CHILD LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT - Amazon Web Services€¦ · NATIVISM (Innateness Theory) Criticism of Skinner’s approach was led by Noam CHOMSKY (research him!) whose alternative theory

CHILD

LANGUAGE

DEVELOPMENT

CLD booklet, updated 2009

CHILD LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Foreword

This booklet was prepared to contribute to your understanding and assist

with revision for your first year examination. It is NOT a substitute for

your lesson notes but rather a supplement of them. Your teacher and your

own wider reading are the best resources. Above all, you need to evaluate

this research by observing children’s talk and collecting examples of your

own. Your lessons and this booklet are only a starting point.

You will often hear and read about the “stages” of acquisition but treat this

with caution as babies vary a great deal; the stages are sometimes difficult to

distinguish and different researchers use different terms sometimes to refer

to the same thing.

In this booklet you will find information to encourage you to think about

acquisition from conception until school age. Language acquisition goes on for

much longer. (This booklet does not include reading, writing and other linguistic

skills, for example, which you will study later). However, you should be aware of

significant ‘stages’ and features of acquisition from 0 - 5 years.

Introduction

Children all around the world seem to acquire language by passing through a

similar set of ‘stages’. The time taken to move from one stage to the next can

vary from child to child, but the stages themselves and the order in which they

are negotiated appear to be universal: the same pattern of development applies

regardless of the language being acquired.

BEWARE!! CHILDREN DO NOT DEVELOP AT THE SAME PACE. CHILDREN OF SIX MONTHS,

NINE MONTHS OR ANY OTHER AGE WILL OFTEN DIFFER MARKEDLY FROM EACH OTHER.


Contents

CHILD LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ........................................................... 1

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ............................................................................... 1

Foreword .......................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1

Contents ................................................................................................................... 2

SO HOW DO CHILDREN ACQUIRE LANGUAGE? ................................. 5

THE MAIN THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION .................... 6

BEHAVIOURISM (Imitation & Reinforcement) ............................................ 6

Evaluation of this Theory ........................................................................................... 6

NATIVISM (Innateness Theory) ...................................................................... 7

Evaluation of this Theory ........................................................................................... 8

The Critical Development Period .............................................................................. 8

COGNITION THEORIES .................................................................................... 9

OBJECT PERMANENCE .............................................................................................. 9

CLASSIFICATION ..................................................................................................... 10

SERIATION ................................................................................................................. 10

Evaluation of this Theory .......................................................................................... 10

Further Research ........................................................................................................ 10

INPUT THEORIES ............................................................................................... 11

A Question of Terminology ....................................................................................... 11

PHONOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 12

LEXIS ............................................................................................................................. 12

GRAMMAR ..................................................................................................................... 12

Discourse ....................................................................................................................... 13

Further Reading ........................................................................................................... 14

Evaluation of Input Theories .................................................................................... 14

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 15

Summary of the most important factors about acquisition .............................. 15

EARLY PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT .......................................................15

THE FUNCTIONS OF CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE ..................................16

PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT .............................................................18

‘Before Birth’ and ‘The First Year’ ................................................................... 18

Before Birth .................................................................................................................. 18

SOUND PERCEPTION ................................................................................................ 19

Stage One: 0-8 weeks: Basic biological noises ............................................ 19

Stage Two: 8-20 weeks: Cooing and laughing ............................................. 20

Stage Three: 20-30 weeks: vocal play ......................................................... 20


Stage Four: 25-50 weeks: babbling ................................................................ 20

The Rules of Babbling ................................................................................................ 22

Phonemic Expansion & Contraction .......................................................................... 21

Intonation and Gesture ............................................................................................. 23

Stage Five: 9 - 18 months: melodic utterance............................................. 23

Proto-Words ................................................................................................................ 22

Speech Interaction ....................................................................................... 22

BEYOND THE FIRST YEAR: Later Phonological Development ......... 23

SUBSTITUTION ........................................................................................................ 24

DELETION ................................................................................................................... 24

ADDITION .................................................................................................................. 26

DE-VOICING ............................................................................................................... 25

VOICING ...................................................................................................................... 25

HARMONISING (or ASSIMILATION) ............................................................... 25

REDUPLICATION ....................................................................................................... 25

Intonation ........................................................................................................ 26

LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT ......................................... 27

LEXICAL DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................. 28

First Words.................................................................................................................. 28

Semantic Development ................................................................................. 29

UNDER-EXTENSION ................................................................................................ 30

MISMATCH ................................................................................................................. 30

Labelling, Packaging and Network Building ..................................................... 31

Verbal Art ..................................................................................................................... 31

SUFFIXING ................................................................................................................. 32

PREFIXES ..................................................................................................................... 33

CONVERSION ............................................................................................................. 33

COMPOUNDING ......................................................................................................... 34

Other Issues................................................................................................................ 35

USING THE CORPUS ................................................................................................ 35

ESSAY QUESTIONS ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT .............................................................. 36

SYNTAX ................................................................................................................ 37

One-Word Stage ......................................................................................................... 36

TWO-WORD STAGE ................................................................................................. 37

MEANING RELATIONS IN THE TWO-WORD STAGE .................................. 38

Other issues in the two-word stage....................................................................... 40

Transition ..................................................................................................................... 40

Imitating Parents ........................................................................................................ 40

TELEGRAPHIC STAGE ....................................................................................... 40


Summary ....................................................................................................................... 42

ACQUISITION OF INFLECTIONS .............................................................. 44

UNDERSTANDING OF GRAMMATICAL RULES ........................................ 44

Other Grammatical Issues ....................................................................................... 45

Pronouns ........................................................................................................................ 45

Asking Questions ........................................................................................................ 46

Saying ‘no’ (negation) .................................................................................................. 46

LANGUAGE ACQUISITON – THE MAIN FEATURES ........................ 48

ESSAY PRACTICE ......................................................................................... 49

REVISION ........................................................................................................51

BOOK LIST ..................................................................................................... 53


SO HOW DO CHILDREN ACQUIRE LANGUAGE?

It’s not so easy to work out, is it?

The research that does exist is fascinating but unfortunately there is no one

clear solution to the question of exactly how children acquire language.

Everyone needs to acquire a certain minimum ability in language. It’s a complex

skill. If you’ve studied a foreign language, you’ll know! You need a range of

knowledge to speak, read and write the language. There are 20+ vowel sounds,

24 consonants of a spoken dialect of a language and over 300 ways of combining

these into a sequence e.g. s + k + r = scream

m + P + s = jumps

An active adult vocabulary can reach 50,000 or more words and a passive ability

to understand half as many again.

There are at least a thousand aspects of grammatical construction, dealing with

all the rules - some general and some specific - governing sentence and word

formation. There are the prosodic features of pitch, loudness, speed and

rhythm to acquire - the tones to convey meaning (it’s not what you say it’s the

way that you say it).

There is a large, but uncertain, number of conventions governing the ways in

which sentences can be combined into spoken discourse. There is a large

number of conventions governing ways in which varieties of the language differ

so that the linguistic consequences of region, gender, class and occupation are

assimilated. One has to learn the different ways of being interesting, logical,

persuasive and polite. Add to this the uncertain and large number of strategies

governing ways in which all the above can be bent or broken to achieve special

meanings and effects!

(To be literate there is an additional set of skills to acquire - letter recognition,

spelling rules, reading strategies, writing techniques etc.) which we will come to

later.

It’s a life-long, complex process.

The way you learn a second language differs from the way you learn a first as

knowledge of a first language affects the second.


MOST children learn to talk by the time they are 5 on a wide variety of topics

using language that is clear, rich in vocabulary and varied in sentence patterns,

using subtle shades of meaning appropriate to situation and purpose.

How does it happen?

Attempts have been made to explain how children acquire their first language.

There are 4 main hypotheses (principled guesses). Two are ‘social’ theories and

two are psychological \physiological.

1] Behaviourist theory (imitation and reinforcement).

2] Nativist theory (innateness)

3] Cognitive theory (linked to intelligence)

4] INPUT theory (child-directed speech; interaction; “Motherese”)

THE MAIN THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

(You must learn the scholars associated with each theory)

BEHAVIOURISM (Imitation & Reinforcement) You need to read\research the work of SKINNER (1957). This approach argues

that children acquire language by IMITATING the speech of others. When a

child produces words successfully s\he receives praise and encouragement,

subsequently motivating the child to repeat the behaviour. Skinner regards

language as similar to other kinds of human behaviour: if we do something and it

has positive, pleasant consequences, we are more likely to do it again. In terms

of language, when the child speaks words, and later sentences, s\he may be

rewarded e.g. if the child asks for a biscuit and is given one, then there is

success and reward. The child may even see that his\her parents are happy and

approving. This REINFORCEMENT assists the child’s use of language and

encourages development.

Evaluation of this Theory

In terms of PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT (learning sounds) and the

acquiring of words (Lexis) then imitation does play an important part. Children

develop regional accents showing that they do imitate sounds around them.

They also pick up words and “parrot” them as they acquire a vocabulary (but a

word does not come ready made with its meaning and you need to ask whether

this can be acquired through imitation).


This is a theory with flaws:

All children pass through the same stages of language development

regardless of the type and amount of adult reinforcement they receive. If

acquisition was entirely dependent on parental reinforcement then there

would be more variation between individual children.

Children cannot acquire grammar by imitation. Sentences are rarely spoken

in the same way twice. Children must acquire the rules of grammar and they

do. When a child says “wented” s\he is applying a rule - which rule?

When a child mentions “mans” (for ‘men’) s\he is applying another rule.

They have not heard adults say these words and they have not been

encouraged to make these mistakes so what does this show? * You should

research BERKO’s “Wug” Theory here *

Children can produce sentences that are entirely original and can understand

an infinite number of sentences. They are not limited to sentences they

have heard spoken by others. They discover the PRINCIPLES that underline

the constructions and are then able to generate new utterances.

