Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition

1. Features of Child Language Acquisition

   • The pre-verbal stage: Vegetative 0-4 months sounds of discomfort/ reflex Cooing 4-7 months comfort sounds / playing with open mouthed vowel sounds Babbling 6-12 repeated patterns of consonant and vowel sounds Proto-words 9-12 months word-like vocalisations Holophrastic 12-18 months one-word utterances Two-Word Stage 18-24 months Telegraphic Stage 24-36 months three and more word combinations Post-telegraphic 36+ more grammatically complex combinations
     • Theory: As children learn these basic features of speech, are they able to predict football results through intonation?
       • Alan Cruttenden (1974)
       • Adults were 100% accurate - Children (up to 7) were less accurate
   • Early phonological errors
     • Deletion - do(g) - omitting the final consonant in a word
     • Substitution - 'pip' for 'ship' - substituting one sound for another 'harder' sound
     • Addition - doggie - adding an extra vowel sound to the end of word
     • Assimilation - 'gog' for 'dog' - changing one vowel/consonant sound for another
     • Reduplication - 'dada' repeating a whole syllable
     • Consonant cluster reductions - 'pider' for 'spider' consonant cluster reduced to smaller units
     • Deletion of unstressed syllable - 'nana' for 'banana'
     • Theory: Are phonological errors linked to understanding of words/ ideas?
       • Jean Berko and Roger Brown -1960s
       • Child: A fis Adult: is this your fis? Child: No Child: A fis Adult: is this your fish? Child: yes, my fis
   • First words
     • Theory: Katherine Nelson 1974 identified four categories for first words
       • naming (nouns)- 60% - noun
       • actions / events - verb
       • describing/modifying - adjective
       • personal/social words - politeness
   • Overextension and Underextension
     • Theory: Eve Clarke - Overextension is based on:
       • physical qualities of an object
       • sensory features
     • Theory: Leslie Rescorla categorised overextension into 3 types
       • 1. Categorical - 'apple' for all fruit - 60%
       • 2. Analogical - similar physical or functional connection - such as 'ball' for a round fruit
       • 3. Mismatch - related objects
     • Theory: Jean Berko 1950s
       • -s plura overgeneralisation study
       • plural 'wugs' - 3/4 of children
   • Stages of grammatical development
     • 12-18 months holophrastic
     • 18-24 months - two word, simple syntactical structures - subject + object / verb + object
       • Theory: Roger Brown 1970s
         • study found that children from all cultures and countries make the same relationships between grammatical concepts
     • 24 -36 months - three words
     • 36+ post telegraphic stage - increasing awareness of grammatical rules and irregularities
   • Negatives
     • negation needs syntactic awareness
       • Theory: Ursula Bellugi identified 3 stages of negative formations
         • 1. uses 'no' or 'not' at the beginning/end of the sentence
         • 2. moves 'no' or 'not' inside the sentence
         • 3. attaches the negative to an auxiliary verb
         • DAVID CRYSTAL BONUS! - subtle negation 'maybe'
   • Pronouns
     • Difficult as they express: person/people involved, number and possession
       • Theory: Ursula Bellugi found 3 stages again!
         • 1. child uses own name
         • 2. the child recognises the I/me pronouns
         • 3. child uses them according to whether they are in the subject or object position
   • Developing Pragmatics
     • Implicature - what we actually mean
     • inference - interpreting what others mean
     • politeness
     • conversational management and turn-taking
   • Theory - Michael Halliday's 'taxonomy' - the functions of speech
     • instrumental - fulfil a need 'want milk'
       • Regulatory - influence the behaviour of others 'pick up'
         • Interactional - develop and maintain social relationships - 'love you'
           • Personal - individuality - 'i like..'
             • Representational - convey facts and info
               • imaginative - creating an imaginary world
                 • Heuristic - predominantly in play
                   • John Dore - offers alternative
                     • Labelling - naming a person, object or thing
                       • Repeating - repeating an adult word or utterance
                         • Answering - responding
                           • Requesting action - asking something to be done for them
                             • Calling - getting attention by shouting
                               • Greeting
                                 • Protesting
                                   • Practising