PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Language Acquisition Device, Dan Slobin, Bound And Unbound Morphemes

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Dalia Kennig

Document Summary

Perhaps the most basic question that psycholinguists- those who study the structure and development of children"s language. Refers to the sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce meaningful units of speech. Phonemes- the basic units of sound that are used in a spoken language. Morphology- the rules governing the formation of meaningful words from sounds. Semantics- the expressed meaning of words and sentences. The smallest meaningful units of language are called morphemes and there are two types. Free morphemes- can stand alone as words. Whereas bound morphemes cannot stand alone but change meaning when attached to a free morpheme. Language also involves syntax- the structure of a language the rules specifying how words and grammatical markers are to be combined to produce meaningful sentences. Pragmatics- principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in social contexts.