ABSTRACT
Traditional linguistics described inventories of sounds, words, and sentences observed in a language. Morphology is the branch of linguistics concerned with the smallest meaningful units of language including words, which are free-standing morphemes, as well as inflectional affixes and derivational affixes, which are bound morphemes. Pragmatic deficits occur across populations of children with language disorders. Syntax examines the formation of sentences across languages, defining the workings of the Computational System. Pragmatics is concerned with language usage in context and the contribution of context to meaning. Semantics is concerned with meaning in language at various levels including words, phrases, sentence, or discourse. Phonology is concerned with the sounds of language and the knowledge that underlies their systematic occurrence. The notion of critical period is rejected because of a lack of compelling evidence, and in light of evidence that under non-clinical circumstances languages can be learned across the lifespan, given adequate input.