Children often seem impervious to correction. A parent could correct “I

felled off my bike” to “I fell off my bike” repeatedly but until the child is

happy with the ‘rules’ behind irregular verbs s\he will continue to use the

more logical ‘ed’ for past tense. Imitation and reinforcement often do not

work.

See ‘Skinner in depth’ (on Moodle) for further criticisms.

NATIVISM (Innateness Theory) Criticism of Skinner’s approach was led by Noam CHOMSKY (research him!)

whose alternative theory of language acquisition was proposed in 1965. Chomsky

proposed that children have an innate (inborn) ability to extract the rules

underlying language from the words they hear being spoken around them. He

believed that when the human brain is exposed to speech at birth, it will

automatically begin to receive and make sense of utterances because it has been

programmed to do so. If there is no physiological defect this language

‘blueprint’ develops into speech. Chomsky called this a Language Acquisition

Device (LAD) which was later renamed the Universal Grammar (UG). The

programmed patterns “primary linguistic data” are general and the child has to


learn the rules by applying them. According to Chomsky, different languages

have different surface structures but they all share the same deep structure.

For example, sentences containing a subject, verb and objective are common to

all languages. Children are said to possess an innate awareness of this deep

structure, and this explains why they are able to develop language proficiency so

rapidly: from birth their brains are ready to analyse what they hear and to

understand how the language system of the society they have been born into

works.


The existence of an LAD would explain:

The impressive speed with which children learn to speak

The fact that children of all cultures pass through similar stages

The existence of grammatical features common to all languages (linguistic

universals)

Children are able to understand and use new sentences and constructions

without having had any previous experience of them

The fact that children whose parents only interact with them a little, learn

language as well as children whose parents interact with them a lot

The main criticism of Chomsky’s theory has been that it underestimates the

power and role of language as a social phenomenon. (i.e. the interaction with

other people). Some people have mistakenly interpreted Chomsky’s theory as

implying that the acquisition of language will happen automatically. IT NEEDS

TO BE REMEMBERED THAT CHOMSKY’S THEORY MAKES CLEAR THAT

CHILDREN MUST BE EXPOSED TO LANGUAGE IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO

PROCESS ITS RULES AND PRINCIPLES. Research and Case Studies, such as

the Bard and Sachs “Jim” Study (1977) and the “Genie” Case, show that human

contact is essential to become a competent speaker but this SUPPORTS

Chomsky rather than challenges him. The fact that many children whose parents

pay them very little attention and often speak to them in non-standard English

(what Nativists call ‘the poverty of the stimulus’) still learn language

adequately is evidence that while some interaction is necessary, its amount and

its quality are not that important.

The Critical Development Period

Research the work of LENNEBERG, who developed Chomsky’s idea of the LAD.

He hypothesised that there is a Critical Development Period within which a child


must be exposed to language in order for him\her to develop normally.

Lenneberg advocated that a child must acquire the basics of language through

human interaction by the time s\he reaches puberty.

There have been occasional cases of ‘wild’ (or feral) children who have been

deprived of normal contact with humans and have therefore never acquired

language. Some have been discovered at a young age and have rapidly caught up

on language development. Those cases discovered as teenagers, however, rarely

manage more than a few odd words, telegraphically organised, even in the face

of intensive training.

Genie, discovered at age 13 in the 1970s, had no language because her parents

hadn’t spoken to her and had punished her if she made a sound. She had been

denied social contact. Despite years of teaching by psycholinguists she never

grasped the grammar that even normal five year olds use:

spot chew glove

apple sauce buy store

But her case is not evidence of Lenneberg’s hypothesis, as you will realise when

you watch the documentary on Genie.

COGNITION THEORIES You need to research the work of Jean PIAGET (1896-1980), a Swiss

psychologist whose ideas about intellectual development in children have had a

major influence on teaching and education.

Intellectual development in children - the development of mental abilities and

skills - is known as Cognitive development. Stages in language acquisition are

said to be linked to stages in cognitive development. Piaget’s hypothesis is that

children can only use a certain linguistic structure when they understand the

concept involved (e.g. past tense can only really be grasped when a child has a

concept of past time. Similarly, concepts of colour, space and size must be

understood). When considering cognition theory, it is useful to focus on three

areas:

OBJECT PERMANENCE

This is the child’s ability to recognise that objects have an existence

independent of his\her interaction with them. Before they develop this

awareness, children believe that an object fails to exist once it moves out of

sight and that it is a different entity once it reappears! The development of

object permanence begins during the first year but is not usually complete until


the child is approximately 18 months old. At this time there is a sharp increase

in the child’s vocabulary. Cognitive Theorists believe that the two events are

linked: once a child has realised that objects have an independent existence,

the next step is to learn how to name those objects.

CLASSIFICATION

This is the child’s ability to classify objects and actions. A child learns that

some things are eaten, some are played with, some are sat upon, etc. Cognitive

theorists believe that once a child can classify, s\he is ready to divide words

into linguistic categories (nouns, verbs, etc. on the basis of their semantic,

morphological and syntactic properties). This ‘ordering’ of language prepares

for sentence construction.

SERIATION

This is the child’s ability to arrange objects, such as stories, in order or

increasing or decreasing size. Children who are not able to do this describe

objects as ‘long’ or ‘short’ but children with an awareness of seriation are able

to use the comparative terms ‘longer’ and ‘shorter’. Cognitive theorists argued

that to make judgements on size is a conceptual skill and the child’s cognitive

development must be mature for this to occur.


There appear to be close connections between language development and

cognitive development but many argue that the role of cognitive development in

linguistic development is overstated. Studies have been made of children whose

mental development has been retarded but who can still speak fluently

(savants). It would appear that a child’s ability to grasp grammar and sentence

structure is independent of cognitive development. Piaget’s work neglects

language as communication (i.e. as a means of establishing and maintaining

relationships with others) rather than a means of conveying thoughts.

Further Research

Find out what you can about the Russian cognitivist, Lev VIGOTSKY, who argued that the

emergence of linguistic skills has an effect on cognition! He advocated that cause and effect

are difficult to determine as the two abilities appear to develop in parallel.

e.g. words like ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘brother’, ‘sister’ may draw children’s attention to certain

conceptual distinctions that would otherwise develop more slowly. Through language children

may make faster cognitive discoveries about family relationships.


INPUT THEORIES (This is the research, mainly of BRUNER in 1970s)

Input theories are the most recent of the theories of language acquisition.

They stress the role of INTERACTION in the development of language,

focusing in particular on the interaction that takes place between children and

parents (or other carers), often called ‘Motherese’ or ‘caretaker speech’ but the

correct terminology is child-directed speech. A child’s language acquisition is

said to depend on the contribution (or INPUT) made by parents and “significant

others”.

Here are some general points that are relevant in describing how adults alter

the way they speak to children, giving them specific opportunities to take part

in discourse.

Parents speak more slowly to children. They use simplified constructions and

less complex vocabulary. This makes it easier for a child to imitate the

parents, and the task of learning the sounds and structures of language is

made less demanding.

Parents EXPAND the child’s speech.

C: All gone sweets.

P: Yes. The sweets have all gone, haven’t they? Have you eaten them all?

In this way the child’s vocabulary and sense of sentence structure is

gradually extended.

Parents INTRODUCE new words by using familiar sentence FRAMES “What’s

…... ?”

“It’s a …..”

The new word is highlighted as the rest of the sentence (or ‘frame’) is

familiar.

Parental interaction introduces CONVENTIONS OF CONVERSATION: turn

taking, question and answer sequences etc., assisting with pragmatic

development.

A Question of Terminology

At first, researchers were concerned with the language that mothers used

towards children. The term ‘motherese’ was used - there are also studies on

‘fatherese’. However, particularly with changing social circumstances, it was

recognised that mothers and fathers were not always the main or only

significant adults in children’s lives. Consequently the alternative ‘caretaker

speech’ was adopted. However, CHILD-DIRECTED SPEECH is a broad term now

commonly used by linguists and you are advised to use it too.


You should note that, although there are very similar patterns in the language

used by adults of various kinds towards children, there are also differences.

Fathers tend to be more demanding than mothers, using more direct questions

and a wider range of vocabulary. (Read research of ENGLES in 1980).

What follows is an outline of the distinctive characteristics of CHILD-

DIRECTED SPEECH. (You will enhance your knowledge by observing and noting

interactions for yourself).

PHONOLOGY

Meanings can be assimilated if time is spent on a word.

Slower, clear pronunciation. This makes language more accessible. Pace of

talk is slower.

More pauses, especially between phrases and sentences to give child

opportunity to absorb what is being said and to respond if s\he could.

Higher pitch and more range of pitch. This helps to keep the child’s

attention, especially if it is accompanied by varied NVC.

Exaggerated intonation and stress: the sing-song intonation in particular

makes this variety of speech particularly distinctive.

LEXIS

Simpler, more restrictive vocabulary. More concrete nouns relating to the

child’s ‘here and now’. All objects are named in broad categories e.g. ‘dog’ not

‘spaniel’.

Diminutive (or “baby”) forms of words - ‘doggie’, ‘horsie’

Reduplication “mama”, “choo-choo”

GRAMMAR

Simpler constructions.

Short constructions with many pauses to mark end of grammatical units.

Sentence ‘frames’: “Where’s ...... ?”

“Do you want a ..... ?”

“What’s that? “ “It’s a .....”


Grammar and meaning are simplified to correspond with the child’s actual

ability in language (e.g. a two year old’s average ‘sentence’ is 4 words so the

parent uses 4 words).

Frequent use of imperatives (commands). A child quickly assimilates these

and uses them in his\her speech.

High degree of repetition to reinforce new words or structures and to

clarify meaning.

Frequent questions to elicit a response. Questions use more auxiliary verbs

too, developing grammatical ability. Tag questions such as ‘aren’t we?’ ‘Isn’t

it?’ invite direct participation. Even when a child cannot speak, s\he is

learning important discourse patterns and skills, especially turn-taking.

Personal pronouns are infrequent. Proper nouns are used instead. “Give it to

Mummy” not “give it to me”.

Discourse

Questions and tag questions (as above).

