First Language Acquisition Exam 1

Among all the basic study on the process of children language development, which of its conclusion is incorrect? A. Children follow a regular course of language acquisition, starting from babbling to sentences - conclusion: there is something universally innate for language development in kids that create this uniform course of development. B. Autism children still acquire language structure when talking/producing speech is minimum - conclusion: language acquisition is not prevented by severe communication deficiencies. C. Children acquire language without actively attending and without receiving positive reinforcement continuously - conclusion: it supports the behaviorism view about language acquisition. D. There are observations about deaf children born in families that cannot "speak" sign language have created their own signs and combine to make sentences - conclusion: language is naturally evolved for communication as people try to put symbols together.

It was mentioned during class that there were two mainstream views about language development, behaviorism and cognitivism. The behaviorism states that the way children acquire language is like the way that rats know how to push a lever and get food; behaviors are sculptured based on reinforcement and/or punishment. Whereas in option C, we can see the natural process of language acquisition is no intentional interaction of language and minimal reinforcement, yet kids still acquire language. It is a counterexample for behaviorism, so the conclusion for option C is incorrect. The answer to this question is therefore C.

Which of the following models/theories' is best supported by the phenomenon of social gating (infants do not bother to analyze sounds that do not come from live humans)? A. Linguistic functionalism, since children make use of inductive learning, guided by form-function correlations for the purpose of communication. B. Rationalism states that children have innate preconditions for what they learn and LA requires innate knowledge to occur. C. Social interactionism, since it states that socio-cognitive abilities are the primary mechanism through which LA happens. D. The computational network in connectionism requires a "teacher" to adjust the strengths and differences of connections.

A is correct. Linguistic functionalism is based on the idea that language is acquired and used for the purpose of communication, which explains the social gating phenomenon, but also makes no claim that social-cognitive processes are the mechanism through which languages are acquired. B and D are incorrect. Rationalism as a concept does not make any outright claim that children acquire language for the purpose of communication, and connectionism attempts to explain the mechanism behind LA, which social gating does not support. C is incorrect. While social interactionism does state that children acquire language for the purpose of communication, which is the main idea behind social gating, social gating makes no claim towards the mechanism through which children acquire language, only the reason behind the process.

What are some characteristics regarding poverty of stimulus that occurs when children are acquiring a first language? Select all that apply. A) Children use both prosody and linguistic information to acquire language. B) Children initially have access to non-linguistic meanings which they use to acquire units and forms of language. C) Children need some amount of knowledge of grammar and linguistic units to apply to the primary language data. D) Children acquire more language than what is inputted, so some amount of critical information must be in their mind.

A is false, this is a characteristic of prosodic bootstrapping in which children will use non-linguistic information such as tone and stress primarily, and then will integrate linguistic information to learn. B is false, this is a characteristic of semantic bootstrapping which states that children will learn concepts and then will learn and apply linguistic units and grammar onto those concepts. C is true, this is a characteristic of the poverty of stimulus theory. D is true, this is a critical characteristic of poverty of stimulus.

Which of these other theories can semantic bootstrapping be used as further evidence for? A) The presence of cross-linguistic "universals" on which children build their information. B) Children encode individual words as individual units, performing no further categorization. C) Children rely mainly on perceptual clues when discovering and classifying linguistic units. D) Children have trouble acquiring abstract, immaterial words.

A is true. The concept of a universal cognitive grammar inherent to the foundation of language learning is supported by semantic bootstrapping, as entities like "nouns" and "subjects" are represented more as universal linguistic correlates which children learn to categorize words into. A working system of semantic bootstrapping would rely on universal foundations. B is false. According to semantic bootstrapping, children make syntax-semantic associations and operate on a system of rules and structure. C is false. This is more akin to prosodic bootstrapping. D is false. The inverse of the stated phenomenon is what many of the bootstrapping theories attempt to define a system for.

Which are examples of sentences that someone with Broca's aphasia might say? A) "Walk dog" B) "Red car drive far" C) "Look at that strypaper, no, skypaker, no, sryscaper, no, skycraper." D) "The walk dog and smarked at me and then I take care like you wanted."

A) Correct. People with Broca's aphasia may have trouble with sentence construction, especially with function words, commonly omitting words such as "the," "and," "of," etc. B) Correct. (see explanation for answer A) C) Incorrect. This is an example of conduction aphasia, where people may pronounce words incorrectly and repeat them until they get it correct. D) Incorrect. This is an example of Wernicke's aphasia, where people may create new words and/or add unnecessary words, as well as tend to say long sentences that have no meaning.

Which of these is an example of a child using prosodic bootstrapping? A) A child determining that their mother is asking them a question based on her voice rising at the end of the statement B) A child determining that "blurped" is a verb after hearing the sentence, "He blurped his dog" C) A child who already knows the word for bunny means learns what "hop" means by seeing her father point to a bunny and say "the bunny is hopping" D) A child learns how to use the word "hop" in different contexts by using it incorrectly and being corrected by their parents

A) is correct because it shows how acoustic changes can signal critical perceptual cues to help children discover the existence of linguistic unit B) is incorrect, because this is really an example of syntactic bootstrapping where the structure of the sentence is helping the child know the meaning of the word C) is incorrect, because this is really an example of syntactic bootstrapping as the child knows the word bunny and is using the structure of the sentence to infer that "hop" is an action completed by the bunny D) is incorrect, because this is an example of semantic bootstrapping as they are learning conceptually from everyday life about what exactly "hopping" is

Which of the following examples illustrates how someone with Wernicke's Aphasia would communicate? A) "I went to the game yesterday and the water bottle punched at another time on the shoe underground." B) "I..put..news...through..here." C) "D-d-d-do you s-s-s-see the p-p-p-plant?" D) "I went to the store yesterday and picked up some milk."

A) is correct because people with Wernicke's Aphasia can speak fluently, however, their sentences lack coherence or meaning as they may be filled with nonsense phrases. B) is incorrect as this is an example of Broca'a Aphasia, as the person is struggling to find the right words and is having trouble with word order and grammar. C) is incorrect as this illustrates Conduction Aphasia, as the speech is fluent and the grammar is correct but they struggle with repetition. D) is incorrect, as there are no noticeable impairments to speech in terms of grammar or meaning.

What linguistic observation rendered B.F. Skinner's behaviorist model of language acquisition obsolete? A. "Wild" children found after the linguistic "critical period" are unable to acquire language B. Language uses discrete units to create infinite combinations C. Deaf/blind children still acquire language despite receiving less linguistic input D. Humans have an internal "mental grammar" that is universal to all languages

Answer: B. This answer is correct because behaviorism does not account for human's ability to create infinite novel sentences. Without any prior behavior, there would be no reason for humans to say anything they have not heard before.

Sarah is participating in a study regarding cognition. She is told that she will complete two tasks in the session. The first task was a timed identification task where Sarah must find the single grammatical error in a paragraph. The second task was the Stroop test where she must identify the color of the presented words and not what the word itself says. Which of the following correctly matches which hemisphere is being worked more in each task? A. Both tasks work the left hemisphere more B. Task 1- left hemisphere; Task 2- right hemisphere C. Task 1- right hemisphere; Task2- left hemisphere D. Both tasks work the right hemisphere more

Answer: B; The first task involved processing language and the action of identifying grammatical errors would be a common occurrence for an adult and as a result be a well-practiced skill. Thus, because of the cerebral dominance for language, the left hemisphere would be dominantly active during Task 1. Task 2 was more involved in processing the unique stimuli, so the right hemisphere would exhibit more activity.

Which statement would Chomsky most agree with as a rationalist? A. A child's language goes through stages. B. Innate knowledge is activated by experience. C. Children develop language so they can communicate. D. Children learn everything from experience.

Answer : B Because they both adhere to the empiricist hypothesis (which Skinner would support), answer choices A and D are incorrect. If this was the rationalist theory, children would have innate knowledge that is activated by experience and language would be continuous. Answer option B is correct because, according to the rationalist idea, language is continuous and children are born with the fundamentals of knowledge that they must supplement with additional knowledge. Answer option C is incorrect because this statement is consistent with social interactionist theory, which is apart of the interactionist theory. According to rationalist theory, language and communication are separate.

Why might a child not exclusively rely on prosodic and phonological bootstrapping when first acquiring language? A. Prosodic/ Phonological bootstrapping aids in learning an artificial language. B. Infants are sensitive to musical phrase structure. C. A child learning Mandarin would have to be able to distinguish that different tones equals different words. D. General perceptual cues are not exclusively for language.

Answer : C Answer choice A and B are incorrect as they both support the claim that prosodic/phonological bootstrapping provides critical perceptual cues for children first acquiring language.Answer choice C is correct as cross linguistic variation in prosody must be acquired. Answer choice D is incorrect as though general perceptual cues are not limited to language, it does explain/support why a child cannot solely use prosodic/phonological bootstrapping to acquire language.

