Linguistics Exam 2

Front 1

True or False? although part of the language could be innate, part of it must be dependent on enviornmental factors

Back 1

True

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Principle/Linguistic Universal

Back 2

Something that is true of all languages

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Global Universals

Back 3

These refer to the general design of the mental grammar and the general structure of these components (the structure of grammar)

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Local Universals

Back 4

These refer to the actual primitives and rules that display properties that we seem to find in all languages (ex.all structures have heads and are binary)

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Absolute Universal

Back 5

These are true in all cases (ex. all languages have nouns)

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Implicational Universals

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Context-free implicational universal and context-bound implicational universal

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Context-free implicational universal

Back 7

if a language has A it also has B (ex. if a language has the sound /f/ it will also have the /v/)

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Context-bound implicational universal

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If a language has voice obstruents in a word final position it will also have voiceless obstruents in that position

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Tendencies

Back 9

These are very often true, but there appear to be exceptions (for ex. subject verb object order)

Front 10

true/false: the existence of language universals has been used to support the innateness hypothesis

Back 10

True

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Historical explanation

Back 11

All languages have properties in common because they have all developed from one language that was spoken far in the past, all differences are called homolgies

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Functional Explanation

Back 12

Common design is caused by the functions that language has

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reductionist explanation

Back 13

All universals are grounded in the anatomy of speech organs (we have universals because we all have similar organs used to speak)

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Neurological explanation

Back 14

Explains the structure of language in terms of the neurological structure of the brain and how the brain processes information (we all have universals because our brains are setup the same)

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Cognitive explanation

Back 15

Says universal structure comes from general principles of cognition (we all have universals because we all think the same way)

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What is a parameter?

Back 16

A statement that indicates a choice between (often two) possible properties of mental grammars/languages

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head complement parameter

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heads precede their complements/heads follow their complements

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onset parameters

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In English, syllables can start with zero, one, two, or three consonants (ex. in, sing, fling, spring), while in some languages syllables cannot have more than one consonant (i.e. only in or pin would be allowed)

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ontogenetic inquiry into human knowledge

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It involves investigating how the mind develops in the maturing child, and includes the logical problem of language acquisition and the developmental problem of language acquisition

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True or False? Chomsky Claims that you can analyze each unique language system in terms of (a) universal principles, and (b) parameters

Back 20

True

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true/false: According to Chomsky, it can be said that language acquisition is just setting the value of the parameters (and learning the lexicon)

Back 21

True

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statistical learning

Back 22

An empiricist theory, a central question to this approach is the degree to which language acquisition can be achieved with a single learning mechanism.

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What is Plato's Problem?

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How do we end up knowing so much on the basis of so little exposure? The poverty of the stimulus

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Poverty of the stimulus argument

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We have knowledge of facts about a language even in the absence of experience

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True/False: It would seem that the language input that the child is exposed to ("the stimulus") under-determines the richness of the mental grammar that they end up with.

Back 25

True

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True/False: We often refer to the structure dependency of rules as an example of this argument

Back 26

True

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Property of the input

Back 27

incompleteness (children are not or barely exposed to very complicated sentences), limitedness (children are only exposed to a finite amount of data, don't hear all sentences), Diversity (different children are exposed to different data sets, different experiences), errors (children hear errors), Lack of negative evidence (children are not informed about what is not grammatical, parents correct for truth not for grammar), Lack of instruction (children are not given explicit instruction, not really taught it)

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Motherese

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Motherese is the particular way that mothers/parents/caretakers speak to children; parents typically correct for content

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Subset Principle

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It suggests that children choose the narrowest initial hypothesis

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We determine the stage of acqusition a child is in by

Back 30

their mean length of utterance

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Peter Eimas found in habituation studies that 2 week old infants are capable of categorical perception. This means that they are

Back 31

distinguish phonetic categories of voice in "ba/pa" sequences

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Stages of Aquisition

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Stage 1 (0-8 weeks): Basic biological noises, reflexive noises
Stage 2 (8-20 weeks): Cooing (go, ga)
Stage 3 (20-30 weeks): Vocal Play, syllables
Stage 4 (25-50 weeks): Babbling
Stage 5 (9-18 months):Melodic utterances
Stage 6: (1-1.5 years): Holophrastic stage (perception is ahead of production)
Stage 7 (1.5-2 years): Two word stage
Stage 8 (2-2.5 years): Telegraphic stage, over-generalization

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True/False: The acquisition stages show a pattern of (biological) maturation which in turn suggests that language acquisition is guided by a "language instinct"

Back 33

True

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experiments of nature are also called

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forbidden experiments (experiements with ethical problems)

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True/False: Plasticity is the ability of the brain to recover from brain damage, and up through age 5 the plasticity of the brain is extraordinary.

Back 35

True

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Critical Period

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a period during which exposure to input must be present in order to develop a certain skill/capacity/type of knowledge

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Exercise Hypothesis

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late learning is perfectly possible for people who have learned a first language early in life

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Maturational state hypothesis

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exercise is irrelevant; language learning declines with maturation

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Derek Bickerton determined that

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UG was preceded by a more elementary innate grammar referred to as proto-language and properties of this language include words for concrete concepts, simple phonology, no recursion, use of melody and use of gesture

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Lingua Franca

Back 40

The language that people use when they speak two different languages and forced to communicate wtih eachother

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Pidgin

Back 41

A language that is developed when people speak different languages but are forced together, it doesnt have a consistent word order or grammar, no stable vocab, no embedded clauses and no consistent use of function words

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Creole

Back 42

when children are exposed to pidgin as their native language

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Creolization

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The process of a child taking a pidgin and making it a true language

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Creole Continuum

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a lot of language varieties in an area

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modality

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a channel which is used to convey language

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Visual modality

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used by sign language

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auditory channel

Back 47

what english uses

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Critical Period

Back 48

a period in which exposure to input must be present in order to develop a certain skill/capacity/type of knowledge

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home sign

Back 49

a home sign develops if there is no input at all, its a set of gestures will emerge that is used by both the child and their caretakers. these gestures are either natural iconic gestures for daily things, or they are adopted by the deaf children from the natural gesturing people do.

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Creolization

Back 50

the development, due to first language acquisition, of a pidgin into a creole, it does occur in sign languages