Expansion: to build on a child’s speech and encourage new structures.

Feedback: much time and energy are spent in obtaining feedback.

A child receives attention and usually face-to-face communication deemed to

be invaluable in building positive relationships and successful interaction with

others.

Bruner puts language acquisition firmly into a social context, emphasising that

language gets things done: ‘Children learn to use a language initially . . . to get

what they want, to play games, to stay connected with those on whom they are

dependent.’ (1983, p.103)

Partly as a humorous response to the LAD, Bruner proposed the existence of

LASS – The Language Acquisition Support System. This system essentially

refers to the support for language learning provided by parents – who do more

than provide models for imitation. The example below illustrates this.

LASS and shared reading:

Parents often use books as a focus of attention for developing babies’ naming

abilities. This can also show how parents offer a support system for their

children’s language learning. Note too how the baby doesn’t only learn the

names of objects and actions but also needs to know rules for participating in

this kind of conversation. In other words, the baby doesn’t learn names for

their own sake but learns them as part of a naming activity with its own social

rules. Recent research (Whitehurst 1988) has found that if parents use


specific teaching strategies their babies’ language development can be

significantly improved.

Bruner found a four phase structure in a mother’s interactions with her child

while sharing a book – an example of the LASS provided by the parent.

1. Gaining attention – drawing the baby’s attention to a picture.

2. Query – asking the baby to identify the picture.

3. Label – telling the baby what the object is.

4. Feedback – responding to the baby’s utterance.

Some variation was observed when the baby correctly named the object (Phase

3 was either missed out or coincided with feedback).

Further Reading

Read the research of CLARKE-STEWART in 1973 and SALLY WARD in 1988.

Evaluation of Input Theories

The benefits of child-directed speech are clear but it is not possible to identify

precisely the links between structures parents use and their appearance in their

child’s language. When a child advances another stage in its acquisition of

language, it is hard to be certain about what has caused this. It does not seem

to be essential that adults address children in a particular way because children

reared in cultures where adults do not alter their speech when addressing

children (Samoa and parts of Papua New Guinea) still appear to acquire their

native language at normal rates of development.

However, the highly structured nature of ‘child-directed speech’ is not in doubt

and it is taken very seriously by linguists.

You may wish to consider child-directed speech in other contexts (idea for

Investigation in the second year?):

Lovers may use baby talk in an affectionate way when addressing each other.

People address their pet animals in similar way: “pet-directed speech”??

Notice how carers speak to elderly people.

BUT: to what extent is this reflecting negative stereotyping and an assumption

that old age means reduced mental capacity? (Read research of COUPLAND

1991). Is it patronising and demeaning, or, for the frail, deaf and ailing, a

positive, caring use of language?


CONCLUSION It is not possible in the present state of knowledge to be certain which of the

theories is responsible for language acquisition. It seems that imitative skills, a

language - learning mechanism, cognitive awareness and the structured input of

child-directed speech all play a part in guiding the course of language

development. Unravelling the interdependence of these factors constitutes the

main goal of future child language research.

Summary of the most important factors about acquisition

To acquire language, children must be part of a SOCIAL and LINGUISTIC

COMMUNITY.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT plays a part in children’s ability to articulate the

particular PHONEMES making up a language.

Children have an INSTINCTIVE AWARENESS of language patterns which

allows them to experiment with new structures.

Children must be able to INTELLECTUALLY CONCEPTUALISE the world

around them.

Children can gain new words and sounds through IMITATION but not the

meanings.

PARENTAL REINFORCEMENT highlights ‘correct’ versions although children

are impervious to correction.

EARLY PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT

“When young children acquire English, or any other language, they are acquiring

a tool for social action”. DENNIS BANCROFT

Pragmatics is the study of the part that language plays in social situations and

social relationships. As well as learning the sounds, words and meanings of

language, children have to acquire what the linguist DEL HYMES calls

“communicative competence”. This means developing all the skills associated

with conversation: when to speak and when to be silent; how to respond to


others; which register to use for which situations and what functions language

is used for.

Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that deals with what words do or achieve

rather than with strictly what they mean. For example, if I say door you know

that it refers to that thing we open when we go into rooms – a matter of

semantics. But the pragmatics of door! are about whether I mean Shut it! (commanding you) or It’s about to slam (informing you). Pragmatics also covers

such issues as knowing how to ask and answer questions in a conversation.

Even before they have said anything that sounds remotely like a word babies

know that utterances can work for them in a number of ways.

THE FUNCTIONS OF CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE

Knowing what language is used for is part of a child’s early pragmatic

development. Children are motivated to acquire language because it serves

certain functions or purposes for them. MARK HALLIDAY (1975) identified

seven functions that language has for children in their early years and DAVID

CRYSTAL added another two in 1987 (see separate hand-out which your teacher

will give to you).

Even before s\he can speak a single word, a child is using ‘language’ for certain

purposes - a cry can be instrumental - “I want some food”. A smile can be

interactional\personal (“I like you”) and a bawl can be regulatory (“come and pick

me up otherwise I’ll deafen you!!”)

Before they can speak, children are introduced to the important role that

language plays in everyday life. Adults and others speak a great deal to them

and routine events, such as feeding and bathing, are accompanied by language.

They are learning about a world in which language accompanies most activities.

Interactions between child and parent (or significant other) prepare the child

for later participation in conversations. BANCROFT 1996 observes that the

traditional game ‘peek-a-boo’ has several parallels with a typical conversation -

- Turn taking

- Each participant responds to the contribution made by the other

- There is a common purpose and sequence

- It’s enjoyable


In the early stages of a child’s life, the adult begins the exchanges and the

child may take little active part, but as the child grows older it takes more

control, and by the age of 9-12 months will probably be initiating games like

‘peek-a-boo’. Other spoken interactions similarly follow the structures and

conventions of conversations. Adults will ask questions, express agreement and

give other approving or disapproving responses, even though the child is not yet

speaking.

Non verbal aspects of speech (NVAS) are also developing in the child as part of

these early pragmatic skills.

From the age of six weeks a baby’s hand movements, facial expressions, voice

tone and lip movements are different when their parents are talking to them.

Babies are treated as if they have intentions like real conversational partners.

Research has also shown that as babies get older, parents respond to different

aspects of their behaviour. Gaze is very important. The parent works out

where the baby is looking and comments on the object. Later the baby’s actions

serve the same purpose and a few months after that, actions are combined with

words. HARRIS ET AL (1995) found that pointing coincided with a child’s first

understanding of object words (concrete nouns).

Study the following examples of parents’ responses to a three and a half month

old baby. Write down the assumptions made about the causes of the baby’s

behaviour. Assess how the use of NVAS and language are working together to

contribute to language learning and why. (You may wish to test Halliday’s

research as part of this).

BABY PARENT

Looks sideways What are you looking at?

Smiles Who’s a happy boy then?

Sneezes Ooh!

Passes wind Ooh, that wasn’t very nice, was it?

Kicks legs Be careful, you’ll shoot off the end

Urinates Not on me!

Holds rattle Good boy

Puts rattle to mouth That’s a clever boy

Cries He’s not in a good mood this morning

A simpler system is that of JOHN DORE, shown in the table below:


Speech Act Example

Labelling touches a doll’s eyes and says eyes Repeating says what an adult has just said

Answering answers adult’s question

Requesting action unable to push a peg through a hole says uh uh uh

whilst looking at parent

Calling shouts for parent across room

Greeting shouts hi! Protesting shouts when parent attempts to put on shoe

Practising utters word when person or object not present

(in Foster and adapted 1990 Longman p.63)

An important influence of work such as this is that it emphasised the social

context of language - i.e. the child learns to do things with language because of

his/her need to communicate with others. It was a challenge to those who

believed that babies are innately pre-programmed to learn language.

PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

‘Before Birth’ and ‘The First Year’ The ability to articulate the sounds of English is believed to be the first

linguistic skill that a child acquires. It does not begin with the first word as

many believe. S\he has to be physically able to articulate the phonemes of the

language before words can be made and subsequently formed into sentences.

(In other words s\he must learn the tune before the words can follow).

Before Birth

It is believed that the first sign of an infant’s identity is the rhythm of its

language. Even within the womb a child can hear, not specific words nor

understand them, but s\he can detect rhythm. A Chinese embryo can detect

the PITCH rhythm of the oriental language; a French baby can detect the

SYLLABLE timing of French and an English baby detects the distinguishable

sounds of STRESS-TIMED rhythm. (Tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum) So you might

say that the first linguistic acquisition is an awareness of the rhythm of the

language spoken around the pre-natal child.


INTERESTING FACT:

One of the first ‘faculties’ to develop in an embryo is the ability to hear. (The

bones of the ear are formed quite soon after conception). This would explain

the acclimatising of a child to sound even while in the womb.

Research by MEHLER and others in 1988 found that French babies as young as

4 days old were able to distinguish French from other languages. When they

were exposed to French they sucked on dummies more strongly (a sign of

interest in an infant!!). They were less “interested” when they were exposed to

other languages. This is a further indication that while in the womb babies

become used to the rhythms and intonation of the language being spoken around

them.

SOUND PERCEPTION

A baby has a very large range of auditory abilities. S\he will turn to sound in

the first few hours after birth, especially the sound of a human voice, usually

the mother’s. There is sophistication and differentiation in the ability to hear.

EIMAS (1971) researched the child’s ability to differentiate the sounds ‘pa’ and

‘ba’ at 4 weeks old. It seems that children are born with special feature

detectors to respond to the acoustic properties of speech. Between 2 - 4

months infants respond to TONE. By six months intonation related to context

is understood (i.e. rise for a question).

The pre-verbal stages following provide an outline of vocal development during

the first year. Based on DAVID CRYSTAL (1986).

Stage One: 0-8 weeks: Basic biological noises During the first few weeks, the child expresses itself vocally through crying.

