CHAPTER 8 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (313-362) PowerPoint by Don L. F. Nilsen to accompany An Introduction to Language (8e, 2007) by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams 45 1 LANGUAGE STAGES Stage: Age: Crying Birth Cooing 6 Weeks Babbling 6 Months Intonation 8 Months Holophrastic 1 Year Pivot-Open 18 Months Word Inflections 2 Years Questions & Negatives 2 ½ Years Rare & Complex Lg 5 Years Mature Speech 10 Years Aitchison 570 45 2 CARETAKER SPEECH Simplified Vocabulary Simplified Phonology Exaggerated Pitch & Intonation Many Questions by Mothers Many Imperatives by Fathers Baby-Talk Words e.g. wawa, choo-choo, tummy, scambled eggs, pasghetti 45 3 (Moskowitz 534) SOUNDS Properties of easy sounds: Front of the Mouth Total Articulation Muscles already Developed (in Nursing) Easy Sounds: /m, p, b, t, d/ Hard Sounds: /ŋ, Θ, ð, š, r, l/ clusters Easy sounds occur in more languages and are learned earlier by children. 45 4 WORDS vov-vov dog for dogs, kittens, hens, zoo animals mooi moon for moon, cake <O> anything round dany bell sound for bell, clock, telephone, doorbell quack duck sound ducks, birds, insects, coins (because a coin had an eagle on it) koko rooster crowing rooster, merry-go-round, musical sounds, all sounds 45 5 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 549) [?aw] not, no, don t [b^?]/[m^?] up [da] dog [i?o]/[si?o] Cheerios [sa] sock [aj]/[^j] light [baw]/[daw] down [s:] aerosol spray [sju:] shoe [haj] hi [sr] shirt sweater [sæ:]/[esæ:] what s that? [ma] mommy [dæ] daddy (J.P. at 16 months) 45 6 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 325) 1
[pun] spoon [peyn] plane [tis] kiss [taw] cow [tin] clean [pol-r] stroller [majtl] Michael [dajt-r] diaper [pati] Papi [mani] Momy [b-rt] Bert [b-rt] Big Bird (- is schwa) (Michael from 18-21 months) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 328) 45 7 Michael systematically substituted the alveolar stop [t] for the velar stop [k] as in his words for cow, clean, kiss, and his own name. He also replaced labial [p] with [t] when it occurred in the middle of a word, as in his words for Papi and diaper. He reduced consonant clusters in spoon, plane, and stroller, and he devoiced final stops as in Big Bird. In devoicing the final [d] in bird, he created an ambiguous form [b-rt] referring both to Bert and Big Bird. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 328) 45 8 Michael s substitutions are typical of the phonological rules that operate in the very early stages of acquisition. [dot] don t [kh Ip] skip [th ap] stop [kidi] kitty Other common rules are reduplication bottle becomes [baba], water becomes [wawa]; and the dropping of a final consonant bed becomes [be], cake becomes ke]. These two rules show that the child prefers a simple CV syllable. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 328) 45 9 [su] shoe [dæt] that [ph e] play [d^p] thump [bæt] bath [wajt] light [dawi] dolly [go] grow (NOTE: [ph ] [th ] [kh ] are aspirated [p] [t] and [k] respectively) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 360) 45 10 GRAMMAR Holophrastic (one part of speech) Pivot-Open (two parts of speech) Telegraphic (four parts of speech) Adult (eight parts of speech) Linguist (each part of speech has many sub-categories) THREE STAGES OF ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGY 1. Holophrastic: men, went, broke, brought Right Answer, but Wrong Reason 2. Rule-Governed: mans, goed, breaked, bringed Wrong Answer, but Right Reason 3. Knowledge of both Rules and Exceptions to the Rules: men, went, broke, brought Right Answer, and Right Reason NOTE: These stages also operate for adults learning a new profession (Moskowitz 533) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 330) 45 11 45 12 2
WHAT WOULD A CHILD SAY? children went better best brought sang geese worst knives worse (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 361) 45 13 GRAMMAR: TWO-WORD STAGE The two-word stage is also called the Pivot- Open stage because one of the words is usually a Lexical Word (an open set that refers to something), and the other word is a Functional Word (a closed set with grammatical rather than reference meaning). In the following sentences, indicate which is the Pivot word and which is the Open word: 45 14 Allgone sock. Hi Mommy. See boy Push it. Byebye boat. Allgone sticky. See soci. Move it. More wet. It ball. Pretty boat. Mommy sleep. Katherine Sock. Dirty sock. Pretty fan. Bye-bye melon. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 333) 45 15 More taxi. More melon. Bye-bye hot. (Adam, Eve, and Sarah) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 359) 45 16 M. L. U. As children progress from the holophrastic to the pivot-open to the telegraphic to the mature stages of language development, a simple but effective gauge of their level of development is MLU. MLU means Mean Length of Utterance. MLU is the average length of the utterances the child is producing at a particular point. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 333) TELEGRAPHIC SPEECH During this stage of development, the functional categories like Determiners, Auxiliaries, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Expletives are missing. And the Lexical categories like Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs (usually without any suffixes) are present. 45 17 45 18 3
