A Quick Recap... What do these key terms mean? Can you give an example of each? Referent: Holophrase: Productive Vocabulary: Mehler:

Reflection Questions 1.What evidence is there to suggest that language development actually begins in the womb? 2.What are the first stages of pre-language development? 3.Why might crying be seen as a form of instinctive communication? 4.Why is cooing seen as a universal stage in development? 5.Why is babbling such an important stage? 6.Why might parents mistake sounds in the babbling stage for first words? 7.What is the term for these repeated sounds? 8.Explain phonemic expansion and contraction.

Key Words  Overextend: To stretch the meaning of a word.  Underextend: To contract the meaning of a word.  Holophrase: A one-word utterance that is used to communicate more than the one word on its own.  Proto-word: Sounds that resemble actual words but that are not consistently applied to their referents.

Influences on Language Acquisition – The Environment City Child Country Child

Overextending Words A child has to combine phonemes in various ways to form words, each with a meaning. The semantic limits of words and the boundaries between them may take some time to establish. For example, a child may call all animals "dogs" before realising that some of the really big dogs are called "horses" and then, perhaps after a visit to the zoo, discovering that the stripy horses are known as "zebras". Crystal (1995) states that an individual's active vocabulary (the words s/he actually uses) may reach 50,000 words or more, with a similar number making up the passive vocabulary of words which are understood but not actually used.

Underextending Words  Words can also have their meaning underextended. A child may have a clear idea of what a banana looks like when faced with a real banana, but fail to recognise it in a book or photograph.  This mislabelling sheds some light on how they learn to link words and meaning to objects around them.

Categorical Overextension When a word is stretched to mean a Hypernym rather than a Hyponym.  Example: Apple (Hyponym) Fruit (Hypernym) Only when a child has picked up other hyponyms within the same category does this start to disappear.

Analogical Overextension Relates to the function or perception of an object. A scarf might be called a cat when a child strokes it... = ?

Mismatch or Predicate Statements Statements that convey some form of abstract Information  For example: a child might use the word ‘doll’ when referring to an empty cot. This may appear to be a complete mislabelling of the item, but appeared to be linked to the absence of something they expected to be there.

What form of Extension is happening? Child’s WordsContext in Utterance TigerUsed when looking at pictures of tigers, lions and leopards. SocksUsed when referring to gloves. DuckUsed when talking about feeding ducks, pigeons and other birds in a park. CatUsed when pointing at a door where a cat normally resides. ShoesUsed when referring to own pair of shoes, but not when talking about any other type of shoe. Do children use overextensions because they genuinely think the objects they are naming are the same thing? Or are they plugging the gap in their vocabulary?

Building Meanings – Aitchison’s model of acquisition of words and meanings StageExample Labelling Associating sounds with objects in the world around the child Linking words to things Understanding the concept of labels Attaching the label cat to an animal Packaging Starting to explore the extent of the label Often the stage during which over- and underextensions occur most frequently Establishing what makes it a cat, as opposed to a bird or a snail e.g. Four legs, fur, evil. Network Building Making Connections between the labels they have developed Understanding opposites and similarities, relationships and contrasts The connection between the cat as a label and the cat as a type of animal.

Developing Vocabulary  David Crystal estimates that the average vocabulary of a university graduate is between 60,000 and 70,000 words. Yours is probably between 25,000 and 35,000 – how many new words do you think you’ve learned this week?  The OED has approximately 600,000 words and at least 1,800 new and revised words are added each quarter.  Research suggests that the average 6 year old has a vocabulary of 13,000 words.  Children (between 1 and 16) learn a new word every 90 minutes What does this tell us about our language skills?

What was I on about?

Naming Action Social Modifying?  Jaspar  Socks  Daddy  Shoes  Juice  Bye Bye  More  Hello  Book  Duck  Quack  Hiya  Nana  Grandad  No  Yes  Yeah  Ta  Poo  Woof  Please  Bot-bot  My  Toast  Marmite  Jam  Ball  Hot  Cup  Spoon  Bowl  Mummy  Bang  Cuddle  Biscuits  Cat  Wassat?  Bubbles  Laa-Laa  Jump  Nice  Two  Eyes  Weeble