Different kinds of cry can be identified - hunger, distress or pleasure, for

example. Cries are ‘reflexive’ noises. A normal basic cry is a series of pulses,

each pulse being about one second long. The quality of sound is similar to a

‘mouth-wide-open’ vowel such as [a]; hardly any features of a cry resemble later

consonants. Babies from different countries make the same sound - no

linguistic differences as yet and yet there are some features in common with

later speech, for example, an airstream mechanism which is used to produce

noise. Also, the child can vary its rhythm and pitch patterns. Context often

helps a parent to understand what a cry means. For example, preceding events

such as sleep, time since last feed and nappy changing will affect the likelihood

that a cry is hunger-related.


Stage Two: 8-20 weeks: Cooing and laughing The sounds are quieter, lower pitched, more musical. At the beginning of this

period, each segment of cooing is quite short (about 1\2 second). It consists of

a short vowel-like sound usually preceded by a consonant-like sound made

towards the back of the mouth, where the tongue and palate approach each

other. It is quite nasal in quality. Sounds are made like ‘coo’, ‘goo’ and the

reduplicated ‘ga-ga’. It is thought that during this phase the child is developing

increased control over its vocal cords and getting ready for speech. ‘Ga-ga’’ and

other reduplication could be perceived as early syllable structure. Cooing

involves gross motor activity and more extensive movement of the tongue up and

down and side to side. There is more lip movement at this stage.

By now sounds are being formed in the VELAR region of the mouth (‘ga-ga’, ‘coo’)

and the child is becoming increasingly aware of what its mouth and vocal chords

can do. Really this is the start of the phoneme.

Stage Three: 20-30 weeks: vocal play Cooing sounds die down. Single vowel-like or consonant-like sounds are repeated

over and over again. Several sounds are made at front of mouth [mmmm] and

[nnnn] or friction sounds such as [ffff]. Baby is getting practice for future

speech.

Consonant-vowel (CVCV) sequences are more noticeable e.g. ‘Mama’, ‘dadadada’.

There is greater range of consonant-vowel sound and the nasal aspects of ‘m’

and ‘n’ are developing.

Uvular sounds made by the back of the tongue and labial sounds formed at the

lips are giving the baby a vocal work-out as it limbers up for speech. There is a

strong element of practice. In this period parents notice much more variety in

their children’s noises. They may even get regular showers as the child

practises the fricative sounds of ‘f’, ‘z’ and ‘s’ !! (Parents often join in bubble-

blowing sessions to develop fricative and plosive sounds which are generally

difficult to make in the early stages!)

Stage Four: 25-50 weeks: babbling Ababababab\dadadada - this is reduplicative babbling and there are variegated

sequences - adu, mabu. More complex friction sounds are present - ‘s’ and ‘sh’.

Cluster consonants are avoided - early speech prefers consonants to occur

before vowels - ‘ta’ rather than ‘at’. Surveys suggest still no differences in

babbling between different races.


The child is trying out sounds in a random manner at this stage.

Babbling continues up to 18 months and often alongside ‘real’ speech.

The Rules of Babbling

Below are listed some of the different kinds of sounds that make up babbling;

they are in approximate rank order from easiest to most difficult. Note the C-

V (consonant-vowel) combinations.

EASY

DIFFICULT

Stopped sounds - where air is momentarily

stopped from being released e.g. (P)

Reduplication - where the same combination is

repeated e.g. (ba ba)

Variegated babbling (as above but vowel sound

changes) e.g. (ba ga)

Consonant cluster - number of consonants are

combined e.g. (/fr/)

Friction sounds - where there is a vibration whilst

air is released (e.g. ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’)

Identify the following in the examples below and suggest why some combinations

might be easier than others. (You will have to babble to answer this!!)

splocka bababababa bpbpbpbpb taba

dadudaduda shugushugu

Phonemic Expansion & Contraction

During the babbling phase, the number of different phonemes produced by the

child increases initially. This is known as PHONEMIC EXPANSION. This is

believed to be the infant’s ability to articulate a wide range of the sounds of

the world’s languages not just his\her own native tongue. However, by the age

of 10 months, the number of phonemes reduces (PHONEMIC CONTRACTION)

and the range of sounds made by the child shrinks, becoming increasingly

restricted to those of the child’s mother tongue. In other words, the baby

retains the sounds of its native language but suppresses or discards those

sounds that will not be needed. (You may wish to consider the issues of bi-

lingualism here).


Intonation and Gesture

About this stage patterns of intonation begin to resemble speech e.g. rising

intonation for a question. Other variations of emphasis or rhythm may suggest

greeting or calling. There is also increased pointing.

Stage Five: 9 - 18 months: melodic utterance Melody, rhythm and tone develop, also ‘scribble talk’ - first signs of real

language. Children from different language backgrounds now sound increasingly

different from each other. In the transition from pre-language to language,

children produce many ‘proto-words’ where the sounds are clear but the meaning

is not.

Proto-Words

Generally speaking, proto-words are what come in between babbling and melodic

utterance and adult-like words. It can be seen that babbling consists of a

consonant-vowel (c-v, c-v) pattern. Proto-words can sound exactly the same.

What is important is that proto-words seem to function as words even though

they do not sound exactly like them e.g. wawa - water, bobo - bottle.

Conditions aiding the emergence of PROTO-LANGUAGE:

1. Child-parent interaction.

2. ‘Significant others’ joining in.

3. Repetitive, ritualised activities – bathing, feeding, dressing, bedtime.

4. Context related talk (“here and now”).

Although the child may not yet have begun to speak properly, it does not mean

that s\he does not understand the meaning of certain words. In fact, babies as

young as two months old respond to the meaning of different tones of voice and

by 6 months can relate different utterances to their situations e.g. ‘Bye-Bye’,

‘Clap hands’. The research of HELEN BENEDICT (1979) revealed that

comprehension ability is at least a month ahead of production.

Speech Interaction

From the moment a child is born, a mother holds it in front of her and talks to

it, even though the child does not yet have any language.

It appears to be instinctive to promote communication as soon as possible and

even the child’s biological noises (sneezes, burps, etc.) are seized upon as stimuli


for talk. The mother, father and significant others all ascribe intentions to

these noises and build them into a conversation. The conversational pressure is

often quite intense. A case study conducted by SNOW (1977) demonstrated

that over 100 questions, comments etc. were used by a mother simply trying to

get her 3 month-old to burp!

Other research has shown that a mother’s linguistic behaviour is not random.

She used a large number of questions followed by pauses, as if to show the baby

that a response is expected and to provide an opportunity for response if s\he

could. There is much greeting, even if she has only been away a few seconds.

Also, a mother only speaks when the child could feasibly respond (i.e. not when

s\he is feeding). The cycle of speech and silence is believed to be the

fundamental structure of older conversations and anticipates these. As the

infant becomes capable of doing more, the exchanges become more emotive and

varied. Cooing tends to elicit a soft response whereas later pointing – elicits a

louder interaction from adults as attention is drawn to different objects.

There will be more repetition and NVAs at this time.

Beyond 6 months there will be more extended commentaries as the child is more

purposeful in his\her exploration.

Consequently, by the time the first word appears, the child knows quite a lot

about what a conversation is and how to take part.

So, the first year, considered to be the pre-verbal stage of language

development, is when the child learns to listen: to the sounds of the language, to

words and their uses and to conversational strategies (pragmatics).

BEYOND THE FIRST YEAR: Later Phonological Development

By the first birthday a child has learned a great deal about how adults use

sound to express differences in meaning. However, ability to produce these

sounds lags some way behind.

It is impossible to be precise about later phonological development because the

order in which vowels and consonants are acquired can vary from child to child.

Some children have ‘favourite’ sounds and they enjoy introducing them into many

words. Other children avoid sounds either because they don’t like them or they

are difficult to articulate. There will be variation. David Crystal records a child


who pronounced ‘blanket’ as [bwati], [bati], [baki] and [batit] all within a few

hours.

However, several studies involving large numbers of children have produced

certain general trends. The work of David OLMSTED (1971) is particularly

important here.

Consonants are first used correctly at the beginning of words. Final consonants

emerge later, although ‘f’ and ‘s’ at the end come early in an English child. (Can

you explain why?)

From a survey of 100 English children, Olmsted revealed that [p], [b], [k], [n],

[f], [d], [g], [m] and [h] were commonly used well in initial position but only the

first five of these were developed in final position.

In the same survey, vowels and diphthongs were developing well by the end of

the second year showing that at least 8 vowels\dipthongs were in use.

By age four all vowels and dipthongs were in use and only a few consonants were

causing problems.

Children attempt to use the sounds of the language and appear to use similar

strategies to cope with the more difficult sound features.

Fricatives are difficult. Children often replace a fricative with a stop e.g.

‘see’ becomes [tii].

SUBSTITUTION

Velar consonants are replaced by alveolar consonants e.g. ‘gone’ becomes

[don].

Consonant clusters are avoided – tree – [tii], glue – [gu], plastic – [patik].

DELETION

Consonants are often avoided at the end of words hat-ha, noise-noi.

Unstressed syllables are omitted:

banana - nana

pyjamas - jamas

tomato - mato


ADDITION

An extra vowel sound might be added to the CVCV structure preferred by

young children. ‘Egg’ might be ‘egu’. It occasionally occurs also to split up a

cluster to make a word easier to say e.g. bared for bread.

DE-VOICING

This is the process of taking the voice out of final consonants so ‘pig’ might

become ‘bik’.

VOICING

The opposite of de-voicing. At the beginnings of words babies are more

likely to voice an unvoiced consonant, as in ‘pet’ becoming ‘bet’.

HARMONISING (or ASSIMILATION)

This is when one consonant or vowel becomes similar to another e.g. ‘dog’

might become ‘dod’ or ‘gog’.

REDUPLICATION

This refers to the repetition of a whole syllable as in gee-gee, choo-choo – a

recognised feature of baby talk. This process is particularly useful to give

the child the chance to practise pronunciation in stages e.g. ‘tiger’. This

word changes in consonant and vowel. A child might say ‘tidi’. By

reduplicating s\he masters the syllable structure and stress first and then

can work on the precise pronunciation later.

