How do children acquire and produce language?

How do children acquire and produce language?

At the beginning of a child’s life, they begin to develop their linguistic skills; these are the foundation of a child’s language which in time they will begin using this language to communicate their feelings, emotions etc and as they get older this will continue to develop as they learn more through social interaction or from their parents.

 

In the documentary by Dr Robert Winston, a boy named Zac who is fifteen months old is seen learning basic language because he hasn’t grasped the concept of more specific language yet. The larynx which is located in the throat is what creates the sound of the voice; air from the lungs makes the vocal chords vibrate producing the sound of the voice. The pitch of the sound produced is controlled by how tight the vocal chords are, so the tighter the chords, the higher the pitch and the looser the chords, the lower the pitch. The larynx in infants is high in the nasal cavity so that babies are able to drink and breathe at the same time but at about three months old the larynx drops 3cm in the throat making it easier to choke but talking is possible (the register of male voices lowers when the larynx drops again slightly during puberty).The larynx changes to suit each stage in life. Zac is learning English as well as Greek which is done using a different part of the brain than adults.

 

Moira who is two and half years old has a completely different linguistic ability than Zac as she is older. Moira is learning ten new words a day and thirty muscles are used in order to produce a word. At two and a half, Moira is able to construct words into proper sentences, this is supported by O’Grady’s theory; by the time most children are four they have probably mastered sounds, perhaps with the exception of ‘r’ and ‘th’. Moira didn’t know the word ‘fawn’ which is a baby deer so she had to pick this up from her parents. When she was asked by her mum what if there was another mouse, how many would there be, Moira replied with two ‘mouses’ which is incorrect as it should be two mice. This is an over-generalisation as the ‘es’ inflection has been added; Moira isn’t at the stage yet where she knows the correct term when there is two mice as she didn’t learn the word ‘mouses’ from her parents as they would know the correct term due to their develop language meaning that she has her own distinctive map of language. When saying the word ‘mouses’, Moira applied the logical plural rule however she hasn’t been taught the exception yet. Also in this clip, it is said that Moira uses the pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ suggesting that she knows that she is a separate person. Moira is at the age of the terrible two’s where she has the language to express her needs which mainly consists of tantrums and declaratives. Julia who was also shown in the clip is a child who lacks self-awareness due to her age unlike Moira; this may due to the age difference and linguistic ability.

Analysis of recipe

This is a recipe from the 1600’s (1665) aimed at women because stereotypically women would be the ones who would do all the cooking, this is still the same today although in some cases this stereotype is challenged as there are more male chefs. The purpose of this text is to instruct.

Throughout this recipe, it is clear to see that the language has changed significantly although some words and phrases are still the same in today’s language.

In terms of the discourse structure, at the beginning of each section there is a subtitle which is a brief description of what to do; this may still be used in today’s recipes but generally they are set out in numerical order. Unlike recipes in the 21st century, this 1600’s recipe is all in one paragraph; this would have been common in these times but this meant that it was harder to follow and understand.

Graphologically, the recipe is in black and white as there wouldn’t have been any colour in these times and as well as this no pictures are used meaning that it may be less appealing and it contrasts the graphology of today’s recipes as they are full of pictures of what the finished product would/should would look like. In regards to capitalisation, all the sections start with a large capital T and a small capital A as well as all starting with the word take, the capitalisation of the first letter is still used today in the context of newspapers. A variety of the words in this recipe have capital letters at the start for example Cinnamon, Butter, Cream, Eggs, Salt, Sugar etc; this makes the recipe a non-standard form and it is uncommon in recipes of the 21st century,

The word ‘flower’ is a homophone because although this word is pronounced the same as the word ‘flour’, it has a completely different meaning and therefore is used in the wrong context. This word is used to describe a plant found in the garden etc whereas the word ‘flour’ is a cooking ingredient which is the word that should be used here in order for the recipe to make sense.

An example of an archaic phrase within this recipe is ‘For it will make it sad and heavy’ which would be classed as an old fashioned phrase that may have been commonly used in the 1700’s, as well as this it is quite a formal phrase with a high register. The phrase ‘on the fire’ suggests is also an archaic phrase.

During the 1600’s there would have been a lacking of cooking equipment; this is emphasised by the phrase ‘some sugar’ as it is clear to see that no exact measurement is used (e.g. 200g) which would have also been due to the lack of technology. Nowadays, technology has advanced significantly meaning that there is a variety of equipment that can be used to measure ingredients which suggests that this advancement in technology has allowed our language use to develop.  

