Language Acquisition Theories

4th Floor Study

• A sociolinguistic study by William Labov in 1966 to analyze pronunciation variation depending on social class
• It focused on the pronunciation of 'r' in words like "fourth"
• People of upper class pronounced the 'r' more clearly
• People from lower class dropped the 'r' more
• Middle-class representatives uncertainly pronounced 'r', emphasized it when asked to repeat, showing linguistic awareness
• Demonstrated that language reflects social status and individuals adjust their speech to fit societal expectations

Accent

• Any variety differing systematically from other varieties in pronunciation, a distinguishable type of pronunciation
• Doesn't encompass vocabulary or grammar, but focuses on how words are pronounced

Dialect

• A more or less identifiable regional or social variety involving more than just accent
• Includes differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar

Agglutinative Language

• Words consist of a stem with a core meaning with affixes (prefixes, suffixes) added conveying grammatical information one after another
• Examples include Japanese and Turkish

Polysynthetic Language

• Language style creates very long words with sentence/phrase meaning
• Combines multiple morphemes into a single complex word
• Example includes Mohawk

Analytic Language

• Words typically have one form and do not change to express different grammatical relations
• Relies on word order and context
• An example is Chinese

Arbitrariness

• There is no natural connection between a word's form and its meaning
• It is a matter of convention agreed upon by the community
• de Saussure defined arbitrariness

Beats

• Short quick movements of the hand or fingers made during speech
• Often used to emphasize parts to focus on. (part of gesture)

Bilingualism

• The ability to use two languages fluently

Cataphora

• Cohesion where a word/phrase refers to something later in the discourse
• Example: "If you want them, there are some cookies in the kitchen"

Co-Reference

• When two or more expressions in a sentence refer to the same entity
• Includes cataphora, anaphora (backward reference: "John arrived late because he missed the bus" refers to John), and exophora (contextual reference: "Look at that!" depends on the situation)

Cocktail Party Effect

• The ability to focus on a specific conversation in a noisy environment

Code Switching

• Using words/phrases from two or more languages in the same conversation

Cognates

• Words of the same etymological origin (same ancestor language) and used with similar meaning, usually with similar spelling
• Mother (English) and Mutter (German) are examples

Colligations

• Grammatical patterns or structures words typically follow within a language
• Focuses on how words combine based on grammar rules and syntax
• "hear her singing" as an example

Collocations

• The idea that some words occur together more often than others to the degree that you can't substitute without changing the meaning
• Examples include: red wine, strong coffee, and give birth

Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously

• A sentence demonstrates that syntax is independent from semantics
• Grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical

Combinatoriality

• Joining smaller meaningless units (phonemes) into larger meaningful units (morphemes/words)

Communication

• The process by which information, ideas, or emotions are exchanged

Competence

• An individual's underlying knowledge of their native language, which allows speakers to generate and understand an infinite number of sentences

Compositionality

• The meaning of a complex expression is determined by combining the meanings of its individual components in a systematic way

Connotation

• Additional meanings including associations and emotions that a word or phrase carries beyond its literal definition (denotation)
• "Home" is associated with warmth and comfort

Constancy Under Negation

• A phrase/sentence's meaning remains consistent even when negated
• 'She is happy’ idea is that a person experiences happiness, negation simply symbolizes lack of it.

Constituency Parsing

• Breaking down a sentence into a hierarchical structure

Dependency Parsing

• Focuses on relationships between words in a sentence, analyzing how words depend on each other to form meaningful structures

Constituent

• A group of words that function together as a single unit within a sentence or phrase

Context: Co-Text

• Surrounding text or language elements that provide meaning
• Helps interpret a specific part of a text in relation to the words around it

Conventional sign

• A symbol, word, or gesture with a meaning agreed upon by a community through social norms (Peirce's typology)

Creole

• A fully developed natural language from mixing different languages when speakers of different linguistic backgrounds need to communicate

Creolisation

• A pidgin language developing into a creole
• Transformation occurs when a pidgin becomes the first language of a new generation, leading to a more complex grammar

Deep Structure

• A simple, declarative sentence specifying the core meaning of the sentence.