The above rules explaining babies’ pronunciation seem clear cut enough but they

tend to over simplify. Clearly the rules are only tendencies and not every word

uttered by a baby will obey them. In addition there are further complications

associated with comprehension and production. These are illustrated in the

following activity:

What do the following instances suggest about the relationship between a

child’s production and perception or comprehension of language?

1

Roger Brown was speaking to a child

who referred to a ‘fis’ meaning ‘fish’.

Brown replied using ‘fis’ and the child

corrected him but again using ‘fis’.

Finally Brown reverted to ‘fish’ to

which the child responded, ‘Yes, fis.’

2

A baby says ‘dowboy’ instead of

‘cowboy’ without realising it. But he

can hear his parents say ‘cowboy’.

(based on Learning to be Literate,

Garton and Pratt, 1989)o


You can read more about the ‘Fis Phenomenon’ on Page 90 of Listen to your Child

by David Crystal.

Intonation

Towards the end of the first year Intonation patterns are proceeding very well.

Different tones of voice are in place even before words come along.

Even a simple two-word utterance can be delivered with many functions. Try

the following as a question, a command, a call, a warning, an expression of

recognition or surprise.

Daddy gone.

Gradually the child masters sounds and the prosodics of the language and by the

age of 3 can use almost all the vowels and twice as many consonants. Words like

‘elephant’ are generally accurate and the child can use emphasis for effect.

Between the ages of 3 and 5 there is yet more development. David OLMSTED

studied the pronunciation of children at the age of 4 and discovered that all the

vowels were in place and only a few consonants still posed problems.

L in the middle and final positions – yellow, full

ng in singer [ ]

t in the middle position

The two ‘th’ sounds – then, thin

z at the beginning of words

the consonant [dz] in ‘judge’

the consonant sound [z] in pleasure

‘ch’ in middle position

By five there are some subtle friction difficulties e.g. distinguishing fin and

thin, sin and shin; w & r may also be a challenge for some children. The most

important development between 2 and 4 years is the ability to master consonant

closers:

doubles /sp/, /pr/, /tr/

triples /spl/, /str/

quadruples /mpst/ (e.g. glimpsed)

At the age of six, or thereabouts, the child knows enough about phonology to be

able to play with language in jokes, puns and riddles. Many parents dread the


“knock, knock”, jokes! David Crystal felt that this playful stage was so vital to

the functions of language that he believed it should be added to Halliday’s

functions of language. The PHONOLOGICAL FUNCTION, as he called it, is

using language for the fun of it. After all, it is how good slang is passed on.

Children love word play, phonological jokes, poetry, chants, songs and rhymes.

Beyond six this social skill develops even more. Phonological competence is

GENERALLY complete by the age of 6, except for the subtleties of intonation.

CRUTTENDEN in 1974 researched children’s ability to predict meaning from

intonation patterns focusing particularly on the Radio 4 football results but only

the 10 year olds could predict the scores accurately.

There was more research conducted on the pausing and intonation patterns of

sentences. You need to read about research into later intonation development

on Pages 193-197 of ‘Listen to your child.’ Even at 10 years, there is still much

to learn on the inflection of the adult voice and the relationship between

production and comprehension skills.

At this point it is a good idea to use the ‘Corpus’ you have been given in

order to practise identifying features of phonological development. Using

‘Corpus 1’ find examples of the following:

syllable deletion substitution

cluster reduction assimilation

LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT

By the end of the first year an infant is acquiring enough sounds to begin to

make proto-words and is gradually moving towards the first “real” word, usually

uttered between 12 and 18 months. The learning of words (vocabulary) is the

most noticeable feature of the early months of language acquisition but by now

you will realise that much has happened before the first word appears. For a

start, the child has acquired a sense of the functions of language and knows the

time!

Between 12 and 18 months an infant has a vocabulary of about 50 words and by

the age of two has a command of about 200.

NOTE: It is very important to make a distinction between production and

understanding. Although a child may be able to say a word and can articulate it

clearly, s\he will not necessarily grasp its meaning. A word does not come with a

meaning ready made. Consequently, it is vital that you understand the concept


of LEXICAL development (the learning of words) and SEMANTIC development

(the range of meanings attached to words).

LEXICAL DEVELOPMENT

From the point when a child’s first word is identified there is a steady lexical

growth in production and comprehension. The research of HELEN BENEDICT

(1979) revealed that a child learns on average about 10 new words a month and

will actively use them and yet s\he can understand 22 new words a month. (i.e.

comprehension is ahead of production in the early stages, and this is known as

the passive vocabulary). Helen Benedict recognised that a child understands

five times as many words as s\he is capable of producing at 18 months.

When these words are added to a child’s vocabulary, s\he is not aware of their

full range of meanings. Further time is needed to acquire this additional

knowledge. Of course, lexical and semantic development is a lifelong process as

we never cease to learn new vocabulary throughout our lives.

First Words

Studies have shown that there are predictable patterns in the words and types

of words first acquired by children. KATHERINE NELSON made a study of 18

children’s first 50 words and she noticed the following patterns:

Young children have little sense of the concept of time and therefore talk about

the “here and now”.

They rapidly build a vocabulary in several semantic fields.

ENTITIES

PEOPLE: - significant relationships – mummy, daddy, but also visitors –

postman, milkman

FOOD: - drink, juice, milk, water, toast, apple, cake

HUMANS: - baby, man

CLOTHES: - shoes, hat, nappy, coat

VEHICLES and their noises: car, boat, truck, choo-choo, brrr…

ANIMALS: - (real, pictures or TV): dog, cat, lion, horse

TOYS and Games – ball, bricks, ‘peepo’

HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS: - (daily routines) cup, spoon, brush, key, light

BODY PARTS (and functions!) facial words first – mouth, then toes, handies,

nose. (functions – wee wee, poo)


PROPERTIES

Hot, all gone, more, dirty, cold

ACTIONS

(Up), sit, see, eat, go (down)

PERSONAL\SOCIAL

Hello, bye, no, yes, please, thank you

SITUATIONAL WORDS (deictics)

Here, there, that, mine

You will perhaps notice that the entities are NOUNS, the actions are VERBS

(except the bracketed words. Can you explain why these act as verbs here,

although they are not verbs?), the properties act as MODIFIERS.

By classifying words in this way, Nelson made interesting observations. First,

she noted that the largest group of words (60%) were NOUNS, mainly concrete

nouns. The second largest group (20%) were words that expressed or demanded

actions. The next largest group were MODIFIERS and used to describe people

or objects. The sample was completed by personal and social words.

Noticeably absent are words that serve only a grammatical function, even

though these are very frequent in adult language (e.g. ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘to’).

Semantic Development

As mentioned before, children do not learn a word with its meaning ‘ready made’.

They have to work out for themselves what it must mean. In doing this they

make errors. Three types of error occur often during the second and third

year.

OVER-EXTENSION – This is when a word is given a broader, more general

meaning than it should have eg all men are ‘daddy’. This is the main semantic

error made by young children (when a child has a vocabulary of 50 words, it is

estimated that about a third of these are likely to be over-extended).

As the child’s vocabulary grows, s\he learns words to fill the gaps that over-

extended words had previously been used to fill. Where once all fruits were


‘apples’, the child will now know ‘oranges’, ‘pears’, ‘cherries’ etc. This process of

over-extension can be defined more clearly:

CATEGORICAL OVER-EXTENSION - This is sometimes called the SEMANTIC

FEATURES HYPOTHESIS. The baby over-extends on the basis of the features

that combine to give an object meaning e.g. colour, shape, sound, movement etc.

So any moving thing with four legs could be called a ‘cat’. All round objects may

be ‘moon’.

ANALOGICAL OVER-EXTENSION - (sometimes called the FUNCTIONAL

SIMILARITIES HYPOTHESIS). Here, over-extension results from similarities

in the uses to which objects are put. Things used to hold liquid might all be

called ‘cups’.

Babies are really doing something very clever and something that we all do even

as adults – if we do not know the word for something, we use the nearest word

we know.

STATEMENT: This type of ‘usage’ occurs when a child makes a statement about

something as a way of labelling eg child points to cupboard and says ‘biscuit’.

S\he doesn’t mean that the cupboard is called a biscuit but that it is where the

biscuits are kept.

UNDER-EXTENSION

This is the second most common semantic virtuous error made by children. It

occurs when a word is given a narrower meaning than it has in adult language. An

example is when a child uses the word “shoes” to apply only to the child’s own

shoes.

MISMATCH

Here, there is no apparent basis for the non-standard use of a word by the

child, as when in one case a telephone was referred to as a ‘tractor’. There is

usually no way of tracing back the association of ideas that has caused such

misidentifications.

As the child’s vocabulary grows, there will be fewer virtuous semantic errors as

words\meanings are acquired to fill gaps. However, lexical virtuous errors will

be made occasionally for some time as the child learns to understand the world

linguistically.


By the age of 2, spoken vocabulary probably exceeds 200 words but after this

estimates become extremely vague. A dramatic increase in the size and

diversity of the lexicon takes place during the third y ear and beyond this

vocabulary totals should be estimated with great caution.

As the child’s lexicon grows there are other issues to discuss and what follows

here are some other areas of interest to extend your knowledge. A recognition

of this wider research will certainly pay off if you can grasp and use it.

Labelling, Packaging and Network Building

JEAN AITCHISON (1987) identified these three stages or processes that

occur during a child’s acquisition of vocabulary.

LABELLING is the first stage and involves making the link between the sounds

of particular words and the objects to which they refer (e.g. understanding that

‘mummy’ refers to the child’s mother).

PACKAGING entails understanding a word’s range of meaning. Under-extension

and over-extension occur before this stage is successfully negotiated. Consider

words like ‘plug’, ‘funny’.

NETWORK BUILDING involves grasping the connections between words:

understanding that some words are opposite in meaning, for example, and

understanding the relationship between HYPERNYMS and HYPONYMS.