‘Mingle’, used in the phrase ‘mingle with your Cream three spoonfuls of fine flower; mingle it so well …’ - has two meanings; to mix or cause something to mix together and engaging with people through social interaction. This word is quite informal meaning that it isn’t suited this and due to the primary meaning of this word in today’s society being engaging with people through social interaction implies that another word should be used in order to fit the genre/context of this text. However it could be argued that this is a word that had a different meaning back in the or it may have been a word which was commonly used within this context.

The word ‘boyl’ is spelt with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’ which is a non-standard spelling and suggests a change in the spelling of the word; however it still has the same meaning. A old fashioned, formal word used is ‘thus’ which dates back to Shakespearian times and may be known as an archaic term as it is not used anymore, however this can only be said for spoken discourse as it is still used in the context of the re-enactment of Shakespearean or historic plays.

Additionally, the word ‘handsomely’ is an adverb and has had the letter ‘e’ added to it meaning that there has been a change in spelling of this word which in turn makes it sound more old fashioned. There are many other examples of syllable deletion in this recipe, for example ‘warme’ (extra ‘e’), ‘look’ (no ‘s’) and ‘Tast’ (no ‘e’). Syllable addition has been used in the word ‘quartered’, the suffix ‘ed’ has been added but it is meant to be ‘quarters’, with the plural suffix ‘s’ on the end. Inconsistency is used when spelling the word Barley as sometimes there is a syllable deletion of the letter ‘e’ making it ‘Barly’ but other times it is spelt correctly with the ‘e’, ‘Barley.

In terms of sentence structure, this recipe consists of one long complex sentence only separated by commas and semi-colons which is very informal but may have been a norm of language in the   The main sentence function used in this recipe is imperative because of the purpose being to instruct, examples of this include ‘put, ‘take’, wash etc.

Some of the sentences in this recipe are incomplete meaning that they do not make sense making it hard for the reader to understand and follow; for example, ‘and let it boil together a quarter of an hour’ (the word ‘for’ should be added), ‘and let it be thick that it may not run out’,  ‘so cut it very handsomely what fashion you please’ (the word ‘to’ should be added and the word fashion should be changed to a different word) and  ‘let it bake till you think it be enough’ (the word ‘will’ should be added and the omission of the ‘un’ of the word ‘till’ makes it non-standard).

Throughout the whole recipe, all of the letter ‘s’ have been substituted by the letter ‘f’; this was very common in this period of time and people would have found it easy to understand as they would see it all the time but if this was used nowadays, people would find it hard to understand and recognise as it is something they would never have seen before.

Analysis of article

Cognitive Theory

The cognitive theory is the way in which people process information – it looks at how we process information we receive and how the treatment of this information leads to our responses.

Jean Piaget (1936) described his work as genetic epistemology – for example the origins of thinking and was the first psychologist to make a methodical study of cognitive development. He includes a theory of child cognitive development, a series of simple and creative tests to reveal different cognitive abilities and detailed observational studies of the mental process of gaining knowledge in children.

The common theory in psychology was that children are simply less capable thinkers than adults; this was all before Piaget conducted his work. However, in his work, Piaget showed that children think in very different ways compared to adults. He also believed that children are born with a very basic mental structure, which is how later knowledge and learning is based. 

Comments on the article

This article written by Marie Woolf is about how broken homes damage brains of young children. My opinion of this article is that it is a biased article as it only focuses on one side. Broken homes may be a factor to damaging young children’s brains but it it isn’t the only factor; there may be others reasons to why children’s brains are damaged or struggle at school – i.e. they have a learning disability that is not because of their family background. Some students may have a healthy family background, but may naturally be behind at school. Within this article, the MP has only based his comments on the research by the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas. In this article, Duncan Smith says that ‘family breakdown meant that in many cases the children never caught up on their education and tended to become drug addicts, criminals or alcoholics’; this statement is just one opinion and is not backed up by any evidence. In my opinion, I believe this may be true to some extent; however sometimes it is not known why people turn to alcohol and drugs or they turn to them for different reasons meaning that his opinion is entirely inaccurate and again has no evidence to back it up. 

Context – this article about how children from neglected backgrounds struggle with education and have less developed brains. Within this article, it is stated by Duncan Smith (the former Tory leader) that these children from neglected backgrounds have a mental age of one year olds.

Audience – the audience of this text is adults but can be narrowed down to parents.

Purpose – the purpose of this text is to inform people about the effects that broken homes have only children’s brains but also to persuade as Duncan Smith is giving his opinion which may in turn persuade others to think in the same way that he does or have the same opinions. However other may disagree with him.

Register and tone – the tone of this article is formal by the use of the high register lexis. Within the article, there aren’t any words that are difficult to understand and it has a mixture of monosyllabic, polysyllabic and disyllabic lexis.