Which of the following neurological characteristics and theories would best lend themselves to supporting the Equipotentiality Hypothesis A) The neuroplasticity of the brain allows for the brain's architecture to reorganize itself, based on consistent adaptation, using external experiences as input. B) Infants have similar activation of left hemispheric regions while processing lexical input as adults. C) A child suffers a LH lesion, recovers and displays normal language function while an adult who suffers the exact same lesion. D) A theoretical family has a tendency for atypical language lateralization in their brain. An infant from that family (that has been exposed to language) has their brain activity measured when spoken to, showing the same pattern.

Answer(s): A and C A is correct, since the Equipotentiality Hypothesis places much weight on language experience. The argument that neuroplasticity fits in and supports the idea behind the hypothesis, namely the idea that, as people grow, laterizalation grows as well. B is incorrect. Infants showing LH activation when processing language goes against the idea of a lack of early-age lateralization. C is correct. Under the framework of the Equipotentiality Hypothesis, an infant suffering a hemispheric lesion would not have language potential hindered, due to a lack of lateralization. D is incorrect. Both because it shows lateralization in an infant, and because it supports the idea that continuous genetic factors can influence Language dominance even before birth.

Mark has been thinking about his ideas toward theories of language acquisition. Mark believes that language is acquired entirely from experiences in the world, without any innate component. Which linguistic theory is Mark most likely to agree with? A. Behaviorist B. Social interactionist C. Constructivist D. Nativist E. Connectionist

Answer: A A is the correct answer. The behaviorist theory is based on positive reinforcement of successes, a concept that fits into the empiricist viewpoint that Mark has. On the opposite end of the spectrum is D, which is based on activation of innate knowledge. Nativist fits into the rationalist school of thought, so Mark would not agree with it. B, C, and E are all incorrect, as well. All 3 of these theories are considered interactionist, meaning that they lie somewhere in between empiricism and rationalism and have some aspect of innateness. Since Mark's view is extremely empiricist, he would most likely agree with a behaviorist viewpoint.

Which of the following statements is false? A) The presence of the right hemisphere advantages in processing novel stimuli, suggesting a role for the right hemisphere in language processing, and hence, the language modularity theory. B) Christopher's ability to learn languages quickly and identify languages he doesn't know, despite his overall cognitive impairment, and Laura's well-developed syntax skills, despite her difficulties with basic cognitive tasks like telling time and counting, support the language modularity and locality theories. C) The pedigree of the KE family, where many family members have similar language impairments like developmental dysphasia and similar impairments showed by brain imaging, provides evidence for the theory that the language function of the mind is heritable. D) Similar activation patterns showed in fMRI scans in the left hemisphere of 2-3 month-old toddlers and adults suggest the continuity of language development

Answer: A A) is not true because this does not directly relate to the idea that language functions are modular and localized, while it is true that the right hemisphere may excel at processing novel stimuli. B) is correct because evidence shows that their language-related abilities appear distinct from their overall cognitive functioning, supporting the modularity theory. C) is correct because the similar patterns of brain scans and the common presence of recessive developmental dysphasia suggest the genetic basis of the disease. D) is correct because the similar localizations of sound perception suggest the continuity of language development.

Which of the following would support Fodor & Pylyshyn's connectionist argument for the cognitive architecture of language? Select all that apply. A. Lack of a specialized region in the brain for language processing B. Broca's area in the brain C. Computational nature of human cognition applies to all processing D. There is no pre-linguistic

Answer: A & C is the correct answer. The main arguments of connectionist is neural nets, or the idea that there are no specific processing for linguistic data. Fodor & Pylyshyn argue that there is no specialized processing for language and that the general computational cognition of humans applies to language.

Sarah, a 3-year-old, often says sentences like "I runned fast yesterday" when talking about past events. Her parents have never explicitly corrected her. What linguistic phenomenon might explain Sarah's tendency to make such errors? A) Overgeneralization of linguistic rules B) Semantic bootstrapping C) Limited exposure to positive evidence D) Relating levels of representation

Answer: A) Overgeneralization of linguistic rules Explanation: A) Sarah's tendency to say "I runned" instead of "I ran" is likely due to the phenomenon of overgeneralization of linguistic rules. Children often generalize grammatical rules based on the limited linguistic data they have been exposed to. In this case, Sarah may have heard regular past tense verbs like "walked" or "talked" and applied the same rule to the irregular verb "run." Overgeneralization is a common aspect of language development as children experiment with language and try to apply the rules they have learned. B) Semantic bootstrapping refers to the use of semantic information to learn syntax, and it is not the primary explanation for Sarah's error in past tense verb formation. C) Limited exposure to positive evidence is not the main issue in Sarah's case. Positive evidence includes correctly formed sentences, and children typically receive positive evidence for various linguistic forms during language development. D) Relating levels of representation typically involves more complex linguistic concepts and is not the primary explanation for Sarah's past tense verb error.

Which answer is NOT a "problem of language acquisition"? A. People don't pause while talking. B. Not all phonemes are significantly different in every language. C. Blind / deaf children have access to much less stimulus than sighted/hearing children. D. Language is infinite despite input being finite. E. They are all problems of LA.

Answer: C A is a problem of LA because speech is continuous - in theory, it should be difficult for infants to decide where to "break up" the primary linguistic data. B is a problem of LA because there is cross-linguistic variation. Not all differences in sound are phonemic, yet infants figure out which ones are and are not. C is not a problem of LA (and is therefore correct) because although blind and deaf children receive less input, all normal children in normal circumstances acquire language. D is a problem of LA because infants are able to take finite input and extract universal rules to create infinite novel sentences. E is incorrect because C is not a problem of LA.

Which of the following are examples of bootstrapping? Select all that apply a. A child's mother points to something and says "apple." From this, the child infers that what the mother pointed to is called an apple. b. A child hears the sentence "I wugged the dog." From this, the child infers that the new term "wug" refers to something that is done to the dog. c. A child learning English hears a speaker's pitch decrease at the end of a sentence. From this, the child infers that the speaker has finished their statement. d. A child repeatedly hears the same phonemes coming from speakers of the language they are acquiring. Over time, the child becomes less sensitive to phoneme distinctions that are not relevant to the language they are acquiring.

Answer: A, B, C Option A is an example of semantic bootstrapping, where the child uses an extra-linguistic form of meaning (the object their mother pointed to) to discover the meaning of a linguistic unit ("apple"). Option B is an example of syntactic bootstrapping, where the clue to interpret "wug" as a transitive verb is given by the structure of the sentence the word is used in. Option C is prosodic bootstrapping, where a perceptual cue (a decrease in pitch) signals something about the speech stream (here, that the speaker has finished their statement). Option D is not an example of bootstrapping, as this circumstance is not directly relevant to how children acquire language.

Which of the following aligns with the empiricism theory of linguistics? Select all that apply A. The primary use of language is for communication. B. General cognitive abilities used to learn anything (e.g., how to walk) are also used to learn language C. The main aspects of language are already there when a child is born D. Similar to the development of a butterfly, language development goes through stages of discontinuity in which a child's development of language is different form one time to another E. There is a language-specific cognitive ability necessary for language development

Answer: A, B, D A is correct because it supports the functionalist idea, which focuses on the function (rather than the form) of language B is correct because the empiricism theory views general cognitive abilities as being responsible for all kinds of learning including language C is incorrect because the empiricism theory supports the idea of nurture, claiming that there is nothing a child is born with D is correct because it supports the idea of discontinuity in language development E is incorrect because it opposes the empiricism view stated in option B

Peter Marler's research on the learning of bird songs provides proof of distinct learning periods for song birds and further distinguishes several similarities between baby bird song learning and infant language acquisition. Of the following periods of learning, which forms the best parallel with the babbling phase in infants? A. Period of experimentation for birds or the subsong period B. Sensitive Period C. Crystallization D. Development of a bird's adaptation of their local dialect

Answer: A. The subsong period occurs when young birds first attempt to exercise their "beak, syrinx and pulmonary muscles." (Marler 203) The sensitive period is part of the subsong and delineates the range of time that a young bird must hear its species' bird song to be able to learn and replicate it when it is ready. Crystallization is the last part of the sub song and happens when the bird is starting to iterate and perfect its previously learned bird song. A offers the closest parallel to the babbling phase of language acquisition in infants as both bird and child exercise their vocalization abilities (using language/song specific sounds) at this time.

Which of the following does semantic bootstrapping not account for? a) A child realizing that their mother pointing at a ball and calling it a "ball" refers to the object itself. b) A child realizing that their mother tapping her head and saying "thinking" refers to her body part. c) A child realizing that their mother pointing at someone running and saying "running" refers to the action. d) A child realizing that their mother pointing at the sky and saying "blue" refers to its color.