Verbal Art

The research of GARDNER (1975) looked at a child’s ability to use language

figuratively. This makes interesting reading on Pages 203-206 of David

Crystal’s “Listen to Your Child”.

Lexical Creativity - Being an Inventor

One of the most rewarding (and entertaining) aspects of studying the language

of young children is their inexhaustible linguistic resource. They appear to be

rarely stuck for words and make up words where they do not exist. They are

experts at coining to fill gaps in their vocabulary.


To create new words, children use PREFIXES and SUFFIXES that they already

know and COMPOUND words. They also show remarkable CONVERSION

abilities. The virtuous error has never been so virtuous.

What this section looks at is how children master the structure of words.

SUFFIXING

If you can remember Jean Berko’s ‘wug’ theory you will recall that children

appeared to know instinctively that an ‘S’ inflection makes the plural in English

as a rule. Consequently they soon realise that generally ‘- ed’ is the ending

required to form the simple past tense.

If you were to invent some imaginary verbs, a child would probably convert them

to past tense easily

eg I like to smunt so yesterday I smunted

I like to vond so yesterday I ___________

A child learns the word formation rule and, in addition, that the endings are not

just extra sounds but an extra bit of meaning. The child also learns that these

sounds and meanings are detachable and can be used often to alter meanings of

words in the same way. What the child does not know (but that linguists do) is

that s\he is learning the usefulness of the SUFFIX in word creation.

Unfortunately for the child learning English there are many exceptions and this

is when the virtuous errors are made, especially on irregular past tenses and

irregular plurals

eg mouses: I like mouses

mans: Those mans are playing football

fell/fall I falled off my bike.

break/broke The toy breaked.

They are also impervious to correction by adults, preferring to rationalise and

perfect the grammatical process for themselves.

A member of staff recorded the following real exchange with her daughter as

an example:

Child: It was great at school today, mum. We hided from Miss Sharman.

Mother: Oh, you HID did you?

Child: Oh yes, we all HUD.


PREFIXES

By grasping common PREFIXES the child is able to further extend his\her

vocabulary. For example, he\she can make a word negative by grasping the

prefixes ‘dis’ and ‘un’

e.g. undo disappear

unzip dislike

Further in the course you will learn the origins of the many prefixes and

suffixes in the English language and just how versatile the language is through

conversion

e.g. able________(washable)

re ________ (retake)

ness_______ (sadness)

All languages change and adapt to the needs of their speakers and when new

words are needed, it is handy to construct them from the existing word stock

by using predictable processes that are recognised and used by children even as

young as 2½ years old.

CONVERSION

Another skill of word creation and vocabulary building started in childhood is

the ability to convert (i.e. change a word’s grammatical class usually by adding a

PREFIX or a SUFFIX).

The following words are invented to demonstrate the process:

I dilt (verb) things all the time. I’m a dilter (noun). SUFFIX ‘er’

I need to blamp (verb) this. Where’s the blamper (noun)? added

Think of 5 real verbs in English which can convert to nouns in this way

eg to run runner

to clean cleaner


The child recognises the grammatical change: s\he knows that the verb refers

to an action (eg to sing) and the noun (eg singer) refers to an instrument for

carrying out the action.

Finally, there is another type of conversion which is fairly common in English.

Here, adjectives are directly converted into verbs meaning ‘to make or become’.

Examples are ‘to slim’ meaning ‘to make or become slim’ ; ‘to empty’ meaning ‘to

make or become empty’. Children experiment a great deal with this process eg

I’m darking the sky for ‘I’m colouring in the sky in a dark colour’. (English, of

course, uses the form ‘darken’ but the word eludes the child. Instead, the child

invents one which comes pretty close!).

Children are more inventive than adults, partly because their vocabularies are

still growing and they might not yet know the existing word for a concept they

are trying to express or they may momentarily forget words eg a bed is a

‘sleeper’ !

COMPOUNDING

In suffixing and prefixing, we add elements that are not words on their own.

Compounding is a process used to describe whole words being combined in their

own right. The process is widely used in English and is historically the earliest

form of word creation eg scarecrow, postman, notebook.

Children are inspirational in their use of compounds

eg plate egg (a fried egg) noun + noun

cup egg (a boiled egg) noun + noun

hit boy (bully) verb + noun

We can analyse compounds in terms of the word classes being combined and the

meaning relationship between them.

The following lexical inventions have been recorded from children’s speech.

Describe the word formation process and meaning relations involved.

1. When you laugh I can see the gaplings in your teeth.

2. How do you sharp this? (holding pencil)

3. That dog’s earthing its bone.

4. I’m souping (eating soup).

5. We had to wait a long time in the column in the post office.

6. You have to scale it (weigh cheese).


7. That man’s stripes are tight (braces).

Other Issues

The study of semantic development takes in far more than vocabulary.

Grammatical constructions also need to be studied from a semantic point of

view. For example, the complex conditional meaning of ‘if’ constructions or the

causal meaning of ‘because’, ‘so’ and ‘since’. The errors children make reveal the

difficulties:

The man’s fallen off the ladder because he’s broken his leg.

I had one fish left because its name was Bill.

Children of 8 or 9 may master the grammatical construction well but have

difficulty with the meanings they encode. Auxiliary verbs ‘ought’, ‘must’ and

‘should’ provide another problem area as do verb contrasts (ask vs tell and say

vs promise).

The ability to use figurative language and see double meanings in language

develops after the age of 6.

Semantic development continues throughout the school years and throughout

adult life. UNLIKE PHONOLOGY AND GRAMMAR it is NOT OVER when

children enter their teens. There is always new vocabulary to be learned, new

worlds of meaning to explore and existing structures to manipulate.

USING THE CORPUS

(The corpus is in a separate handout that you will get from your teacher)

1. In Corpus III there is an example of an over-extension. Write it down,

explain the “error” and say what type of over-extension it is.

2. In Corpus IV there are two examples of mis-labelling. Find these. What

qualities do the two things share?

3. Explain these misconceptions:

a) Duck: a duck swimming on a pond; a cup of milk; a coin with an eagle on

it; a teddy bear’s eye

b) Cookie: cookies; records; all music

4. Use Corpus III 1-3. The child uses single-word utterances but has bigger

statements in mind. What might these be?

5. Explain these “errors”:

a) “I’m going to die this spider”


b) “I’m just going to fall this on her”

c) “I’m swimming my duck”

6. In Corpus II, 11 Sophie uses an unexpected verb. What is it? Which word

would you use? Can you explain the similarities between the child’s choice

and your choice?

7. In Corpus II 5 there are two instances of an expression unlikely to be used

by an adult. Can you spot them and explain why an adult would not use these?

8. In Corpus II the mother is trying to help build up meaning relations. Name a

higher category noun that the mother does not use. Why not?

9. In Corpus V Dialogue 10, sentence 1, the child uses a verb in an inappropriate

way for its context. Which would you use? Why do you think the child uses

this verb?

10. In Corpus V Dialogues 10, 12 and 14, which word formation processes are

being used by the child?

11. Examine the whole of Corpus V for language creativity. Which of the

‘inventions’ would you be likely to correct if you were a parent? Why?

GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

There are three main aspects to a child’s acquisition of grammar: syntax,

the use of inflections and the understanding and application of grammatical

rules.

Syntax is the development of a child’s ability to create grammatical

constructions by arranging words in an appropriate order. However, there is

more to it than just placing words in the right order. To be fully

grammatical an English speaker must also acquire appropriate word endings

(inflections and be conversant with grammatical rules).

SYNTAX

One-Word Stage

The earliest stage of grammatical development hardly seems like grammar at

all, since only single words are used. The average child is about a year old

when she\he speaks the first word. Roughly between 12 and 18 months the

child speaks only in one-word utterances: ‘milk’, ‘mummy’, ‘cup’ and so on.


Occasionally more than one word will appear but the phrase will be used as a

single unit: ‘allgone’, ‘allfalldown’. Remember that 60% of words used at this

time have a naming function and will later develop into nouns. About 20%

express actions and some will develop into verbs.

However, to speak of these single utterances as ‘words’ is misleading. In

many respects these early utterances function as if they were sentences.

The words convey more complex messages. For example, the word JUICE

may be used to mean ‘I want some juice’, ‘I want more juice’, ‘I’ve spilt my

juice’ etc. The context, the child’s use of gesture and intonation enable the

parent to understand what the child means. On these occasions, single words

are in effect taking the place of more complex grammatical constructions,

which the child has not yet mastered.

[LINK THIS WITH YOUR WORK ON PHONOLOGY].

Linguists prefer to call these utterances HOLOPHRASES (or ‘one-word

sentences).

Although the child’s own utterances are limited, understanding of syntax is

more advanced. Children show this to be the case because they respond to

two-word instructions, such as ‘kiss mummy’.

TWO-WORD STAGE

Two-word sentences usually begin to appear when the child is about 18

months old, though single words continue to be used for some months after

this. Imagine you are at the two-word stage again:

1. Working with one other person, attempt to hold a conversation using only two

words at a time. If possible, record the conversation OR write down as many

of the combinations as you can after you have finished. You will find it

useful to decide on a topic of conversation before you start.

2. Now try the same conversation using full adult utterances, then discuss:

i. how the words in the two-word conversation were chosen

ii. the order of the words in the two-word utterances

iii. difficulties in being understood

3. To what extent do you agree that the two-word stage creates meaning

through words only?


MEANING RELATIONS IN THE TWO-WORD STAGE

Here are some typical two-word utterances spoken by babies:

mummy gone baby table

she silly silly hat

mummy car my doggie

there teddy comb hair

daddy pen baby cry

1. Here is a way of explaining these combinations. Apply them to the data if

you can.

a person performs an action

a person or object is described

an action affects an object

an object is located

an object is given a possessor [Crystal 1986]

2. Now try applying clause elements (subject, verb, object, adverbial, etc) to

the two-word utterances.

3. Braine (1963) described PIVOT grammar in which pivot words appear

repeatedly and are always in the same position. ‘Open’ words appear last. Is

this true of the data given here?

