Glossary
Aphasia
An impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write, typically caused by brain damage.
Example:
After a stroke, a patient might experience aphasia, making it difficult for them to communicate effectively.
Babbling Stage
A stage of language development, typically around 3-4 months, where infants spontaneously produce a wide range of meaningless sounds.
Example:
A baby repeating 'ga-ga-goo-goo' is engaging in the babbling stage, experimenting with different vocalizations.
Broca's Area
A region in the left frontal lobe of the brain primarily responsible for language production and expressive speech.
Example:
Damage to Broca's Area can result in a person understanding language but struggling to form words or speak fluently.
Critical Period
A specific time frame during development when an organism is most receptive to learning a particular skill or behavior, such as language.
Example:
If a child is not exposed to language during their early years, they may struggle to ever fully develop fluent speech due to missing the critical period.
Expressive Aphasia
A type of aphasia resulting from damage to Broca's Area, characterized by difficulty producing speech despite intact comprehension.
Example:
Someone with expressive aphasia might know exactly what they want to say but struggle to articulate the words, speaking in short, effortful phrases.
Grammar
The complete system of rules that allows us to communicate and understand each other within a given language.
Example:
Understanding the grammar of a language means knowing not just word order, but also verb conjugations and noun agreements.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Noam Chomsky's theoretical concept suggesting that humans are born with an innate, biological predisposition to acquire language.
Example:
A child's rapid and effortless learning of their native language, even without formal instruction, supports the idea of an underlying Language Acquisition Device.
Lexicon
A person's total vocabulary, representing all the words they know and understand in a language.
Example:
A medical student rapidly expands their lexicon as they learn specialized terms like 'auscultation' and 'palpation'.
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Benjamin Whorf's theory suggesting that the language we speak influences and shapes our thoughts and perceptions of the world.
Example:
If a language has many specific words for different types of snow, its speakers might perceive and categorize snow more finely than those whose language has only one word for snow, illustrating the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis.
Morphemes
The smallest units of language that carry meaning, which can be whole words, prefixes, or suffixes.
Example:
The word 'replayed' contains three morphemes: 're-' (again), 'play' (the action), and '-ed' (past tense).
One-Word Stage
A stage of language development, around 12 months, where children begin to use single words to convey complete thoughts or requests.
Example:
When a toddler points to a toy and says 'Ball!', they are in the one-word stage, using a single word to express a desire.
Overgeneralization
A common error in language acquisition where children apply grammatical rules too broadly, even to irregular forms.
Example:
A child saying 'I runned fast' instead of 'I ran fast' is an instance of overgeneralization of the past tense '-ed' rule.
Phonemes
The smallest distinctive sound units in a language that can change the meaning of a word.
Example:
The words 'bat' and 'cat' differ by only one phoneme, the /b/ sound versus the /k/ sound.
Receptive Aphasia
A type of aphasia resulting from damage to Wernicke's Area, characterized by difficulty understanding language, though speech production may remain fluent but nonsensical.
Example:
A person with receptive aphasia might hear words but not grasp their meaning, leading to confused responses or an inability to follow instructions.
Semantics
The study of meaning in language, focusing on how words, phrases, and sentences convey meaning.
Example:
The word 'star' can refer to a celestial body or a famous celebrity; understanding its semantics depends on the context.
Syntax
The set of rules that governs how words are combined to form grammatically correct sentences in a language.
Example:
In English, we typically place adjectives before nouns, so you'd say 'blue car' rather than 'car blue'.
Telegraphic Speech
Speech characteristic of the two-word stage, where children use only essential nouns and verbs, omitting less important words.
Example:
A child's utterance 'Want cookie' is an example of telegraphic speech, much like a telegram that only includes crucial information.
Two-Word Stage
A stage of language development, around 18 months, where children combine two words to form simple sentences.
Example:
A child saying 'More juice' or 'Daddy go' is demonstrating the two-word stage of language acquisition.
Wernicke's Area
A region in the left temporal lobe of the brain crucial for language comprehension and understanding spoken or written words.
Example:
An individual with damage to Wernicke's Area might speak fluently but produce nonsensical sentences and have difficulty understanding what others say.