Mode – the mode of this text is in the form of a newspaper article (printed text)

The UK Parliament

UK Parliament Language

The Parliament has a variety of roles in helping the UK to run efficiently as a country. The primary job of parliament is to make laws, debate topical issues and look at how our taxes are spent to help run the country.

Parliament consist of two parts:

The House of Lords – these are made up of people with inherited family titles and who have been given titles due to their outstanding work in one field or another. This consists of 675 members. The main job of the House of Lords is to double check new laws to make sure they are fair and will work.

The House of Commons – these have 659 members who have been elected by local residents in order to represent an area of the country in parliament; called MP’s. Each MP represents one of 659 constituencies (areas) in the UK and is a member of a political party. This is the most important place for discussing policies and making laws.

Parliamentary language

Here are examples of parliamentary language:

Act – a law made by Parliament

Cabinet – the group of senior ministers in a Government –the cabinet meets regularly to make important decisions

Constituency – the electorate or area, or the people n it represented by an MP

Deregulation order – an order to alter or cancel a provision in primary legislation that is considered to impose a burden on business or others.

Enfranchise – to give a person the right to vote

Hansard – a full report of what was said in parliament (including written questions and their answers) is published in the official report.

Judicial power – the power to interpret or apply the law in particular cases

Money bill – a bill setting a tax or proposing the spending of money for a particular purpose

Non-Partisan – not aligned to a political party; not biased or one sided; neutral

Parliamentary counsel – responsible for drafting government bills and amendments to bills, and advising government departments on all aspects of parliamentary procedure

Points of order – a method where members bring supposed breaches of the House's rules of order to the Speaker's attention. Members may seek to raise them at any time, but the Speaker has discretion as to when to hear them and will not normally do so during Question Time.

Select committee – a group of members from either House or both Houses, appointed to inquire into and report on a certain subject. A select committee ceases to exist when it has made its final report to the House or Houses

Unconstitutional – contrary to or inconsistent with the Constitution or the recognized principles of the constitutional law of a country

Writs – formal orders issued by the Governor, requiring that an election be held.

Unparliamentary language

Unparliamentary language breaks the rules of politeness in the House of Commons Chamber. Part of the speaker’s role is to make sure that MP's don’t use insulting or rude language, don’t accuse eachother of lying, being drunk or misrepresent each other’s words and suggest that another MP has false motives. If an MP uses Unparliamentary language during debates, the speaker will ask the concerned member to withdraw what has been said. An MP may be asked to leave the house and is suspended for five sitting days if they don’t withdraw a comment. The Speaker has objected words such as blackguard, coward, git, guttersnipe, hooligan, rat, swine, stoolpigeon and traitor. Sometimes MP's will use a large amount of resourcefulness to get around the rules – e.g. Winston Churchill used the phrase ‘terminological inexactitude’ to mean ‘lie’.

Criticism and accusations are allowed (often under the cover of parliamentary privilege) but certain types of language are considered too abusive.

Cyber article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35765276

This article from The Voacabualrist is about how the word cyber is used and within this article there are a variety of opinions and theories expressed. The title implies that there are many ways and contexts in which the word cyber is used.

One of these views are that the Latin translation of the word 'kubertnetes' changes to 'cybernetes'. Kubernetika means skill in steering as was used by Plato, American mathematician Norbert Weiner (1940) believed that this word originated from 'cybernetics' which means control and communication theory. 

Another view/theory about the word cyber is that is has become associated with robots - for example cyber-men from Dr Who. This implies that the meaning of the word has changed dramatically over time. 

From ancient helmsman to robots, the word cyber has the modern meaning due to the term 'cyberspace' which is the virtual electronic word where we explore, play, learn and share information. A theorist of cyberspace Howard Rheingold believed that the word 'cyber' comes from William Gibson's science fiction writing especially Neuromancer novel 1984. 


From this article it is clear to see that the meaning of the word 'cyber' has changed throughout time from meaning skill in steering to meaning robots. It is common nowadays that the term 'cyber' is associated with bullying -  cyber-bulling which is a type of bulling which happens online through messaging, social media, this is a negative connotation which shows how the meanings of words have changed over and how it could have gone from positive to negative. 

Occupational Jargon - Dentistry

Jargon
Within dentistry, there is a variety of Jargon used by dentists in order to deliver care too patients. The dentist and dental nurse will communciate with eachother using this Jargon. People from other occupations and maybe even the patients won't know what this Jargon means as it is only used in the dentistry discourse community.  

