Category: Word of the Week
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Word of the Week: Idiolect
An idiolect is an individual’s variation of speech and language. Every person has a distinctive combination of word choice, grammar, pronunciation, and style that makes up their idiolect. As opposed to a dialect, which encompasses the language of a group of people, an idiolect is much more narrow—is unique to the individual. It is influenced…
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Word of the Week: The Gavagai Problem
The Gavagai problem describes the enormous task of word learning. To learn a word’s meaning, we begin by matching words to referents, or the thing to which a word refers. The word “gavagai” originates from a thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine in 1960. It goes along the lines of this:…
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Word of the Week: Code-switching
Code-switching means changing how language is used depending on social context. This can mean switching between languages (such as speaking English to an English speaker but German to a German speaker) or mixing languages (such as Spanglish). It can also refer to switching dialect (such as African American English to Standard American English) or changing…
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Word of the Week: Crib Talk
Crib talk is when young children talk to themselves before sleep. Starting at around age one-and-a-half, and ending around two-and-a-half, toddlers commonly narrate events, repeat things they have heard, or create imaginary situations. These monologues include elements of conversation and turn-taking. Crib talk is also common in Deaf children, who speak to themselves in signs…
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Word of the Week: Register
Registers are the stylistic variations of language an individual uses based on circumstance. People tend to adapt their pronunciation, word choice, grammar and/or body language to the different social situations in which they might find themselves. The social occasion, context, purpose, and audience are all important when choosing a register. Choosing a register may be…
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Word of the Week: Word Spurt
After toddlers learn about 50 words, often around 18 months of age, their vocabularies explode. This is called the word spurt or the vocabulary spurt. Toddlers learn words at double the rate that they were previously, or even faster. On average, children start off by learning 8-11 words per month. After about 50 words, this…
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Word of the Week: Dialect
A dialect is a variation of a language shared by members of a region, social class, or ethnicity. Dialects can vary from each other in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some also have unique conversational rules. They are often considered to be mutually intelligible: generally, speakers of one dialect can be understood by speakers of another…
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Word of the Week: Motherese or Parentese
Also known as “baby-talk” and “child directed speech,” motherese or parentese is talk that is directed to an infant or young child. It has a more melodic or sing-song-like intonation than speech directed toward adults. It sounds higher pitched and slower paced, and words are often shortened or simplified. Oftentimes, it includes made-up words or…
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Word of the Week: Metalanguage
Metalanguage is language used to talk about language. The prefix meta-means referring to oneself. Metalanguage is a useful tool to support language development in school aged children as well as second language learning. Examples of metalanguage include terms like word, noun, letter, and sentence.
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