Answer: B A is incorrect since the child is coming to the conclusion that the object they are seeing is being correctly labeled as a ball and will thus be able to properly identify it. B is correct since semantic bootstrapping does not work for unobservable verbs. The child is incorrectly coming to the conclusion that the mother's head is being labeled as "thinking" instead of the action of thinking, which is difficult to describe/explain via semantics. C is incorrect since the child is coming to the conclusion that the person is running and will thus be able to correctly identify the action itself. D is incorrect since the child is looking at the sky and concluding that their mother is labeling the color of it as blue instead of it being named "blue" rather than "sky."

Which of the following best provides evidence against the idea that language is a purely social phenomenon (based on Social Interactionist theory)? A) A child being able to acquire language despite minimal input as a result of blindness/deafness. B) A child being able to acquire language despite the lack of a model to be reinforced by. C) A child being able to acquire language despite having social, communicative, and/or cognitive deficits. D) "Wild children", isolated from people, being unable to acquire language at a later age.

Answer: B Answer B is correct due to the focus on the child's "interaction partner". Based on the Social Interactionist theory, if a child does not have a model or partner to desire to communicate or interact with, and is in turn not reinforced in terms of communicative interaction, the child should not (or should at least have difficulty to) acquire language as a result of lack of occurrence/desire for communication. Based on the Hoff reading, the Social Interactionist theory of language acquisition focuses on the communicative nature/desire of human language. This theory claims that interaction, not simply input or socio-cognitive abilities, is key.

Which of the following best displays constructivist theory used to support the idea of discontinuity in language development? A. Children have little to no difficulty applying newly learned words to abstract ideas and concepts. B. A child who has previously heard the words bigger and smaller, is unable to properly use them prior to gaining the ability to sort objects by size. C. A child possessing severe cognitive deficits follows the regular course of language acquisition. D. The hearing son of deaf parents struggles to learn verbal speech, instead preferring to use his parents' sign language.

Answer: B Answer B is correct, it displays constructivist theory as the child lacks the information necessary to properly make use of the word until the "discontinuity in development" allows for the necessary changes in kind to the child's knowledge.

Which of the following is NOT a piece of evidence that supports the conclusion that there is a genetic component of children's language ability? A. When looking at correlations of IQ performance between children raised together, identical twins were found to have a greater correlation than fraternal twins. B. Studies looking at the associations between genetics and Wernicke's aphasia found abnormalities on the FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 gene. C. Brain imaging data shows greater structural similarity between identical twins than fraternal ones. D. Studies on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Specific Reading Disability (SRD) have found a heritability of 0.76 and 0.8, respectively.

Answer: B Answer choice A does support this finding. In a study looking at correlations in IQ between children, it was found that there was higher correlation in identical twins than fraternal and both types of twins has a higher correlation than siblings, indicating a genetic component in knowledge. B is the correct answer choice. This is not a correct finding. Wernicke's aphasia is not genetic and is not associated with abnormalities in these genes. Wernicke's aphasia comes as a result of damage to a specific area in the brain, so answer choice is not a valid finding and does not support genetic basis of language. C also supports this finding. Neuroimaging studies have found greater similarities in structure between identical twins than fraternal twins and unrelated patients. This supports the idea that genetics has an effect on brain structure and, in turn, the regions associated with language ability are influenced by genetic factors. D supports this finding, as well. Heritability indicated how much of the variation has a biological basis. Since the scores for SLI and SRD are this high, there is a strong biological component to these impairments in language ability.

Mark, a 7-year-old boy, was involved in a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury. After the accident, Mark experienced language difficulties, such as difficulty in finding words and forming grammatically correct sentences. He also struggled with understanding complex language structures. Which aspect of brain and language development is most likely affected in Mark's case? A) Cerebral dominance for language B) Language localization in the brain C) Genetic factors D) Modularity of language processing

Answer: B) Language localization in the brain Explanation: B) Language localization in the brain is the aspect most likely affected in Mark's case. Traumatic brain injuries can disrupt the specific regions of the brain responsible for language processing. The brain typically has specific areas (Broca's area for syntax and grammar, and Wernicke's area for comprehension) associated with language production and comprehension. Damage to these areas can lead to language difficulties, including word-finding problems, grammar issues, and comprehension challenges, which align with Mark's symptoms. A) Cerebral dominance for language refers to the tendency for one hemisphere of the brain (typically the left hemisphere) to play a dominant role in language processing. While damage to the dominant hemisphere can result in language deficits, Mark's case suggests a broader disruption in language processing rather than hemisphere dominance. C) Genetic factors can contribute to language development, but traumatic brain injury resulting from a car accident is the primary cause of Mark's language difficulties. D) Modularity of language processing pertains to the idea that language skills are processed by specialized cognitive modules in the brain. Mark's case is more indicative of damage to specific brain regions responsible for language rather than a general issue with the modularity of language processing.

What are the potential problems and difficulties that children might encounter while finding phonological units when learning their first language? (Select all that apply) A) Universal phonological rules exist across languages, but children have to first acquire the rules B) Children have to do complex and multi-level computations to discover the phonological units C) Speech is continuous and is hard to break down into individual phonological units D) Children can acquire the phonological units of a speech without using grammatical knowledge, but it makes the process slow

Answer: B) and C) A) is incorrect because there are no universal phonological units and in fact, phonological units varied across languages which creates more difficulties for children when acquiring their first language. B) is correct because when finding a phonological unit, children have to break down a sentence into words, then phonological units C) is correct because adults are not going to break down a sentence into single words when speaking to children and children have to decipher the complete sentence into phonological units D) is incorrect because children have to first know the grammatical rules to be able to discover the phonological units.

In an experiment, an 8-month-old is familiarized to the following stream of syllables: ra ve pi ko la se su mi te ra ve pi.... where kolase is classified as a word the infant has prior knowledge of. What is the 8-month-old most likely to do in a follow-up experiment concerning words made from these syllables? Select all that apply. A) The infant will listen longer to repeats of kolase over repeats of ravepi. B) When tested with kolase vs. selako, the infant will listen longer to repeats of selako. C) The infant will listen longer to repeats of pikola over repeats of kolase. D) The infant will not pay attention to repeats of sesumi or selako.

Answer: B, C A is incorrect since infants will tend to listen longer to novel items. Since kolase is a word the infant already knows, it will not listen to it longer than ravepi, which we can assume is a novel item. B is correct since selako is a novel item, being that it is the reverse of kolase and is thus a non-word. C is correct since pikola is a part-word and is thus a novel item instead of kolase. D is incorrect as we can assume sesumi (a part-word) and selako (a non-word) are novel items, so the infant will certainly pay attention and listen longer to them.

If you were to expose 8-month-olds to a stream of syllables for a few minutes to test statistical learning, which of the following experimental design traits would not help prove a hypothesis that babies listen longer to novel items? a. The words have the same syllable count b. The "non-word" are introduced before the baby habituates to the "normal" words c. The constructed "language" has a small set of phonemes d. The syllable units are consistent between the words.

Answer: B. A baby who struggles to discern words from non-words if it has no basis for what qualifies as a word. A is not correct because babies struggle to discern novel input on a statistical level once additional syllabic options are presented. C and D are not correct because babies struggle with statistical learning when there is too much variation in the "language" they are presented with.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the concept of interaction in child-directed speech (CDS)? A. A one year old child is able to learn several new words simply by watching television shows. B. Children around the world learn words at the same rate, regardless of language. C. A three year old child can learn new vocabulary words from a conversation she overhead, but cannot learn grammar. D. Differences in teaching such as utilizing physical objects as opposed to providing object labels have no bearing on a child's rate of learning a language.

Answer: C A is incorrect. Before the age of two, children do not learn any new words from television. B is also incorrect. It was found that various language milestones occur at different ages in countries around the world, particularly due to cultural differences. C is correct. After two years, a child is able to learn new vocabulary from overheard conversations, but they are not able to learn grammar from this source. D is incorrect. It was found Japanese mothers' usage of objects causes their children to say their first words later than American mothers, who provide more object labels.

Which of the following potential answers to the Serial Order Problem reflects a Rationalist view? A) Language is a set of patterns, and repeated language experiences would eventually result in mental representations of abstractions from the patterns. B) Language is a set of formulas, and children acquire the knowledge of these formulas through pattern-learning abilities and social cognitive and understanding of meanings. C) Language is actually not learned, it would require a higher-order organizer which is the computation capabilities through human's innate cognitive structure. D) Language is a tool for communication, therefore, through continuous communications and children's natural development, they will eventually grasp the full system of their language and overcome the Serial Order Problem.

