16. First language acquisition

16. First language acquisition

16.1

First language acquisition

16.2

Basic requirements

16.3

The acquisition schedule

Some controversies

Caretaker speech

Several stages in the acquisition process

Pre-language stages

The one-word or holophrastic stage

The two-word stage

Telegraphic speech

16.4

The acquisition process

Morphology

Syntax

Semantics

16.

The First Language Acquisition

First language acquisition is remarkable for the speed with which it takes place.

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By

the

time

a

child

enters

elementary

school,

he

or

she

is

an

extremely

sophisticated

language-user,

operating a communicative system which no other creature, or computer, comes close to matching.

?

The speed of acquisition and the fact that it generally occurs, without overt instruction, for all

children, regardless of great differences in a range of social and cultural factors, have led to the

belief that there is some

?

innate

?

predisposition

1

in the human infant to acquire language. We can

think of this as the

?

language- faculty

?

of the human with which each newborn child is endowed.

16.2

Basic requirements

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A child who does not hear, or is not allowed to use, language will learn no language.

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Genie’s case

( Chapter 15)

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The

language

a

child

learns

is

not

genetically

inherited,

but

is

acquired

in

a

particular

language-using environment.

?

?

cultural transmission

?

(Chapter 5)

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The child must also be physically capable of sending and receiving sound signals in a language.

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In

order

to speak

a

language,

a

child

must

be

able

to

hear that

language

being

used. By

itself,

however,

hearing language sounds is not enough. The crucial requirement appears to be the opportunity to

interact

with others via language.

16.3

The acquisition schedule

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All

normal

children,

regardless

of

culture,

develop

language

at

roughly

the

same

time,

along

much the same schedule.

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The

language

acquisition

schedule

has

the

same

basis

as

the

biologically

determined

development

of

motor

skills.

This

biological

schedule,

it

is

claimed,

is

tied

very

much

to

the

maturation of the infant

?

s brain and the lateralization process.

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Some controversies

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The

extent

to

which

the

process

of

language

acquisition

is

genetically

predetermined

in

the

human species

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The early environment of a child differs considerably from one culture to the next

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controversy over

?

innateness

?

: Language development should be described as

?

language growth

?

,

because the

“

language organ

”

simply grows like any other body organ.

This view seems to underestimate what others consider the importance of environment and experience in the

child’s development of language.

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How should we view the linguistic production of young children?

describing the child

?

s speech in terms of the known units of phonology and syntax

?

the child

?s view of what is being heard and utter

ed at different stages may be based on quite

different units.

?

a child’s utterance of [duk

?

d?

t] may be single unit for the child, yet may be treated as having three units,

look at that

, by an investigator interested in the child’s acquisition of different types of verbs.

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Caretaker speech

?

caretaker speech

/

motherese

2

保姆式语言

-the

characteristically

simplified

speech

style

adopted

by

someone

who

spends

a

lot

of

time

interacting with a young child

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baby- talk

3

-simplified words (e.g.

tummy, nana

) or alternative forms, with repeated simple sounds, for objects

in the child

?

s environment (e.g.

choo-choo, poo-poo, pee-pee, wawa

)

?

Features of caretaker speech

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frequent questions, often using exaggerated intonation

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In the early stages, this type of speech also incorporates a lot of forms associated with ‘baby

-

talk’.

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simple sentence structures and a lot of repetition

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Several stages in the acquisition process

1

Stages

Pre-language stages

Age

3 months ~ 10 months

2

The holophrastic stage

12 months ~ 18 months

3

The two-word stage

18 months ~ 20 months

4

Telegraphic speech

2 years ~ 3 years

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Pre-language stages

-The pre-linguistic sounds of the very early stages of child language acquisition are simply called

?

< br>cooing

4

?

and < /p>

?

babbling

5

< br>?

.

The

period

from

about

three

months

to

ten

months

is

usually

characterized

by

three

stages

of

sound

prod

uction in the infant’s developing repertoire

6

.

