Language Development Outline
I. The What Question
  1. phonology
    A. basic units of sound
  2. semantics (meaning)
    A. morphemes (words or grammatical markers)
  3. syntax (rules of language)
    A. form or structure of language
  4. pragmatics
    A. socially appropriate

II. The How Question
  1. the nurture (learning) view
    A. imitation  B. selective reinforcement
  2. the nature (not learned) view
    A. N. Chomsky
       a. language acquisition device (LAD)
  3. evidence for nature vs nurture
    A. other primates (can you teach them to use language)
    B. feral & abused children
    C. cultural similarities in language acquisition
  4. stages of language development in children
    A. crying  B. cooing  C. babbling
    D. first words
      a. vocables
      b. holophrase hypothesis
    E. strings of words
      a.  telegraphic speech
  6. motherese (infantese)
  7. interesting errors kids make
    A. underextending   B. overextending
    C. overregularize   D. understanding complex statements

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