Answer: C A is incorrect. This is a representation of the Connectionist view which claims that language is just a set of patterns that can be learned and decoded through large enough exposure to language experiences. It believes that this system of language can be learned just like any other cognitive abilities and that it's domain-general. B is incorrect. This is the Constructivist view which admits that language learning does involve "nature", that is, the social cognitive abilities that help children acquire the "formulas" in language, and not just "nurture"; but it fails to explain how the Serial Order Problem in these formulas would be solved. C is the correct answer. The Serial Order Problem points out that the relation between units in the language system cannot be explained by local associations between elements. The Rationalist theory gives the explanation that then there must exist a higher-order organizer that is the high-level structure of these individual elements and present in children's cognitive system already. D is incorrect. This is the Socialist Interactionist's view which states that what underlies language acquisition is social-cognitive ability. They believe that language can only be acquired through communication, but this does not explain how children figure out the relation between elements in the Serial Order Problem.

Primary linguistic data (PLD) is essential in FLA. Which of the following about FLA is correct? A) When parents are reading a book to children while at the same time pointing at some of the picture illustrations on the book, only the story itself read out loud by the parents can be perceived by children as PLD. B) Dictionaries and thesauri annotated with linguistic features such as syntactic parses that organize words and meanings are regarded as a sort of PLD. C) Children cannot use PLD in the form of speech directly. They have to find a way to convert the physical stimulus they perceive into representations composed of units and "decipher" the units. D) Since PLD is mainly produced by speakers of a certain language, due to the infinity of meaning produced in a language, PLD is infinite and can be acquired by children directly as a language.

Answer: C A) is incorrect because extra-linguistic experiences, e.g., facial expressions and reactions produced with the sound, are also regarded as PLD. B) PLD refers to raw, unanalyzed language samples. These dictionaries and thesauri are non-primary linguistic data because they have been processed, manipulated, or transformed in some way before being exposed to people. D) is incorrect because PLD is finite despite the infinity of languages. Plus, a certain dissociation exists between PLD and the nature of knowledge. Children must find a way to transform PLD and discover units to create the grammar.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of Chomsky's Universal Grammar? A. There are principles (universal rules) that apply to all languages. B. There are parameters which are language specific "switches" and need to be acquired while learning a language. C. The universal architecture of language is not innate, but specific grammars of individual languages are innate. D. Principles allow a child to know what structures are impossible so the they don't even entertain those incorrect ideas.

Answer: C C is not a characteristic of UG, it should be switched around. The correct statement is instead "The universal architecture on a language is innate, but specific grammars of individual languages are not."A, B, and D are all characteristics of UG.

Which of the following best supports the idea that while the computational system of language is digital, it is also infinite: A) With the constituent system, a small set of units can combine to form an infinite set of units at the next level B) There are discrete units at the phoneme, morpheme, word, and phrase levels of language C) The recursive system allows for units to be combined & recombined with no limit D) The computational system of language is only digital at its core

Answer: C Choice C is correct because it proves that units can be infinitely combined & recombined

In which of the following scenarios does the patient likely have damage to the arcuate fasciculus? A. Researcher: "What did you do today?" Patient: "Last year when I came from home he said hi and me and my brother did three." B. Researcher: "What did you do today?" Patient: "walk...saw mom...eat chicken..." C. Researcher: "Repeat after me: The man is walking his dog in the park." Patient: "..." (has trouble repeating the sentence) Researcher: (shows a picture of a man walking a dog in the park) "Describe what is happening in this picture." Patient: "There is a man who is walking a dog, probably his own, and they seem to be in a park." D. Researcher: (holding an orange) "What is the name of this object?" Patient: "I don't know" Researcher: "Can you describe it to me?" Patient: "It's round, I's sweet and juicy, it's orange, I just don't know what it's called."

Answer: C The patient in A has fluent speech but is lacking comprehension and their word choice is impaired. This patient probably has sensory aphasia, which is caused by damage to Wernicke's area. Incorrect. The patient in B has slow labored speech and is lacking in grammatical structure, which indicates motor aphasia. This patient probably has damage to Broca's area. Incorrect. The patient in C can easily describe the picture and knows what is going on but has difficulty repeating what the researcher said. This indicates conduction aphasia and is probably caused by damage to the arcuate fasciculus. Correct! The patient in D has trouble recalling nouns but not adjectives since they are able to describe the color as orange but not name the object as orange. This is not usually caused by arcuate fasciculus damage. Incorrect.

All of the following are claims of Language Making Capacity EXCEPT: A. Paying attention to stresses and ends of units in speech to store and use when constructing grammar B. General inferences are drawn from instances which are experienced C. Data is stores together generally until combining to form morphemes D. Supports semantic bootstrapping

Answer: C is not a claim of LMC. LMC claims that there are pattern markers, which organize stored data into linguistic systems where conceptual developments indicate grammatical markings first, emerge in grammatical forms second, and then are combined into morphemes. A is incorrect because this answer is describing perceptual and storage filters, which are one of the main ideas of LMC when constructing language. B is a claim of LMC because it is describing the concept of induction. D is also incorrect because LMC claims that children fail to abstract relations between surface forms and underlying structures when first learning language and thus assumes semantic bootstrapping.

Dr.Ling is conducting research on the theories of first language acquisition. During her investigation, she encounters a case study involving a child named Alex. Alex seems to effortlessly acquire the grammatical structures of his native language, despite exposure to different linguistic environments. Which linguistic theory would best explain Alex's remarkable ability to acquire language across diverse settings? A) Behaviorist theory B) Connectionist theory C) Generativist theory D) Constructivist theory

Answer: C) Generativist theory Explanation: C) Generativist theory would best explain Alex's remarkable ability to acquire language across diverse settings. According to generativist theory, children possess an innate Language Faculty and Universal Grammar (UG) that enable them to acquire the grammatical structures of any language they are exposed to. This innate knowledge allows children like Alex to effortlessly apply universal grammatical principles to different linguistic environments, resulting in the acquisition of language in a consistent and structured manner. A) Behaviorist theory focuses on external stimuli and reinforcement as the primary drivers of language acquisition. It does not account for the innate language faculty proposed by generativist theory, making it less suitable for explaining Alex's abilities in diverse linguistic settings. B) Connectionist theory emphasizes neural networks and associative learning but does not propose the existence of a Language Faculty or Universal Grammar, making it less suitable for explaining Alex's exceptional language acquisition. D) Constructivist theory emphasizes social interaction and cognitive development but does not postulate the existence of an innate Language Faculty or Universal Grammar, making it less suitable for explaining Alex's consistent language acquisition across different environments.

Which of these is not an example of a linguistic neural disassociation? A. Someone who struggles with language, but has no trouble with problem-solving or other mental tasks. B. Someone who struggles to produce regular verbs, but has no trouble with irregular verbs. C. Someone who has not learned to read, but is capable of speaking. D. Someone who struggles to produce nouns, but has no trouble with producing verbs.

Answer: C, because literacy is a learned skill and not a neurological part of language. A is not correct because there are dissociations between language and other problem-solving skills, in instances such as specific language impairment. B and D are not correct because there are forms of aphasia that exist that affect one of the forms of production, but not the other.

All are examples of child directed speech EXCEPT - A. Liquid substitution B. Exaggerated contour C. Noun phrase = agent D. Compound verbs

Answer: C. * Answer choice A is Incorrect as in the phonological aspect of child directed speech, liquid substitution takes place to make (eventual) pronunciation and comprehension easier for the child. * Answer choice B is Incorrect as in child direct speech, exaggerated contour can be used to keep a child's attention and make whatever is being said more appealing to a child. * Answer choice C is Correct as in child direct speech, subject = agent (where the beginning of the sentence is the subject) is more common than noun phrase = agent (where the noun phrase is first in the sentence.) * Answer choice D is incorrect as compound verbs are used to make sentences shorter and comprehension for a child easier.

Which of the following situations would not support a rationalist's theory of language acquisition? A: A child learns language in spite of extremely limited input or affirmation from their caregivers B: A study is done on infant brains that locates a specialized area of the brain dedicated towards language-learning, which is later repurposed through brain plasticity C: A child who struggles with pattern-finding cognitive tasks, without any other mental deficits, also struggles to learn language. D: A child learning 2 languages takes no longer to learn the languages than a child learning 1 language.

Answer: C. Language as a pattern-finding process mirrors an empiricist point of view. A is not correct because rationalists favor the idea of innate language as part of the language-learning process, while empiricists (particularly social interactionists) tend to believe language is a function of communication, and having communication as an impetus for language is key. B is not correct because rationalists tend to believe in some variety of language faculty, while radical empiricism is based on the idea of a child as a totally blank slate or tabula rasa .D is not correct because a universal grammar or language faculty (which rationalists believe in) would help a bilingual child learn both languages equally easily, while an empiricist approach indicates that the child would have to learn each language through pattern recognition, copying, and creating associations.

