Grammatical Development

Grammatical Development

1. One word Holophrastic Stage

   • 12-18 months old
   • Single word utterances
     • 'milk'/'mummy'
   • Serve naming function
     • Sometimes convey complex messages
       • Holophrases
         • 'juice'
       • Context of utterance
         • Potentially more than 1 meaning
           • Bloom 1973

2. Telegraphic Stage

   • 2 years
     • 3/4 word utterances
       • Some grammatically complete
       • Some missing vital grammar components
         • Articles
           • 'a'/'the'
         • Auxiliary verbs
           • 'is'/'has'
         • Prepositions
           • 'to'/'on'/'for'
         • Conjunctions
           • 'but'/'because'
   • Inflectional Affixes
     • ing
     • ed
     • s
     • By 5

3. Acquisition of the inflections

   • Predictable pattern
     • ed
     • ing
   • Brown 1973
     • Studied child language development between 20-36 months
     • Found this sequence regularly occured
       • ing
       • Plural s
       • Possessive s
       • Articles 'the'/'a'
   • Cruttenden 1979
     • Divided acquisition of inflections
       • 1. children memorise words individually
       • 2. Show an awareness of general rules
         • Overgeneralise 'ed' ending
       • 3. Correct inflections used

4. Understanding Grammatical Rules

   • Children produce accurate grammatical constructions early
   • Jean Berko
     • Showed children fictitious images of Wugs
       • Then showed two Wugs
       • Asked to complete the sentence 'Now there are two'
     • Ages 3 and 4
       • Replied 'Wugs'
     • Between 2-5
       • Children overgeneralise with plurals