Perhaps your discussion reveals that Crystal’s theory explains the purposes (or

semantic relations) of most of the utterances. Braine’s theory explains some of

the ways in which the words are combined but has largely been discredited as a

description of two-word grammar. You may have found the noun + noun

combinations most difficult to categorise as they can have more than one

semantic relationship – a person performs an action or an object is given a

possessor.

The research of BLOOM (1973) is useful in understanding the meanings of two-

word utterances. The same sentence (e.g. ‘mummy sock’) could express

different meanings.

e.g. ‘This is mummy’s sock’ (said when the child was picking it up)

‘Mummy is putting my sock on me’ (said when the child’s mother was doing this)


The ambiguity of some two-word utterances arises partly because inflectional

affixes are absent. These include, for example ‘s’ at the ends of words to

denote plural or possession, and ‘ed’ to indicate past tense.

Until the child develops the syntactic component, the creativity and flexibility

of language cannot be developed. The child has to move from a stage when

meaning is realised in SOUND (ie intonation) and GESTURE to a more complex

level when meaning is realised in a sentence.

As you can see, the holophrastic and two-word stages are highly dependent on

context and situation. E.g. a child says “build tower”. What does it mean?!

(Difficult without context etc. isn’t it?).

The adult system makes a distinction between the types and meanings of

sentences:

DECLARATIVE - statement, assertion

INTERROGATIVE - question

IMPERATIVE - command

These distinctions are carried out by aspects of word order and the presence

or absence of syntactic markers. The child builds these up progressively. See

chart below.

A: Early 20 – 24 mths

B: Intermediate C: Late 3½ - 4 yrs

declarative that box

big boat

that’s box

that big boat

that’s a box

that’s a big boat

interrogative see shoe?

truck here?

mommy see shoe?

truck’s here?

or where’s truck?

do you see the shoe?

is the truck here?

where’s the truck

imperative want baby

negative no play I no play

Source: Menyuk (1971)

Try your skill in describing the meaning relations of the following two-word

utterances:

down dere more juice

ride bike dirty hands

no play look mummy


Other issues in the two-word stage.

Transition

Some parents have recorded a transitional phase between holophrase and two-

word stages. Words are brought together but the sequence is not uttered as a

single rhythmical unit:

Daddy. Gone. Daddy. Garden. See. Daddy. Daddy. Garden.

Meaning is made but there is no fluency.

Imitating Parents

When a child tries to repeat what an adult says, s\he may omit some of the

words, but those that are retained will again usually be in an appropriate

grammatical order.

Adult: Look Sam’s playing in the garden.

Child: Play garden.

This example demonstrates how utterances focus on key words. Words that

convey less information or serve primarily grammatical functions (e.g. ‘in’, ‘the’)

are omitted.

TELEGRAPHIC STAGE

From the age of about two, children begin producing three- and four- word

utterances. Some of these will be grammatically complete but most will convey

the message at its most economical, without the appropriate grammatical words

and accurate inflections (word endings).

Man kick ball You put it

Where daddy going Laura broke plate

This condensed structure at the early telegraphic stage omits DETERMINERS

(e.g. a, the), AUXILIARY VERBS (e.g. is, has, etc) and PREPOSITIONS (e.g.

to, for).

Questions, commands and statements are being used and different clause

patterns are evident. By the end of the third year, clause structures of four or

five elements can be noticed.


e.g. You give me my toy now.

Progress during the telegraphic stage is rapid. By the time the child is three,

sentences with more than one clause start to appear, and co-ordinating

conjunctions (‘and’, ‘but’) begin to be used. In fact, many linguists regard the

acquisition of the co-ordinator ‘and’ as a major linguistic milestone. What this

allows a child to do is talk forever! It is also the birth of the COMPOUND

sentence.

“I falled off my bike and it breaked and I cried and… and… and Ben

comed and helped me and my hand’s all sore and …”

David Crystal observes that this is the time when parents find themselves

rushing to speech therapists believing that their child has a speech impediment!

It helps to consider rationally what is actually happening with a child’s speech at

this time. Up until now utterances have been simple but now they can be over

twice as long. Non-fluency is bound to occur as the child copes with new

linguistic skills. There will often be a slow-slow-quick-quick-slow rhythym as

the child PLANS what to say next. The repetition (or stammer) is not a speech

defect, merely thinking time.

In short: sentences are twice as long

there are many things to say!

child is planning ahead

some thoughts are quite complicated

e.g. “If Father Christmas came down the chimney, and he will have presents

when he came down, can I stay up to see him”.

Notice the following conversation between a child and his mother. The child is

in the telegraphic stage. Observe how he wants to say something longer but

cannot and just how vital the mother’s role is in teasing out what he wants to

say.

Child: Falldown Sam

Mother: Where has Sam fallen down?

Child: In garden falldown Sam

Mother: Sam has fallen in the garden? Is he all right?

Child: Sam nose sore.

the information is released in stages

a conversation takes place

mother constructs child’s sentences using clues


mother expands, creating fresh linguistic horizons

A great deal of grammatical knowledge is required before constructions are

used correctly. Utterances like the following are very common:

Are there much toys in the cupboard?

That’s more better

It got brokened

The study of errors is important because they show children breaking new

grammatical ground. For linguists they provide the main evidence of how

children go about actively learning new constructions.

Summary

Stage 1: Holophrastic Stage

Child’s Utterance Context or Explanation

mania Response to a poster of a woman

crustie The child’s crust of bread has fallen to the

floor, and he

wants someone to pick it up

Vaukie (i) In response to his mother saying,

‘Want to walk?’ indicating that the

child does want to go for a walk.

(ii) Later, trying to climb out of his

pram, perhaps verbalising his

intention to walk.

Stage 2: Two-Word Stage


pretty goggie Looking at his soft toy dog

goggie gone His toy dog has dropped underneath his

cot

pretty beads Looking at his mother’s new necklace

more bikky Asking for another biscuit

Stage 3: Telegraphic Stage


me want that Pointing at plasticine

baby in big bed ‘The baby is sleeping in the big bed’

you play snakes and ladders me ‘Will you play snakes and ladders with me?’


The sorting out of grammatical errors is a particular feature of 4-year old

speech. Many irregularities of syntax and morphology are being mastered.

Sentences involving sub-ordination increasingly give way to COMPLEX sentences:

“I let go because it hurted me”.

The following subordinating conjunctions are gradually being added to the child’s

vocabulary: because (cos), so, if, after, what and when.

The following data gives examples of typical utterances spoken by children aged

2 and children aged 3. Discuss what this data illustrates about the language

abilities of children of these ages and how their ability has developed between

the ages of two and three:

Age 2 Age 3

Teddy on floor.

That stuck now.

Mummy gone out.

No daddy go.

Open it.

Put in box.

Look my dollie.

What doing it?

Fall down car.

My mouse eating.

More that in minute.

You put that on there.

Me go lots of cars like Jimmy.

Mummy want me to go in the garden.

Where you going with that red shovel?

Daddy comed to see me in the garden.

I can see mummy and daddy in the mirror.

Mary went in the Wendy house with me and

Paul.

Why you do that for?

Can me put it in like that?

It doesn’t go that way, it goes this way.

I got enough of those apples now.

Source: DAVID CRYSTAL, Listen to Your Child

ACQUISITION OF INFLECTIONS

Research has identified a predictable pattern in the acquisition of inflectional

affixes (e.g. word endings such as ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ ). Functional words such as

determiners (‘a’, ‘the’) and auxiliary verbs also seem to be acquired in a regular

order.

ROGER BROWN (1973) studied children’s language development between the

ages of 20 months and 36 months and found that the sequence shown below

occurred regularly (features are listed in the order in which they were

acquired):


1. ing

2. plural — s

3. possessive ―’s

4. ‘the’ ‘a’

5. past tense ‘―ed’

6. third person singular verb ending ―s e.g. she eats

7. auxiliary ‘be’

Brown also observed the following non-inflectional issues: the preposition ‘in’

appeared before ‘on’; the irregular past tense form (eg ‘went’) appeared before

the regular (― ed).

Another study by CRUTTENDEN (1979) divided the acquisition of inflections

into three stages:

1. Initially, children memorise words on an individual basis and have no regard

for general principles or rules e.g. they may at first produce the correct

plural form of ‘foot’ (‘feet’) and the correct past tense for ‘run’ (‘ran’).

2. During the second stage, they show an awareness of the general principles

governing inflections and as a result may apply regular endings to words that

require irregular inflections. For example, they observe that plural nouns

usually end in ―s, so they use ‘foots’ as the plural of ‘foot’. In the same way,

they observe that past tense forms usually end in ―’ed’, so instead of ‘ran’

they say ‘runned’. (Known as OVERGENERALISATION or OVER-

REGULARISATION – you know these as virtuous errors, too!).

3. In the third stage, correct inflections are used, including irregular forms.

Example Lucy: Squeak, squeak. That’s what mouses do.

Mother: That’s what MICE do.

Lucy: What do mices does?

UNDERSTANDING OF GRAMMATICAL RULES

This involves the debate about whether children grasp grammatical rules or are

imitating what others say. Revise here the work of Chomsky, Lenneberg and

Jean Berko’s “Wug theory”. The work of Cruttenden and Brown is also

important in your evaluation of whether grammar is innate.


However, please remember: Although children apply grammatical rules, they are

not conscious that they have acquired them and would not be able to explain

them.

Other Grammatical Issues

Pronouns

The advantage with pronouns (I, me, this, that, etc) is that you don’t have to

keep repeating the name of the person or thing you are talking to\about.

Researchers have yet to agree on an order in which pronouns are learned and

there may be considerable variation from person to person. It has been

suggested that a child will move through three stages between 3 and 5 years

old:

1. Pronouns are avoided altogether:

“Mummy do it” “Katie’s hungry” Adults actually talk this way to children

using nouns instead of pronouns.

2. The subject and object pronouns are confused.

“Him did it”

“Them’s all gone now”

“Let she do it”

“She likes to do that, her do”

3. The possessive pronoun appears but is incorrectly used: “This is him’s car”.

In general, children learn pronouns first for things they have already named.