About the case of Genie, what did we see and what could we conclude for brain and language development? A) Genie could reach the normal language fluency as a normal child few months after she was under researchers' good care -- language acquisition starts at the same time as language stimulus gain B) Genie acquires poor grammar, poor function words, and barely learns any vocabularies -- if the critical period is missed, there is no language development possible. C) In different dichotic listening tests, Genie exhibits a significant left-ear advantage whereas perceiving right-ear input is performing at a chance level -- this supports the evidence of language being left-hemisphere lateralized. D) It is hard to test Genie on her cognitive function development and tell if she has other cognition capacity malfunction -- it may be possible that Genie could not acquire language because she was devoid of any cognitive development as a kid.

Answer: D Analysis: For option A, Genie never reaches the normal language capacity as a normal child, and it supports the critical period hypothesis. For option B, Genie acquires a significant number of vocab, but poor grammar. For option C, the conclusion of the observation should be that Genie has a right-hemisphere advantage of language processing. For the correct option D, this is one of the weakness this case study has, that since Genie suffered from abuse during her childhood and had none cognitive awareness before researchers' intervention, it may be possible that, based on the theory that language is a cognitively general capacity rather than modular, she cannot develop language because she is out of normal cognitive function acquisition.

In one of the theories discussed in class, Language Making Capacity (LMC) theory brought up the idea of Universal Operating Principles which was conceptualized by Dan Slobin in 1982. Which statement below about LMC and Slobin's analysis is FALSE? A. One prerequisite for the Universal Operating Principles is that children must be aware before acquiring language that there are words and meaningful units smaller than the word. B. One of the Universal Operating Principles is that children will pay attention to the ends of words - we can infer that children acquire the suffixes earlier than prefixes. C. One of the problems of LMC is that children must have had the knowledge of how to segment the sounds into meaningful units. D. According to Universal Operating Principles, children do not need to actively store the linguistics samples.

Answer: D Analysis: Option D is false because Slobin puts forward that those linguistics internal structures are processed and re-organized during children language development, and it is necessary to store the linguistics information (which is reasonable) even though they have "a richly detailed innate language faculty". Otherwise, the complex and intricated different language systems would not be operated well enough for children to acquire a language.

How would a connectionist visualize linguistic processing of language structure? A. A system of innate universal grammar rules that are triggered with input. B. As a blank slate that is filled in by experiences with salient input. C. As a list of instructions for constructing language. D. As a computer program that changes itself with input.

Answer: D Choice A is incorrect because this answer describes generativism (nativism) - the idea that there is a universal grammar that is calibrated to specific language parameters by triggering input. Choice B is incorrect because connectionists reject tabula rasa; they believe that there are some prior constraints that must be innate for children to acquire language. Choice C is incorrect because this answer describes the theory of language making capacity - the brain stores salient speech to form patterns that instruct language. Choice D is correct. Connectionism is the belief that all language processing can be represented in programming terms. As the child has salient experiences, the network will adjust the strength of the connections for the linguistic rules applied in the input.

Studying which of the following pairs of patients would provide the best evidence for language being a separate cognitive module? A. Patient A has suffered brain lesions that impair his cognition and language skills & Patient B has developmental cognitive impairment that affects his IQ and language skills. B. Patient A has suffered brain lesions that impair his cognition and language skills & Patient C has suffered brain lesions that affect her general intelligence and cognitive skills relatively intact but has comprehension and speaking impairments. C. Patient C has suffered brain lesions that affect her general intelligence and cognitive skills relatively intact but has comprehension and speaking impairments & Patient D has no cognitive impairments and has above average language abilities (can learn languages quickly and with ease). D. Patient C has suffered brain lesions that left her general intelligence and cognitive skills relatively intact but has comprehension and speaking impairments & Patient E has a below average IQ and cognitive impairments due to brain lesions but has above average language learning abilities as well as intact speaking and comprehension.

Answer: D. A double dissociation is best to reinforce the functional modularity theory for language. This involves testing a subject with normal cognitive function but impaired language abilities as well as a subject with impaired general cognitive function but intact language abilities. A. would be studying the difference between acquired and developmental impairments. B. would show a single dissociation which provides weaker evidence than a double dissociation. C. would be an example of an association.

Which statement fails to support the theory of statistical learning in language acquisition of children? A. A probabilistic approach to learning the boundaries between words may help babies differentiate between syllables that are commonly uttered together. B. Babies habitually direct their attention more to novel words. C. When provided with a systematically repeating string of syllables, babies can be familiarized with "real" words over part-words and made up strings of syllables. D. Experiments on simpler, artificial languages (as opposed to existing, complex languages) provide evidence that babies can learn language based solely on outside input.

Answer: D. The experiments we have studied in class that are in support of statistical learning are most commonly carried out with simplified artificial vocabularies. In addition, babies must have the preconception of a word to eventually learn and recognize patterns in speech. A. and C. refer to an experiment done on a limited segment of an artificial language (discounts as evidence against statistical learning). B. is also irrelevant to the theory that babies learn solely by outside input.

Which of the following situation(s) provide evidence for the idea that nature has a very significant influence on language? An identical twins reared together both developed Specific Reading Disability (SRD) - which has high heritability (0.8) - in spite of their adoptive parents reading with them even before they were a year old. A parent who has Specific Language Impairment (SLI) with identical twins reared apart discovered that the twin that lived with them in a less fortunate circumstance also has SLI, while the twin that grew up with a relative in a more fortunate circumstance does not. After moving away from the town they grew up in, 2 children with the same parents gradually developed out of the language retardation they were previously diagnosed with. A set of identical twins that were reared apart both face disruption in native language learning, both showing signs of developmental dysphasia.

Answers: A & D Option A is correct because the twins being nurtured in an environment where they were being read to did not rule out SRD, which is an impairment resulting from genetics. This shows the significance of nature in the development of language-related deficits, which can point to its significance in the development of language in general. Option B is incorrect because it actually supports the opposite idea that nurture plays are more significant influence on language than nature since the environment in which each twin grew up seemed to determine whether they developed SLI or not Option C is incorrect because it shows no evidence of nature's influence on language. Additionally, it might even be possible that the town they grew up in and/or their age at the time was the cause of the "language retardation". Option D is correct because developmental dysphasia is linked to genetics, therefore, that genetic impact can be seen to have supersede the impact that rearing the twins apart could have had on their disruption in native language learning

Which of the following pieces of evidence supports the Critical Period Hypothesis? Select all that apply. A) A 31-year-old asks questions such as "Where car?" or "What doing?" B) A young ape is able to learn up to 250 signs to communicate with humans. C) A child who learned ASL at age 12 does better than a child who learned it at age 6. D) Barbara, a child found living in the woods at age 13, is limited to single word descriptors for objects around her.

Answers: A and D A is correct since a 31-year-old should have typical, mature capabilities of language at that age, and the fact that they have question formation issues demonstrates that they've missed a crucial period in their life to gain proper language skills. B is incorrect since animals, although they are able to learn signs and use language to request a food/object, do not have a proper language model that they use. A young ape being able to learn signs does not mean it knows a language that can be learned in a critical period. C is incorrect since we expect a 6-year-old to be better at ASL than a 12-year-old as they are learning it at a younger age. D is correct since Barbara only being able to use singular words at a time for objects at age 13 is unnatural, and she should be able to use more sophisticated phrases or sentences.

Which of the following would offer support to the language modularity/language locality theories? Select all that apply. A) The symptom of double dissociation where the patient lost the capability of producing one type of speech while another is retained; for example, a patient can produce nouns but not verbs. B) Right Ear Advantage which signifies that the left hemisphere is more suitable for language processing compared to the right hemisphere. C) Cases of patients with William Syndrome and Specific Language Impairment (SLI). D) There are anatomic left hemisphere-right hemisphere differences present in fetuses and newborns

Answers: A, C A is the correct answer. Double dissociation is a supportive evidence for language modularity because the fact that noun production can be impaired while verb production remains intact (or animals vs. other categories in speech is another typical symptom) proves that we have many modular and categorical representations in the brain. B is incorrect. REA is an evidence for the asymmetricality of the function and capability of the two hemispheres and does not necessarily support language modularity. C is the correct answer. Patients with William Syndrome often have severe IQ and cognitive impairment, yet many of them show intact and even advanced language capabilities. Patients with SLI sort of show the opposite symptoms of those with William Syndrome - their language capabilities are impaired while other cognitive functions are retained. These two illnesses suggest that language function is controlled by specific parts of the brain that are different from all other cognitive functions, which is what language locality D is incorrect. This is supporting evidence of Equipotentiality Hypothesis which states that there is no language dominance at birth but rather develops from 2 to puberty.

