Child Psychology Terms-Chapter 7

Front 1

what is language?

Back 1

A communication system in which words and their written symbols combine in rule-governed ways and enable speakers to produce an infinite number of messages.

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communicative competence

Back 2

The ability to convey thoughts, feelings, and intentions in a meaningful and culturally patterned way.

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productive language

Back 3

The production of speech.

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receptive language

Back 4

Understanding the speech of others

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phonology

Back 5

The system of sounds that a language uses

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phoneme

Back 6

The basic unit of a language's phonetic system; phonemes are the smallest sound units that affect meaning.

Front 7

semantics

Back 7

The study of word meanings and word combinations, as in phrases, clauses, and sentences.

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grammar

Back 8

The structure of a language; consists of morphology and syntax.

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morphology

Back 9

The study of morphemes; language's smallest units of meaning.

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morpheme

Back 10

A language's smallest unit of meaning, such as a prefix, a suffix, or a root word.

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syntax

Back 11

the part of grammar that prescribes how words may combine into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

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pragmatics

Back 12

A set of rules that specify appropriate language for particular social contexts

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language acquisition device (LAD)

Back 13

Chromsky's proposed mental structure in the human nervous system that incorporates an innate concept of language.

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critical period

Back 14

A specific period in children's development when they are sensitive to a particular environmental stimulus that does not have the same effect on them when encountered before or after this period.

Front 15

creole language

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A language spoken by children of pidgin-language speakers that, in contrast with pidgin, in highly developed and rule governed.

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language acquisition support system (LASS)

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According to Bruner, a collection of strategies and tactics that environmental influences--initially, a child's parents or primary caregivers--provide the language-learning child.

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infant-directed or child-directed speech

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A simplified style of speech parents use with young children, in which sentences are short, simple, and often repetitive and the speaker enunciates especially clearly, slowly, and in a higher pitched voice, often ending with a rising intonation. Also called motherese.

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expansion

Back 18

A technique adults use in speaking to young children in which they imitate and expand or add to a child's statement.

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recast

Back 19

A technique adults use in speaking to young children in which they render a childs incomplete sentence in a more complex grammatical form

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protodeclarative

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A gesture that either an infant or a young child may use to get someone to do something she or he wants.

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categorical speech perception

Back 21

The tendency to perceive as the same a range of sounds belonging to the same phonemic group

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cooing

Back 22

A very young infant's production of vowellike sounds.

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babbling

Back 23

An infant's production of strings of consonant-vowel combinations.

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patterned speech

Back 24

A form of pseudospeech in which the child utters strings of phonemes that sound very much like real speech but are not.

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naming explosion

Back 25

The rapid increase in vocabulary that the child typically shows at about the age of 1.5 years.

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overextension

Back 26

The use, by a young child, of a single word to cover many different things.

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underextension

Back 27

The use, by a young child, of a single word in a restricted and individualistic way.

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holophrase

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A single word that appears to represent a complete thought

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telegraphic speech

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Two-word utterances that include only the words essential to convey the speaker's intent.

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overregularization

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The application of a principle of regular change to a word that changes irregularly.

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speech acts

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One- or two- word utterances that clearly refer to situations or to sequences of events.

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discourse

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Socially based conversation.

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metalinguistic awareness

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The understanding that language is a rule-bound system of communicating

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phonological awareness

Back 34

the understanding of the sounds of a language and of the properties, such as the number of sounds in a word, related to these sounds.

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bilingualism

Back 35

The acquisition of two languages.