Inflections

Inflections

1. Brown (1973) showed that these were acquired between 20 and 36 months

2. 7)

   • 6)
     • 5)
       • 4)
         • 3)
           • 2)
             • 1)
               • Present participle
                 • I going
             • Plural –s
               • Cup - s
           • Possessive –’s
             • Teddy’s chair
         • Articles (a, the)
           • get the ball
       • Past tense –ed
         • I kicked it
     • Third person singular verb ending –s
       • She loves me
   • Auxiliary be
     • It is raining

3. Cruttenden (1979)

   • Identified three stages in the acquisition of inflections:
   • Stage 1
     • Inconsistent Usage
     • Stage 2
       • Consistent usage but sometimes misapplied (e.g. ‘I drinked it’)
       • Stage 3
         • Consistent Usage

4. Virtuous error

   • Rule is applied but doesn't consider exceptions (1 mouse, 2 mouses). 'I gotted it'

5. 18 months - 50 words

   • 2 years - 300 words
     • 5 years - 3000 words
       • Katherine Nelson (1973) discovered that nouns (classes of objects) were the largest group of earliest words.
         • Children’s first words need to relate to their immediate surroundings or have a social function
           • Children use dynamic verbs first (action – ‘I kick’) rather than stative verbs (states of being – ‘I am happy’)

6. Wug test

   • Berko (‘1958’) showed children pictures of a strange creature and told ‘there is one Wug’.
   • When show pictures of two creatures, they were able to say that there were two ‘Wugs’ without being told the rule/
   • They’d used internalisation. It was second nature for them to apply the rule without it being reinforced.

7. Questions

   • Develop during the first three years. A three stage process:
   • 1)
     • 18 months: starts to use rising intonation to indicate a question (‘Go walk?’)
     • 2)
       • Between 2 and 3. Start to use ‘Wh-’ words in the order: What, where, why and when
       • 3)
         • From 3, start to use subject-verb inversion (‘Can I see it?)

8. Negatives

   • 1)
     • 18 months: use ‘no’ or ‘not’ at beginning of sentence (‘no juice’)
     • 2)
       • between 2 and 3: use ‘no’ or ‘not’ in front of verbs (‘I no want juice’). Also use contractions (‘can’t, don’t)
       • 3)
         • from 3 years: Stop using ‘no’ and ‘not’ as in Stage 1. Use other negative contractions (‘didn’t’, ‘won’t’)

9. Pronouns

   • Ursula Bellugi found three stages
   • 1)
     • Child uses their own name (‘Jess play’)
     • 2)
       • 3)
         • Child uses ‘I/me’ pronouns in correct positions
       • Child recognises the ‘I/me’ pronouns are used in different places, but gets them wrong