Which of the following statements about Child-Directed Speech (CDS) is true (select all that apply)? A) Prosody is an example of CDS where the mother speaks at a higher pitch and slower rate in order to produce an effect of exaggerated contour B) Children prefer Adult-Directed Speech (ADS) over CDS because it is what they eventually will acquire in their linguistic system and use in the real world C) Discourse is an example of CDS where the mother substitutes words with more "childish" ones, like instead of saying dog, they say doggy to a child D) CDS is used in many languages, however, it is not used in all the languages and cultures in the world

Answers: A, D - A and D are correct answers. Prosody is a typical example used in CDS where the mother (or whoever is speaking to the child) speaks with an exaggerated contour for the child to better hear and comprehend. D is also correct. Although CDS is very prevalent and almost universally used in many existing languages, it is not present in ALL the languages. - B is incorrect. Despite how ADS is the actual kind of language that a child will eventually develop and use in societies, they preferred CDS over ADS, and not the other way around. - C is incorrect. Discourse is when the mother uses questions or pronoun shifts as she talks to the child. For example, instead of saying "Come to me", the mother says "Come to mommy." What this choice specifies is an example of Diminutive.

Which of the following statements supports the idea that interaction plays a key role in the usefulness of Child-Directed Speech (CDS)? [Select all that apply] A) An 18-month-old child who has been watching television since she turned one-year-old starts to speak words like "market" she picked up from the children's shows that use CDS B) Abigail, a preschooler who is being raised by her American mother, picks up more words because her mother provides object labels (e.g., saying that's a cup) when interacting with her, compared to her Japanese counterpart whose mother just uses objects without telling her what they are. C) While Ben was able to learn some vocabulary words from watching TV, the grammar he developed was not regular compared to children whose parents had direct interactions with them using CDS. D) Children from cultures in which it is normal for parents to have little to no conversation with their children are able to develop vocabulary and grammar at the same rate as children in cultures in which it is normal to have conversations with children (even in the womb) as long as the former children are able to overhear adult conversations.

Answers: B & C Option A is incorrect because children cannot learn new words from television before the age of 2 even if the shows use CDS. Option B is correct because a study found that parents providing children with object labels (telling the child what the object is) lead to them acquiring more words by the four different language millstone compared to just using the objects with children. Option C is correct because children whose primary source of learning a language is through TV and their parents cannot interact with them have irregular grammar development. Option D is incorrect because overhearing adult conversation does not have the same effect on children as having direct interactions with them.

Which of the following supports that children are not born pre-linguistic A) Infants are unable to produce language during the first few months of life. B) All human children acquire language, barring exceptional circumstances. C) Children do not acquire language without language input. D) Children are unable to recognize phonemes in their first year of life.

B Option B supports that children are not born pre-linguistic, since the fact that all children acquire language supports that they had linguistic faculty from birth.

Which of the following is NOT one of the properties of the computational system of language that a child must acquire? A. Discrete: the child has to learn that language is based on discrete, not continuous units B. Patterns: the child has to learn to look for patterns in the primary linguistic data C. Combinatorial: the child has to learn that small sets of units combine to form infinte sets of units at the next level D. Sequencing: the child has to learn that the order/sequence of units is important for determining the meaning

B is the correct answer. The other three are all properties of the computational system, along with infinite, recursion, constituent, hierarchical, dynamic, constrained and integrated. Patterns are not necessarily specific to language and children learn patterns from other situations as well.

Chomsky proposed that human cognitive architecture is modular, and such a thing as "language faculty" exists in the human mind. Which of the following is most consistent with his view? A. Children better at cognitive functions other than language, such as sorting information or doing maths, should be better at acquiring languages B. Children process linguistic data in the same way they deal with other information, such as the action of jumping off a bed. C. The language faculty does not develop or change throughout life. It has a fixed architecture. D. The language faculty is located in an anatomically distinctive region in the human brain.

C Answer C is correct because Chomsky believed that the underlying architecture of the language faculty is fixed, and there should be no biological maturation or gradual change in the fundamental architecture.

Which of the following best provides evidence supporting the idea that humans have an innate linguistic capacity? A. Many languages have similarities in syntax and vocabulary, which supports the existence of a Universal Grammar. B. Crying of pain after stubbing your toe as an involuntary response to external stimuli C. Deaf children acquire ASL (American Sign Language) by going through similar linguistic stages as hearing children, and sign languages are organized in the brain the same way as spoken languages. D. The observation that children often mimic their parents' speech patterns

C Answer C is correct because the development of sign language shows that humans acquire language across similar linguistic stages despite visual modality. This is because language is a biologically based ability that is not dependent on the ability to produce and hear sound.

Which of the following is NOT evidence that language is Left Hemisphere (LH) dominated A) Aphasia is often the result of damage to the LH. B) LH neurons are faster. C) People process language better when it is spoken into the left ear. D) The LH is better at well-practiced routines.

C is correct A is evidence that language is LH dominant as damage to that side of the brain is often the cause of aphasia. Aphasia is an impairment in understanding or producing language. So if the LH produces and understands language and is damaged the resulting language is impaired. Therefore this answer is incorrect. B Studies suggest that LH neurons are faster. We speak and comprehend language at an incredibly quick rate so it would make more sense that the faster side of our brain would be better capable of keeping up with language comprehension and production. Therefore this answer is incorrect. C This statement is untrue. People in fact process language better when it is spoken into the right ear. This is because the right ear is directly connected to the LH. If lang. is LH dominated it would make sense that when input is sent to the LH quicker it would be comprehended quicker. Therefore, this answer is correct. D Studies suggest that the LH is better at well-practice routines vs. novel stimuli. If we consider language like learning to walk, something that is instinctive, it makes sense that the side of our brain that excels at well-practiced routines is best able to produce language. Therefore this answer is incorrect.

Which of the following statements would a connectionist most agree with? A) As a child is learning a language, generative grammar is a component that provides syntax. B) As a child is learning a language, they view it as a system of patterns derived from repeated language experience. C) As a child is learning a language, there is no distinction between parts of speech (i.e. verbs, nouns, adjectives). D) As a child is learning a language, it is acquired and primarily used to serve communicative functions.

C is correct, as connectionism proposes that children do not use linguistic units as everything is the same unit. B is incorrect, as this is a component of the constructivist perspective that knowledge of formulas and lingual abstractions emerge from pattern-learning abilities and social cognitive understanding of meaning. A is incorrect, as this is part of the rationalist solution to the serial order problem. D is incorrect, as this is a hallmark of the functionalism and competition model.

A mom just learned that child-directed speech might aid her newborn (Sam) in language acquisition and she decides to practice speaking child-directed speech to Sam. Below what is NOT an example of child-directed speech? A) Sam drinks soup for din-din and Sam drinks soup with 'poon. Does Sam like his din-din? B) Can Sam pass the 'ittle toy plane to dada? C) Let's play the toy! D) Sam sleeps with his kitty on his tummy. E) The sun is wed and the sky is blue, Sam is 'ittle and din-din is good.

C) A) is correct (an example of child-directed speech) because this sentence contains several key features of child-directed speech such as "din-din" which includes reduplication and cluster reduction, and "poon" which includes cluster reduction. Additionally, Sam is always the subject and agent in the sentence and the question. B) is correct (an example of child-directed speech) because this question is a pronoun shift question and it includes words such as "'ittle," an example of liquid substitution. C) is incorrect (not an example of child-directed speech) because this sentence is an imperative sentence which means it doesn't have a subject and it is an adult-directed speech. D) is correct (an example of child-directed speech) because this sentence contains examples of key features in child-directed speech like diminutive, "kitty," and cluster reduction, "tummy." E) is correct (an example of child-directed speech) because this sentence has a parataxis structure and it includes examples of liquid substitution, "wed" and "'ttle," and reduplication, "din-din."

Which of the following is NOT a limitation of evidence that might make it difficult for a child to learn a language? a. They receive limited positive input and explanation (they do not hear people talking about every subject or using every type of grammar repeatedly, with clarification) b. They often receive limited negative input (people don't correct their children on speech) c. They often receive incorrect positive input (adults who never correctly developed their grammar will pass on this lack of grammar to children they interact with) d. A lot of the negative input they receive is indirect (it is difficult to notice what does NOT occur, and they have to make decisions about whether not hearing something means it can never occur or if it just hasn't occurred)

Correct Answer: C A is incorrect because it positive input is finite and naturally has limits, and without explanation, many words can blend together and create ambiguities. B is incorrect because children are often not corrected when they make grammar mistakes, and do not tend to take corrections as a correction on their grammar, but rather on meaning. C is correct because children develop grammar without the full input of adults (with finite positive input), and "never correctly developed their grammar" doesn't really make sense D is incorrect because the lack of input is difficult to notice and create rules from, which often leads to overgeneralizations, etc.

Which of the following children would be most likely to have the most advanced language abilities? a. A child who watches lots of television in addition to hearing regular speech. b. A child whose parents frequently provide corrective feedback on their speech. c. A child who does not receive any corrective feedback. d. A child who practices acting out the actions described in grammatically complex sentences.