Deictic Gestures

• Pointing gestures of the hand or fingers and often used while talking and don't convey meaning unless there's context
• Evolutionary linguists suggest language originated from gestures

Deixis

• Words and expressions which depend on context ("me", "here")

Denotation

• Literal, dictionary definition of a word without emotional or cultural associations
• 'Home' is defined as a place where someone lives

Vocal-Auditory Channel

• Design feature of language including language being primarily transmitted through speech and hearing

Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception

• When people speak, sound waves travel in all directions, but any listener can detect where the sound came from

Rapid Fading

• Design feature of language including speech disappearing quickly

Interchangeability

Speaker can both send and receive messages

Total Feedback

• Total feedback includes that people can monitor and hear themselves as they speak in order to correct any mistakes

Specialization

Design feature focusing on language specifically used for communication, not for other biological functions

Semanticity

• Design feature including words and sounds having specific meanings

Arbitrariness

• Design feature where there is no natural connection between a word and its meaning

Discreteness

• A design feature where language consists of separate units (sounds, words, sentences) that combine in different ways

Displacement

• Design feature including talking about things that are not present, past, future, or imaginary

Productivity

• A design feature where language allows the creation of an infinite number of sentences from a set of words

Cultural Transmission

• A design feature where language is learned from other people and not inherited biologically

Duality of Patterning

• Includes language working on two levels of sounds (phonemes) and meaningful combinations (words/sentences)

Diachronic Linguistics

• Studying the historical evolution of languages, including how language changes over time

Synchronic Linguistics

• The study of a language at a particular point in time

Diglossia

• Two very different varieties co-occur throughout a speech community, each with a distinct range of social function

E-Language

• Short for External Language, refers to language as an observable phenomenon in the world, in texts, speech, and society

English Among Indo-European Languages

• English is part of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Germanic branch (West Germanic) within the Indo-European family.

Entailment

• Logic concept where one statement logically follows from the other(s)

Etymology

• The study of the origins of words and how their meanings change

Exophora

• Contextual reference where the reference is outside the text and depends on the context

Extralinguistic Context

• Extra information that helps make sense of what's being said, beyond just words or grammar

FLB

• The Faculty of Language in the Broad Sense introduced by Noam Chomsky regarding the mental abilities of human's ability to learn produce and understand language

FLN

• The Faculty of Language in the Narrow Sense focuses on the core language skills needed to produce language

Generative Grammar

• Research tradition originated by Noam Chomsky with the intent to formulate subconscious rules to model a person's grammatical knowledge

Deep Structure

• Abstract, underlying meaning that is part of a system of rules which allows transformational grammar to transform into surface structure

Surface Structure

• The actual grammatical form that is heard or seen that derives from the deep structure transformational grammar

Universal Grammar

• Pre-existing knowledge about grammar that is universal to all human languages and people

Competence/Performance Distinction

• Linguistic competence, the speaker's underlying knowledge of language vs the linguistic performance of actual usage

Innateness

• Language acquisition is an innate human ability

Well-Formedness

• Grammaticality of a sentence and whether a sentence is correctly structured according to the rules of a particular language

Principles and Parameters

• Universal principles apply to all languages, and parameters allow languages to differ based on how these principles are set

Gesture-First Hypothesis

• Gestures, particularly manual gestures(hand movements), played a fundamental role in the evolution of language and before spoken language

Gesture: Emblem

• Emblems often contain iconic and culture specific meanings

Grammaticalization Semantic Bleaching

• Grammaticalization is when Loss of the original, specific meaning of a word as it undergoes grammaticalization, resulting in a weakened, more abstract meaning

Historical Linguistics

• Studies the evolution and changes in languages over time (phonetics, morphology,syntax, vocabulary and semantics)

Holophrasis

• The meaning of a word expresses the meaning of a sentence or a complex idea
• Example: "Milk!" meaning "I Want milk!".

Hypercorrection

• When speakers of a non-standard variety attempts to use the standard variety, producing a version which does not appear in the standard.

Hypernymy

• Semantic relationship between words
• One word has a general meaning
• One word has a specific meaning animal (hypernym)- dog (hyponym)

Hyponymy

• Word meaning is more specific concept
• A word belongs to a broader category rose is a hyponym of flower

Iconicity

• The more physical resemblance the word has to real life
• Onomatopoeia (meow, bang)
• Reduplication & Prosodic Features is stretching vowels for intensity or size (huuuuuuge monster)
• Sound Symbolism (Phonoaesthesia) uses phonemes-are associated with specific meaning -words associated with breathing (sniff, snore)(element of Peirce's typology)

Icon

• the form-content relation is based on physical resemblance
• the sign functions as an icon,
• It visually resembles what it represents in a way that the human mind can easily recognize
• Example: restroom signs (element of Peirce's typology)

Idiolect

• The unique and individual variety of language spoken by a single person
• It includes a person's specific vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and speech patterns, shaped by their personal experiences, social background, and cognitive preferences

I-Language

• The internal, mental representation of language in an individual's mind

Index

• Relationship between the sign and its meaning. Unlike symbols the index is directly connected to the thing it signifies - smoke is an index of fire

Inflectional

• Type of word formation including adding affixes (prefixes, suffixes, etc.) to a word stem
• The core meaning remains unchanged but modifies grammatical properties