Some examples of this Jargon are:

Alveolar Bone – the bone that surrounds and supports the tooth and associated structures

Cementum – calcified connective tissue that covers the outside surface of a tooth’s root.

Edema – swelling

Gingiva – that part of the oral masticatory mucosa that surrounds the necks of the teeth and is attached to the teeth and the alveolar bone (the gum)

Interdental Papilla – Gingiva (gum tissue) that fills the space between two adjacent teeth (the space is called interproximal). Papilla is usually pointed or pyramidal in anterior teeth and somewhat flatter between posterior teeth. If teeth overlap papilla, it may be tapered and narrow; if teeth do not touch, the papilla may be flat or saddle-shaped.

Maxilla – top jaw

Periodontal Ligament – the fibrous connective tissue that supports, surrounds, and attaches the roots of the teeth to alveolar bone.

Sulcus – the space or crevice between the surface of a tooth and the epithelium lining the unattached or free gingival.

Abbreviations

Many abbreviations for patient treatment records are used in dentistry in order to decrease the amount of time spent on paperwork. Records are legal documents meaning that the abbreviations and their meanings should be the same in every record. So that everyone uses the same abbreviations and understands what they mean, it’s good to have a key to the abbreviations so anyone reading or writing a record can understand exactly what is being said. Patients can also look over their medical records and understand the various notations if they have a key of the abbreviations available.

Some examples of these abbreviations are:

ant – Anterior

D – Distal

EIE – Extraoral intraoral examination

imp – Impression

LR – Lower right quadrant

PSA – Posterior superior alveolar

STAT – Immediately

WNL – Within normal limits

 

 

Root Words, Prefixes and Suffixes Used in Dental Terms

There are specific rules for combining words and for the order of the root words within a word, so it’s good to study further to really understand how dental/medical terms are put together and read. When words are combined, they often acquire an “o” to make the word flow better and be more pronounceable. A prefix is a word, letter, or number placed before another and a suffix is a morpheme added at the end of a word to form a derivative.

Examples of prefixes and suffixes used are:

Prefix/Suffix	Definition	Example
-algia	pain	odontALGIA = tooth pain
-emia	blood	hyperEMIA = above normal amount of blood in a tissue
-hyper	over, excessive, above	HYPERmobility = more mobility than normal
-inter	between	INTERcellular = between cells
-neo	new	NEOplasm = new growth
-peri	around	PERIoral = around the mouth
-supra	above	SUPRAgingival = above the margin of the gums

Colours

The list of word parts and the colour associated with the word:

alb, albin, leuk – white

chlor – green

cyan – blue

eryth – red

melan – black

Spoken/written interactions

Dentists would be constantly involved in spoken interactions as they have to communicate with the nurse to ask for equipment and get them to write down the patient’s problem and notes. The dentists would need to also communicate with the patients to tell them what treatment they will need etc. They would also use written interactions as they have to write letters to patients for appointments and referrals. They may also need to email across notes to the other members of staff. Other written texts include filling out forms and claims for patients.

Word meanings

 The first record of this word was 1297, first appearing in R. Gloucester’s Chron. This word comes from France and has been mainly associated with men as it includes the word knight which is usually a man. The primary meaning has changed over time as the word ‘bachelor’ first meant a young knight not old enough to display his own banner, however nowadays a bachelor is known as someone who has a degree in a certain course/subject – e.g. Bachelor of Arts. The meaning has become more positive. The spelling of the word has stayed the same and this word exists only as a noun. The dictionary definition does match my understanding of the word as I thought it was someone who has got a degree.

                                                                                     
The OED first recorded the appearance of this word in printed text in 1886 appearing in Sir Tristrem. This word comes from France and at first it was associated with women, however in time it has been associated with a man. So it hasn’t always been gender specific. The primary of this word has changed as at first it was known as a woman having control or authority and then over time it has meant an unmarried man, a size of roofing slate and the wife of a member of a community – as a farmer, minister etc. The spelling of the word hasn’t changed at all and this word exists as a noun, adjective and verb. This implies that it can be used in several ways – as an object, describing word and doing word. The dictionary definition matches my understanding of the word as I thought it was someone who is in control and head of a household.                                                         

 The OED first recorded the appearance of the word in 1134 in Gower Confessio Amantis. The word master comes from Latin and has always been associated with a male; however in the latter half of the 20^th century it extended to include women. The primary meaning of this word hasn’t really changed although it means different things. The main meaning of this word is that is a male who is in control or head of a household. The spelling of the word hasn’t changed at all and exists as an adjective noun and verb. So like the word mistress this word can be used in several ways – as an object, describing word and doing word. The dictionary definition does match my understanding of the word as I thought it was a male and someone incharge of the household.