Correct Answer: D A is incorrect because, although children may acquire some vocabulary from television after two years of age, they do not acquire grammar from it. Another option is more strongly associated with improved language abilities. B is incorrect because children often reject corrective feedback, and once they do attend to it it is often only because it is the time during which the child would naturally acquire the corresponding grammar rules. C is incorrect because corrective feedback has not been shown to negatively impact linguistic abilities. D is correct. Cromer (1987) showed that children seven to nine years of age showed significant improvements in understanding the meaning of grammatically complex sentences when asked to act out those sentences every three months for a year.

A 15-year-old deaf teenager was not taught ASl (or any language) until age 12. Select all of the statements that are true in this scenario. A. A teenager of the same age, but learned ASL at 5 years old will have better comprehension and production. B. The teenager in the prompt is not able to acquire ASL. C. A teenager of the same age who learned a language before becoming deaf would have an easier time and perform better when learning ASL. D. In the future, a child who learned ASL at 4 years old and the teenager in the prompt would be at the same level as they both been learning ASL for the same amount of time.

Correct Answers : A and C * A is correct as according to Newport (1990), children who acquired ASL before the age of 12 performed better in both comprehension and production tests than those who learned after the age of 12. * C is correct as according to Mayberry et al.(2002), past language acquisition helps ASL learning when compared to people who have had no language exposure. * B is incorrect as people are able to acquire language after the proposed critical period just as not as easily as a younger child. * D is incorrect because the critical period theory states that a child who learns a language during a specific time (usually ages 2 through puberty) will acquire language better than someone who begins later in life, regardless of how long they've learned or whether they've learned the same language for the same amount of time.

What are some arguments that Chomsky might use to show an empiricist that children are born with innate linguistic knowledge? (Select all that apply) A) Even children without any grammatical knowledge would not form structural independent sentences. B) Children do not show any difference when learning unmarked and marked linguistic rules. C) The existence of universal grammar shows that children are born with language acquisition device (LAD) D) Children and adults both rely on universal grammar, but one major difference is that adults have already acquired the parameters of that language.

Correct Answers: A), C), D) A is correct because Chomsky thinks that syntax is an innate knowledge that helps children to form grammatically possible sentences without knowing any grammar. B is incorrect because markedness is language-specific and children have to reset the unmarked language rules to marked language rules. C is correct because Chomsky thinks that there is an innate linguistic structure that is not language-specific which helps children acquire and learn parameters that are language-specific D is correct because Chomsky thinks that while some rules are innate, others that are more language-specific are acquired through experience and this is the nature of development.

Which statement doesn't reflect the rationalist view? A. The right hemisphere affects accents, prosody, pragmatics, and some semantics. B. When listening to stories in fMRI at 2-3 months, the left hemisphere is activated similarly to how it is in adults. C. Hyperarticulation produces extra information. (Child directed speech) D. Language skill variation in children has a biological basis.

Correct answer : C. * The rationalist view is supported by answer option A, which is connected to language localization and states that there are particular parts of the brain responsible for language. This also corresponds with the nature view. * Answer choice B is incorrect as it also makes reference to specific brain regions and brain activity in support of the naturalist/rationalist theory of language development. * Answer choice C is correct because it refers to "Child directed Speech," which is the empiricist/nativist view and refers to the how we try to simplify the input a kid receives to aid in language development. * Answer option D is incorrect since it only asserts that genetics, which is in line with the rationalist/naturalist viewpoint, is a biological basis in language variation.

Which of the following is the most likely to occur as a child is learning English and hears the phrase "happy dog", based on statistical learning? a. The child will separate the phrase into "happy" and "dog" because they have heard those two words separately more often than "happydog" b. Children will differentiate words based on where the vowels fall, and will likely think of the phrase "happy dog" as "happ ydog" c. Children will not think to separate the words, and will think of the phrase "happy dog" as one full word "happydog" d. Children will not recognize the phrase "happy dog" until taught about what "happy" and "dog" mean, and will only then learn that these are two separate words

Correct answer: A Assuming that statistical learning is used, A is correct because the statistics in the child's mind will support "happy" and "dog" being distinct full words, and "happydog" being a less commonly used full phrase that should be separated into those two words. B is incorrect because although there is more of a break between the sounds there, both of those are much less commonly heard than "happy" or "dog," or even "happydog." C is incorrect because statistical learning assumes that the brain is already prepped to know what a "word" is, and to separate phrases into words. The same goes for D, which is why that is incorrect as well - it assumes that children are already attempting to parse out what different words are, and that statistics are enough to separate them, even if the child doesn't know exactly what either word means.

Which of the following is the most helpful experience for children acquiring language? A. Hearing their caretaker ask questions like "is the weather sunny?" because the auxiliary at the start of the question helps them learn to use overt auxiliaries in phrases like "the weather is sunny". B. Hearing their caretaker emphasize vowels in certain words, for example "what a preeeeeetty baby" because children need this exaggerated pronunciation to distinguish between different phonemes. C. Consistent exposure to different inputs like television, radio and songs since birth in place of interaction with caregivers, because these forms of adult directed speech are more similar to the language that children are acquiring than child-directed speech. D. Having a child listen to a stream of repeated words with two or three syllables from a simple artificial language to train children to use statistics and probability to segment speech streams into meaningful lexical units.

Correct answer: A (Learning Experience Slides 8, 10, 13, 14, 15) Explanation: Answer B is incorrect because children are able to distinguish between phonemes without this hyperarticulation; for example, they can tell apart minimal pairs in many different languages that even adults cannot distinguish. Answer C is incorrect because evidence such as the case of Jim shows that first of all children do not learn vocabulary from the TV before the age of two (therefore receiving input from television immediately after birth would not help) and that even afterwards, children can only learn new vocabulary but not grammar from this input. Answer D is incorrect because while children rely on some degree of statistical learning, artificial languages are much simpler than natural languages and even then some young babies have trouble learning those with both two AND three syllable words. Both the example situation and the explanation in answer A are correct.

Which of the following would a social interactionist agree with? A. The desire to communicate is not what makes us have language; we have language regardless of the need or desire to communicate B. Acquiring language is similar to children learning to walk to get places C. Language is a set of formulas, which emerge from pattern-learning abilities and social cognitive understanding of meaning D. Acquiring language is similar to children getting places by walking

Correct answer: B A and D are incorrect because these reflect the rationalist and generativist/nativist views that humans have innate knowledge of language; however, social interactionists align with the interactionist view that innate knowledge of language is not enough for language acquisition. Instead, communication, not just language input, is crucial to language acquisition. B is correct because a social interactionist would agree with an analogy comparing language acquisition to a child learning to walk to get places. This reflects the idea that language is necessary for communication as opposed to the idea that children walk to get places, which aligns with a generativist/nativist view that the we have language regardless of the need or desire to communicate. D is incorrect because this reflects the generativist/nativist view that the we have language regardless of the need or desire to communicate, which is the opposite of what social interactionists believe.

What are the similarities between Chomsky's theory of a modular "language faculty" and Fodor and Pylyshyn's neural nets theory when describing cognitive architecture of language acquisition? A) The underlying architecture is fixed B) The process of language acquisition is computational in nature C) Linguistic acquisition is not independent or different from other cognitive functions D) All of the above

Correct answer: B Answer B is true, both theories support the idea that human cognition is computational or has computation components

Which of the following statements provide support for the fine tuning hypothesis? A. When a child reaches age 4, a caretaker decides to start speaking in longer sentences. B. Evidence of child's LA complexity growing in cultures without much verbal interaction between parents and children C. A mother using Y/N questions and children beginning to use more overt auxiliaries D. A particularly adept child that picks up complexity in language acquisition more quickly than average, even though caretaker uses less complex speech

Correct answer: C A is incorrect because this statement suggests that a caretaker's mean length utterance is correlated with age, not the child's language development, which provides evidence against the fine tuning hypothesis. B is incorrect because this statement suggests that children's language acquisition grows more complex even without much interaction between a caretaker and child. C is correct because the child's complexity in language acquisition aligns with the complexity of speech that the mother is using. For example, if the mother were to ask "Can you jump?" the child might respond with an overt axillary such as "I can jump." As seen in the mother's question, Y/N questions typically begin with an auxiliary verb, and the overt axillary is accordingly used in the child's response. D is incorrect because cases of individual differences where children acquire language that is more complex than the input from their caretaker suggests that the fine tuning hypothesis is not true.

