PSYC 2076 Chapter : Ch 8
Document Summary
Language is a form of communication whether spoken, written, or signed that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them. Infinite generativity endless number of meaningful sentences. Children must learn how to discriminate, produce, and combine the speech-like sounds of their native language in order to make sense of the speech they hear and to be understood when they try to speak. Morpheme smallest language unit that has meaning. Linguistic comprehension, aka receptive language understanding of language: comprehension precedes production. Linguistic production, aka productive language use of language to communicate. Whatever language they learn, infants all over the world follow a similar path in language development. What are some key milestones in this development: crying. Crying can signal distress, but different types of cries that signal different things.
