2) morphology
3) semantics
4) syntax
5) pragmatics
what is phonology
sounds of a language (~200 different sounds use in all known spoken languages)
what are semantics
study of words and their meanings
what is syntax
rules that specify how words are combined in sentences
what are pragmatics
communicative functions of language and the rules that lead to effective communication
infants younger than 6 months learning language
do not need to experience speech sounds in their environment to be able to discriminate them
what are phonemes?
are sounds that are the building blocks of language, unique sounds that can be joined to create words (consonant + vowel sounds), can distinguish sounds as early as 1-month old
young babies hearing phonemes
can hear phonemes that are not in their language
what is Infant-directed speech
may help children learn language—adults speak slowly and with exaggerated changes in pitch and loudness (aka motherese)
what is a cochlear implant
device picks up speech sounds and converts them to electrical impulses that stimulate nerve cells in the ear
benefits of cochlear implants
first steps to speech at 2 months
cooing (vowel-like sounds)
first steps to speech at 6 months
babbling (speech-like sound that has no meaning), at this age pay more attention to content words than to function words
first steps to speech 8-11 months
babbling includes intonation (rising/falling pitch)
what do babies first words appear?
around first birthday
infants babbling is influenced by…
speech they hear
one of biggest challenges for infants is identifying….
identifying recurring patterns of sounds—words
Understanding words as symbols
what is naming explosion?
learn new words much more rapidly than before (~18 months)
learn 10 or more words each week
what is fast mapping?
learning word meanings so rapidly that they child can’t be considering all possible meanings for new word
4 ways rapid word learning occurs
1) joint attention
2) constraints on word names
3) sentence cues
4) cognitive growth
Joint attention
rapid word learning
toddlers touch or look at object often parents/adults will label it for them, parents will simplify by using one word