Which of the following is the weakest argument for the existence of an innate language faculty guiding children's language acquisition? A. A child relies on syntactic bootstrapping to make a reasonably educated guess about the meaning of the word "tredding" in the sentence "The baby is tredding the toy" even if they've never encountered this word before. B. A child who has only been exposed to declarative sentences like "The water is cold" can correctly generate the question "Is the water cold?" C. A child figures out the pattern that their parent is likely asking them a question when there is a rise in tone at the end of statements like "Are you hungry?" D. The nativist view that children are able to acquire language very quickly and easily without being explicitly taught by adults.

Correct answer: C Answer A supports the idea of a language faculty because it suggests that a child needs to have some knowledge of grammar to begin with to help them understand that the position of the word in the sentence means that it is a verb. Answer B is also incorrect because it demonstrates poverty of the stimulus, where the child can successfully eliminate ungrammatical expressions to arrive at the correct sentence without prior or direct exposure to that particular sentence structure with the help of a language faculty. Answer D also supports the language faculty because nativists argue that this faculty is what enables children to acquire language so effortlessly. Answer C is the correct choice because it describes prosodic bootstrapping, which assumes children learn language using general perceptual cues that are found in a variety of situations including language and music, therefore there need for a special language faculty to decipher these cues.

Which of the following is not evidence that supports the critical period hypothesis? A. Young NSL learners showing an increase in spatial modulations for grammatical function as opposed to NSL learners over the age of 10 B. Non-native sign language learners signing with an accent C. Chelsea, who was not exposed to speech until late in life, learning a large vocabulary but poor grammar abilities D. A child who grew up with no language input until the age of 14 acquiring language at the same levels as their peers

Correct answer: D A is incorrect because only young learners in their critical period were able to take a partially developed language and systematize it, showing that there is something within children that allows them to unconsciously learn language rules at superior levels during the critical stage. Therefore, this answer supports the critical period hypothesis. B is incorrect because this suggests that the earlier sign language input, the higher sign language proficiency achieved, which supports the critical period hypothesis. C is incorrect because this suggests that age of acquisition affects language proficiency achieved. In this case, Chelsea was not exposed to speech until her critical period was over, which is why she could never acquire proficient grammar abilities. D is correct. According to the critical period hypothesis, a child cannot acquire language at the same rate as their peers after being exposed to language after the critical period stage.

According to semantic bootstrapping, cross-linguistical concepts are lexicalized differently. Which of the examples listed below would be an incorrect representation of this idea? A. Learning how to distinguish between semantic meaning of words based on tonal differences B. One language emphasizing the first part of the sentence and another language emphasizing the last part of the sentence C. Chinese using one linguistic form "ta" to represent multiple pronouns (excluding orthography) and English using pronouns with many different linguistic forms D. A language not having a word for "Christmas" because it is not celebrated by the language's speakers

Correct answer: D A is incorrect because tonal differences are an example of how different phonological units are lexicalized across different languages, such as in Mandarin Chinese or Vietnamese (tonal) as opposed to English (non-tonal), where syllables that largely sound the same except for differences in tone may yield drastically different semantic meaning. B is incorrect because this is an example of syntactic differences across language and demonstrates how these languages are lexicalized differently. In this case, children learning the first would have to pay extra attention to the beginning of a sentence and children learning the second language would have to pay extra attention to the ending of a sentence. C. C is incorrect because this is an example of morphological difference across language and thereby demonstrates how Chinese and English are lexicalized differently. In this case, children would have to pay extra attention to context clues for Chinese and less so for English to fully understand the gender of the subject. D. D is correct because a word not yet existing in a language is not an example of how languages are lexicalized differently. The absence of the word "Christmas" in a language does not change the various different ways in which a language is lexicalized for children acquiring that language.

Which is incorrect about the biological basis of language? A. The idea of a genetic component contributing to variations in children's language abilities aligns with rationalist views of language acquisition. B. The brain structures of identical twins are more similar than the brain structures of fraternal twins, which reflect corresponding similarities in function and cognition. C. The high heritability of Specific Language Impairment provides evidence for the role of genetics in language acquisition. D. Plasticity of the young brain and early language experience play a larger role in children's language acquisition than anatomical structures allowing for language specialization.

Correct answer: D (Brain and Language slides 22, 28, 31, 33) Explanation: Answer D is the correct answer choice because while both plasticity and experience and anatomical specializations are important for children acquiring language, there is no definitive evidence yet for the idea that the prior is more important than the latter. Answers A, B and C are all correct statements about a genetic basis of language.

Which is true about semantic bootstrapping? A) It is sufficient in helping children to learn a language. B) Children tend to prefer this method, as they frequently discuss topics that are directly observable by them C) The fact that congenitally blind children can learn color terms supports the use of semantic bootstrapping. D) None of the above

Correct: D) None of the above. A) is incorrect--there is so much variety in meaning and reference that it is difficult for children to learn the language using semantic bootstrapping. B) is incorrect--children do not depend on ostensive contexts, and <50% of speech is about here & now C) is incorrect--congenitally blind children can learn color terms despite never having seen color and having a different understanding of color than sighted children.

What does the Innateness Hypothesis state? A) The Innateness Hypothesis states that there are biological predetermined mechanisms in the mind that are used to interpret linguistic input and derive the important information from that input. B) The Innateness Hypothesis states that elements that are more common and natural in all languages are more "innate" and those that less frequently appear and are learned later are "uninnate". C) The Innateness Hypothesis states that one's universal grammar is innate, and that one develops their language grammar specific to the language(s) they're learning through childhood. D) The Innateness Hypothesis states that "the rules operate on expressions that are assigned a certain structure in terms of hierarchy of phrases of various types".

Correct: A A is correct, the innateness hypothesis is a belief that humans are born with some linguistic blueprint that we fill out using language input. B is false, this is a reference to the idea of markedness. Language elements that are more common are "unmarked" and the ones that are more difficult to learn are "marked", such as continuants vs. stops. C is false, this is instead a hypothesis relating to the nature of development called the Strong Continuity Hypothesis. D is false, this is not a hypothesis at all. Instead, this is the principle of structure dependence. A principle is a universal rule for language, and this specific one states that the structure of expressions are related to the hierarchy, not order, or words or phrases.

What is evidence for the Equipotentiality Hypothesis which states that left hemisphere language dominance develops from age two through puberty, but is not given at birth? Choose all that apply. A) Aphasia in children is observed with similar frequency from left hemisphere and right hemisphere damage. B) Aphasia in children is infrequently observed. C) Children have a right ear advantage for syllables at birth. D) Aphasia in children is not often permanent and can be transient, leaving as the child ages. E) Aphasia in children is more often Broca's aphasia, which is non-fluent but good comprehension, than Wernicke's aphasia, which is fluent but poor comprehension.

Correct: A, B, D The Equipotentiality Hypothesis states that there is no dominance at birth for language lateralization. Options A, B, and D are all evidence for this hypothesis. Option C is incorrect because while true that children have a right ear advantage for syllables at birth, this is not relevant to the Equipotentiality Hypothesis. Option E is incorrect because while the definitions of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasias are accurate, there is no evidence that one is more common for children than another.

Which is NOT a hypothesis about the nature of development of Universal Grammar? A) Instantaneous hypothesis B) Probability hypothesis C) Maturation hypothesis D) Strong Continuity hypothesis

Correct: B) Probability hypothesis A) Instantaneous hypothesis: UG is instantly ad continuously available C) Maturation hypothesis: UG is a genetic program guiding grammar growth D) UG is "initial state" and the same throughout development

Although there isn't a single agreed-upon definition of what language is, there are established guidelines that can assist define what counts as a language. Which answer choice best represents those guidelines? A. Wolves communicating to each other that there is a predator or a food source nearby. B. An idea or concept someone has thought of. C. Someone gesturing to an object D. A process where you take what you hear and interpret it.

D Answer choice D is correct since the majority of people are aware that language requires a number of steps and multiple cognitive and physical components, whether we use multiple organs or are constantly compute information.

Which of the hypothetical systems of communication would follow the definition for a computational system of language? a. Aliens on planet X communicate through a series of knocks. There are three types of knocks that can be combined and have their orders changed, producing a small set of unique combinations. b. Sea slugs at the bottom of ocean Y communicate with chirps. They can distinguish between 15 of these chirps, which are used one after another to form more complex meanings. The order of these chirps can be rearranged and form hierarchical structures that the sea slugs understand change the meanings of the larger chirps. c. Monkeys at the top of jungle Z whoop at each other to communicate when there is food nearby. Each whoop is standalone, and they do not interact with one another. Switching the order of the whoop sounds can change a statement of food into a question. d. Human-like creatures on planet A speak to each other with words much like ours. They are formed from sounds denoted by letters and their orders can be swapped to form new meanings. Sentences can be up to 10 words long, and there is no way to communicate more deeply than those 10 words will allow.

The correct answer is B. There is nothing in this communication system that goes against the computational system requirements of being digital, infinite, combinatorial, sequencing, recursive, constituent, hierarchical, and dynamic.