These tend to be things in the immediate here and now.

Try it for yourself

Show a child of about 3 to 5 years old a picture. Describe it using pronouns.

Then ask the child to talk about the picture. Does the child use the pronouns or

replace them with nouns and noun phrases?

(Based on research of Thieman, 1974)


Asking Questions

Asking questions involves quite complex constructions. Once again, research

suggests that children acquire this skill in three stages (Clarke 1985).

Try the following activity to help you work out what the three stages might be.

Turn the following statements into questions:

a] as an adult would

b] as a child would using the number of words shown in brackets.

Example: Daddy has gone (2) = a] Has daddy gone? b] Daddy gone?

1) We can sleep somewhere (4)

2) This is cold (1)

3) I saw that (4)

4) You can help me (4)

5) Mummy is coming home (2)

You have possibly realised that the three stages are:

STAGE ONE: Questions rely on intonation alone.

STAGE TWO: Question words are gradually acquired:

WHAT and WHERE first and then WHY, HOW and WHO.

STAGE THREE: ONLY in third year: auxiliary verbs are used and subject-

verb word order is reversed.

eg Joe is here Is Joe here?

However, questions involving ‘wh‘ words are not always invoked correctly

producing constructions such as ‘Why Joe isn’t here?’.

Saying ‘no’ (negation)

Ursula Bellugi (1967) suggests three stages for forming negatives, as follows:

Stage 21 (2 years) Stage 2 (2yrs 3

months)

Stage 3 (2yrs 9

months)

no …. wipe finger

not my bed

where mitten no

I can’t catch you

He no bite you

That no fish school

You can’t dance

This can’t stick

I didn’t did it

I not crying


At Stage One, there is a single dependence upon the words ‘no’ and ‘not’, used

either singly or in front of other expressions: ‘no want’, ‘no go nome’.

At Stage Two, there is more variety of method with ‘don’t’ and ‘can’t’ being used

but without variation of tense. ‘No’ and ‘not’ continue to be used now in the

appropriate place (i.e. usually before the main verb).

In the two-word stage, children can use the negative very effectively, although

inaccurately, for many situations:

a] non-existence – “not there”, “no car”

b] rejection\refusal – “no drink”

c] denial of truth or accuracy - “not Sam”.

In the third stage, more negative forms are acquired (eg ‘didn’t’, ‘isn’t’) and the

negative constructions are generally used more accurately.


LANGUAGE ACQUISITON – THE MAIN FEATURES

AGE VOCABULARY SEMANTICS PHONOLOGY GRAMMAR MILESTONES

0-9

mths None None

Vowel like sounds progress to

ababababab/dadadada sequences.

More complex

None

Basic biological noises

cooing and laughing

vocal play

babbling

melodic utterance

9–18

mths

Proto words –

the sound is clear

but not the

meaning

Only when sound of

an utterance and its

meaning both

become clear do we

have first word

(apprx.12 mths)

Melody, rhythm and tone develop,

also ‘scribble talk’

First words usually nouns – a

few verbs, adjectives and

‘social words’ (bye-bye, ta)

Children from different

language backgrounds

now sound increasingly

different from each

other.

2nd

year

75% vocabulary

belongs to action

and naming words.

As second

birthday

approaches, most

children have

built up a core

vocabulary of 200

words.

Vocabulary drawn

from people, actions,

food, parts of body,

clothing, animals,

vehicles, toys,

household objects,

locations, social

words, describing

words, pronouns.

Word order changed

to express different

meanings eg ‘man

tickle’ v. ‘tickle man’

Pronunciation still very immature.

Some have 2-3 consonants and 1

vowel. Consonants sounds made at

lips and ‘stopped consonants’ likely

to appear very early on.

Substitution of easier sounds for

difficult.

Reduplication

One word stage lasts around

six months

‘Holophrases’ one word

sentences (eg ‘gone’ = it has

gone)

At approx. 18 months child

starts to string 2 words

together.

Main patterns of word order

observed

Prepositions emerging, also

possessives and pronouns.

‘Grammar on the move’

3rd

year

500 words by 2½;

1000 by 3.

Children discovering

words with several

meanings eg ‘funny’ =

strange or amusing;

‘call’ = shout, visit or

telephone

By 3 children have begun to use

almost all their vowels and have

about twice as many consonants

as they do at 2.

3-4 words per sentence

average at 2; sentences of 9-

10 words not uncommon at 3.

Telegraphic speech at 2; by 3

function words increase and

sentences lose their

telegraphic quality.

‘Virtuous errors’ eg ‘she

taked’, ‘mouses’

Explosion of language.

Huge linguistic leap

Pre-

school

years

Working

vocabulary of

approx 5,000

words

Social words

making their

appearnace

As child’s world

widens (play group,

nursery school) so

they explore new

meanings and new

words

By 3½ all vowels should be in use,

as should many of the consonants.

Cluster consonants make their

appearance

temporary stammering may occur

end of third year, beginning of

fourth

Sentences become much

longer with introduction of

the word ‘and’; other

conjunctions follow later.

Word order in a sentence

largely mastered

Dramatic changes at

three

Linguistic milestone –

use of word ‘and’

Early

school

years

Vocabulary level

of pre-adolescent

child somewhere

between 10,000 &

20,000 words

Learning to define

words by using other

words

Metalanguage

evolving

Using figures of

speech.

By eight, simple puns

mastered

Most five year olds fairly fluent

Children gradually picking up

different styles of speech for

different settiings

New pronunciations learned if

family move from one part of

country to another

More sophisticated

conjunctions come into play

but even at age twelve they

still fall short of adult use

Most ‘virtuous errors’ now

phased out

Children fairly

proficient linguists by 5

but language acquisiton

never stops


ESSAY PRACTICE

1. Explain what is meant by the statement that children acquire language in

stages, and consider some of the evidence for and against this view.

2. Discuss the parents’ role in child language acquisition.

3. What changes in a child’s use of language would you expect after the two-

word stage?

4. Discuss the idea that the language of young children is an inferior version of

adults’ use of language.

5. Discuss and illustrate ways in which children learn to use language for a

variety of functions.

6. “A child spends the first year of its life preparing to speak”. Discuss early

language development in the light of this comment.

7. “When a three-year-old child says “we wented there”, I feel like

congratulating her on her knowledge of English grammar.” With reference to

this statement, explain some of the ways in which young children

demonstrate knowledge of English grammar.

8. In what ways do young children show an awareness that language enables us

to interact with others?

9. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the argument that children have an

innate capacity for language. What other explanations have been offered?

10. Compare input and innateness theories of language acquisition. Are the two

approaches incompatible?

11. Explain what is meant by child-directed speech and consider the role that it

plays in language development.

12. Many adults use particular ways of talking to babies and young children who

are learning to talk. Describe the distinctive linguistic features of this kind

of adult language. How helpful to children who are learning to talk are the

ways that adults use language when talking to them?

13. Discuss some of the theories about the way that children acquire language.


REVISION

How much do you know?

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: THE TOPIC

For this topic you should study how children go through the initial phases of

language acquisition and keep a clear overview and understanding at every stage

of your revision.

A BRIEF CHECK-LIST MIGHT BE

the function of children’s language (Halliday)

the development of phonological competence in speech

the development of lexis and semantics

the main features of grammar, especially holophrastic, two-word and

telegraphic stages

the development of pragmatic competence

theories about language acquisition: imitation, innateness, cognition,

input

YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO

Discuss the stages of the pre-verbal development of children’s language

Explain the order in which children acquire vowels and consonants, the

typical features of early pronunciation

Discuss the relationships between speech production and comprehension

Discuss the development of NVAS

Discuss how children develop interactional skills

Identify and classify children’s early vocabulary

Explain the active process by which children acquire semantic knowledge

Comment on children’s creation of new words: conversion, compounding,

prefixation, suffixation

Analyse the meaning of holophrases (i.e. one word to convey a more

complex idea)

Characterise the two-word stage

Describe the expansion of word classes and morphemes used in the

telegraphic stage

Discuss imitation, innateness, cognition and input theories of language


acquisition and test these against your own data or at least against the ‘Genie’

study.

ALSO, YOU MUST learn to apply your knowledge of stages to data in order to

effectively answer the first part of the question.

REMEMBER, you don’t need to apply theory in the data response, only in the

essay, but you must be able to label features to demonstrate your

understanding of the topic.


BOOK LIST

The following books are useful to develop your understanding of this topic.

Those with an asterisk (*) are particularly accessible and highly recommended:

AITCHISON, Jean The Articulate Mammal*, London: Unwin Hyman 1989

AITCHISON, Jean The Reith Lectures* 1996

AITCHISON, Jean Words in the Mind*, Oxford: Blackwell 1987

CRYSTAL, David The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, CUP 1997

CRYSTAL, David Child Language, Learning & Linguistics: Edward Arnold

1976

CRYSTAL, David Listen to your Child*: Penguin 1986

DONALDSON, M. Children’s Minds, London: Fontana 1986

DE VILLIERS, J. & P. Early Language: The Developing Child: Fontana 1979

(particularly good on Piaget’s approach!)

FOSTER, Susan H The Communicative Competence of Young Children:

Longman 1990

GARTON, Alison &

PRATT, Chris: Learning to be Literate: Blackwell 1998

GARVEY, Catherine Children’s Talk*: Fontana 1984

(very good on children’s conversations)

MYSZOR, Frank Language Acquisition: Hodder & Stoughton 1999

PECCEI, Jean Stilwell Child Language: Routledge 1994

PINKER, Steven The Language Instinct: The Penguin Press 1994

SHAW, Clare Talking and Your Child: Hodder & Stoughton 1993

WANG, William S-Y The Emergence of Language Development and

Evolution: Freeman & Co. 1991

Documents

CHILD LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT - Amazon Web Services€¦ · NATIVISM (Innateness Theory) Criticism of Skinner’s approach was led by Noam CHOMSKY (research him!) whose alternative theory