PSYC 1001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: American Sign Language, Metalinguistic Awareness, Linguistic Relativity
20 Apr 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Languages are symbolic, semantic, generative, and structured. At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic sound units, called phonemes. At the next level are morphemes, the smallest units of meaning. The initial vocalization by infants are similar across languages, but their babbling gradually beings to resemble the sounds from their surrounding language. Children typically utter their first words around their first birthday. Vocabulary growth is slow at first, but a vocabulary spurt often begins are around 18-24 months. Most children begin to combine words by the end of their second year. Their early sentences are telegraphic, in that they omit many nonessential words. Over the next several years, children gradually learn the complexities of syntax. Research does not support the assumption that bilingualism has a negative effect on language development or on cognitive development. Efforts to teach chimpanzees american sign language were impressive, but doubts were raised about whether the chimps learned rules of language.