Innateness

• Humans are born with an ability to acquire language. Linguistic structure are pre-programmed and passed down through genes

Language Branch

• A group of languages that are genetically related and share a common ancestor language

Language Family

• Larger grouping of related languages within a family are branches

Language Variety

• Refers to how these languages are shaped through a geographical or educational setting

Language vs a Language

• Concept of human communication distinct from language in a specific system like English or Spanish

La Langage

• The human capacity for language and speech

La Langue

• The structured system of language

La Parole

• Individual acts of speaking

Lemma

• The canonical or base form of a word

Lexeme

• The core meaning of a word

Linguistic Fossil

• Ray Jackendoff describes a linguistic fossil as a fixed expression

McGurk Effect

• It is perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates the interaction between auditory and visual information in speech perception

Meaning Change

• How a word/expression evolves over time, acquiring new usages and losing old ones

Semantic Broadening

• When a word's meaning becomes generalized
• The word dog formerly referred to a specific type and now applies more broadly

Semantic Narrowing

• When a word's meaning becomes restrictive

Semantic Shift

• When a word's meanings shifts but doesn't involve previously mentioned changes awful- inspiring nowadays terrible

Metalanguage

• The language used to talk about language itself

Morpheme

• The smallest meaningful unit of language

Morphological Reduction

• process by which a morpheme or word undergoes a simplification or loss of parts over time, either in form or structure

Morphology

• Branch of linguistics meaning word structure

Non-Verbal Communication

• Transmission of messages without the use of words intentional or unintentional

Object

• Noun/noun phrase that is affected by a verb

Ogden-Richards Triangle

• Triangle of meanings symbol, referent and thought

Onomastics

• Study of names

Performance

• Person's language and competency

Performativity in Language

• Language with real world action

Philology

• Historical study of language

Phonetic Erosion

• Gradual weakening of language

Phonetics vs Phonology

• Phonetics on the physical aspects of sound vs how these interact in a sound system

Phylogenesis

• Evolutionary development of something

Pidgin

• Simplified language developing communication

Pragmatic inference -

• Process by which listeners understand implied meaning

Pragmatics

• Branch of linguistic concerned with interpretation influences the communication

Presupposition

• Assumption or background information for a statement to make sense to be interpreted true
• The background information that is taken for granted or assumed by the speaker and shared with the listener in order for a statement to make sense or be interpreted correctly.

Propositon

• Meaning that a sentence conveys

Ptotolanguage vs Proto-Language

• Hypothetical ancestor of language of communication that predates language grammar and syntax

Recursion

• Put in instances of syntax in another type "The cat chased the dog is tired"

Reference

Relationship between phrases and world specific concepts

Register

• Variation in language depending on social context for communication, the purpose of it or situation

Roles of Sentence(Subject, Verb, Object)

• Subject verb and object, object - sentence is element affected be action of the verb

Roman Jakobson Communitive

• Reversal- referent or content of the message what to transfer information about the world Emotional- the speakers attitude.

Conative

• The listener's command

Phatic

• To close of communication

Metalinguistic

• meaning of dog

Poetic

• Focus on what is being conveyed rather in said

Saltationsim

• Where jump in evolution by single mutation

Gradualsim

• Changes slow over time

Semantic

• Branch in lingustics that involves meaning

Shibboleth

Term or phrase that distinguishment group

Signifant

• Signifier

Signifie

• Signified

Social Markers

• Language for the purpose of social standing

Sociolect

• Speech to reflect identity status in speaking

Sociologustics

• Relationship between language and society

Cognitive and Enviromental

• Pressures that affect language ways

Stages of Lang Developement

• Old English, Middle English transition of the vowel and then early

Structure Ambguity

• Interpretation of a meaning but the structure is different

Surface Structure

• The sentence as it as a whole

Symbol

• Representations of somethings in social communication

Syntactic

• Evolutement transformation sentences

Syntax

• Study how phases class sentence set

TV distinct

• Pronouns used to distinct people social standing intimate

Teaching

• Sign language

Temrinal Language

• Basic symbols in languages

Faulty language

• Innate special capability is needed aquire language

Illocutionary

• Function behind the speakers utterance (Austin

Locuntiuonury Act

• Produce sound utter words in Language(Austin

Perlocuntiy

• Affect an utterance has to listener

Sociolinguistics

• Research on how language has to the population used based social class (LaboB)
• Standard Variety is accepted normal

Transferations

• Actions to maintain meaning

Tree Structure

• Used to show relationship

Explore key concepts in language acquisition theories, including linguistic abilities, core language skills, and universal grammar. Distinguish between deep and surface structure, and understand the relationship between syntax and semantics. Learn about the innate human capacity for language and the difference between competence and performance.