Stages

cooing

Activities

?

produce velar consonants such as [k] and [g],

?

produce high vowels such as [i] and [u]

?

be able to sit up

babbling

?

produce vowels and consonants such as fricatives and nasals

?

syllable-type sounds such as

mu

and

da

?

recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations

babbling

?

begin to pull themselves into a standing position

?

be capably of using their vocalizations to express emotions and emphasis

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a lot of ?

sound play

?

and attempted imitations

10 and 11 months

?

9 months

?

6 months

Age

?

3 months

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There is substantial variation among children in terms of the age at which particular features of

linguistic

development

occur.

So,

we

should

always

treat

statements

concerning

development

stages such as

“

by six months

”

or

“

by the age of two

”

as approximate and subject to variation in

individual children.

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The one-word / holophrastic

7

stage

-

Between twelve and eighteen months, children begin to produce a variety of recognizable single

unit utterances.

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Speech in which single terms are uttered for everyday objects such as ‘milk’, ‘cookie’, ‘cat’ and ‘cup’.

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Other forms such as [

?

s?

:] may occur in circumstances which suggest that the child is producing a version

of

what’s that

.

?

So, the label

?

one word

?

for this stage may be misleading. Terms such as

?

single- unit

?

or

?

single

term

?

may be more accurate, or we could use the term

holophrastic

(a single form functioning as a

phrase

or

sentence),

if

we

believe

that

the

child

is

actually

using

these

forms

as

phrases

or

sentences.

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While many of these single forms are used for naming objects, they may also be produced in

circumstances that suggest the child is already extending their use.

An empty bed may elicit the name of a sister who normally sleeps in the bed, even in the absence of the name

of the person named. During this stage, then, the child may be capable of referring to

Karen

and

bed

, but is not

yet ready to put the forms together to produce a more complex phrase.

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The two-word stage

-begins around eighteen to twenty months, as the child

?

s vocabulary moves beyond fifty distinct

words.

-By the time the child is two years old, a variety of combinations, similar to

baby chair, mommy

eat, cat bad,

will have appeared.

The adult interpretation of such combinations is, of course, very much tied to the context of their

utterance.

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The phrase baby chair may be taken as an expression of possession (= this is baby’s chair), or as a request

(=put baby in chair), or as a statement (=baby is in the chair), depending on different contexts.

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Telegraphic speech

Between two and three years old, the child will begin producing a large number of utterances which could be

classified as multiple-word utterances.

-characterized by strings of lexical morphemes in phrases such as

Andrew want ball, cat drink milk

,

and

this shoe all wet

.

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The child has clearly developed some sentence-building capacity by this stage and can order the

forms

correctly.

While

this

type

of

telegram-format

speech

is

being

produced,

a

number

of

grammatical inflections begin to appear in some of the words, and the simple prepositions (

in, on

)

also turns up.

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By the age of two and a half, the child

?

s vocabulary is expanding rapidly and the child is actually

initiating more talk.

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By three, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and pronunciation has become closer

to the form of the adult language.

16. 4 The acquisition process

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As the linguistic repertoire of the child increases, it is often assumed that the child is, in some sense, being

‘taught’ the language.

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This view seems to underestimate what the child actually does.

For the vast majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the language. Nor should

we picture a little empty head gradually being filled with words and phrases.

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The

children

is

actively

constructing,

from

what

is

said

to

them,

possible

ways

of

using

the

language.

?

The

child

?

s

linguistic

production

is

mostly

a

matter

of

trying

out

constructions

and

testing

whether they work or not.

?

It is simply not possible that the child is acquiring the language through a process of consistently imitating

(parrot- fashion

8

) adult speech. Of course, the child can be heard to repeat versions of what adults say and is in

the process of adopting a lot of vocabulary from their speech.

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However,

adults

simply

do

not

produce

many

of

the

types

of

expressions

which

turn

up

in

children

?

s speech.

(In the following extract, the child creates a totally new verb

to

W

oodstock

)

Noah (picking up a toy dog):

This is

W

oodstock.

(he bobs the toy in Adam’s face)

Adam:

Hey

W

oodstock, don’t do that.

(Noah persists)

Adam:

I’m going home so you won’t

W

oodstock me.

--- Clark, 1993

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Nor does adult

?

correction

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