Cat stand up table. What that? He play little tune. AGE 2: MORPHOLOGY Andrew want that. Cathy build house. No sit there. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 334) 45 19 Progressive ing: Plural s: Copula am, is, are: asleep. Articles a, the: I singing. blue shoes. He is He is a doctor. Aitchison 574 45 20 AGE 3: MORPHOLOGY 2 Third Person Singular s: Past tense d: He wants an apple I helped Mummy Full Progressive be + -ing: I am singing Shortened Copula: Shortened Progressive: He s a doctor I m singing Aitchison 574 45 21 CHILD: Nobody don t like me. MOTHER: No, say Nobody likes me. CHILD: Nobody don t like me. (dialogue repeated eight times) MOTHER: Now, listen carefully, say Nobody likes me. CHILD: Oh, nobody don t likes me. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 315) 45 22 ADULT: What does [maws] mean? CHILD: Like a cat. ADULT: Yes, What else? CHILD: Nothing else. ADULT: It s part of your head. CHILD: [fascinated] ADULT: [touching child s mouth] What s this? CHILD: [maws] (Neil Smith talking to 2-year-old Amahl) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 327) 45 23 CHILD: Want other one spoon, Daddy. FATHER: You mean, you want the other spoon. CHILD: Yes, I want the other one spoon, please Daddy. FATHER: Can you say, the other spoon? CHILD: Other one spoon. FATHER: Say other. CHILD: Other. FATHER: Spoon CHILD: Spoon FATHER: Other spoon. CHILD: Other spoon. Now give me other one spoon? (Aitchison, 45 565)(Braine, 161) 24 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 316) 4
CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? CHILD: Yes ADULT: What did you say she did? CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly? CHILD: No, she holded them loosely (Aitchison 566)(Cazden 92) (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 314-315) 45 25 CHILDREN S METAPHORS Don t giggle me. I danced the clown. Yawny Baby you can push her mouth open to drink her. Who deaded my kitty cat? Are you gonna nice yourself? CF: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 361) 45 26 WUG AS A NOUN Make it plural. WUG AS A VERB Put it after he in a sentence. Make it possessive. Make it plural and possessive. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 361) Make it past tense. Make it a past participle. Make it a present participle. 45 27 45 28 WUG AS AN ADJECTIVE OR ADVERB Make it comparative. NEGATIVES Stage One: No you catch me. Make it superlative. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 361) Stage Two: You didn t caught me. Stage Three: You didn t catch me. (Moskowitz 547) 45 29 45 30 5
WH- QUESTIONS STAGE ONE: What Mummy doing? Why you singing? Where daddy go? STAGE TWO: Where you will go? Why kitty can t see? Why you don t know? STAGE THREE: Where will you go? Why can t kitty see? Why don t you know? (Aitchison, 575) 45 31 EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING Self-Directed Louding: Baby s getting a rash Rhetorical Questions: Don t you know I just wiped that off? Self-Answered Questions: What does the lamb say? Baaa. Limiting Questions: Do you want chocolate or vanilla? What is the function of egocentric speech? Do adults use this device? (Heath 617) 45 32 RESTRICTED AND ELABORATED CODES In 1971, Basil Bernstein distinguished between local language (restricted codes) and public language (elaborated codes). Restricted codes use he and she instead of Mom and Dad. They use back channels like You know. They use tags like isn t it. They use fewer verbs and adjectives. They use more slang, fixed expressions, and cliches. (Bernstein 5) HUMOR Even babies have a sense of humor. Adults laugh with children who are playing peek-a-boo or watching Sesame Street with its Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Young children are also fond of knock-knock jokes and riddles. (Nilsen & Nilsen 9-10) 45 33 45 34 TOILET HUMOR Alvin Schwartz says that children who are six or seven enjoy toilet humor because they no longer have accidents, but they still remember when they did. They like the following poem: 45 35 I see London; I see France. I see Betsy s underpants. They aren t green; they aren t blue. They re just filled with number two. They also like to talk about the secret parts of the body: Mary had a little bear, The best that she could find. And everywhere that Mary went, There was her bare behind. (Nilsen & Nilsen 11) 45 36 6
CONSERVATION HUMOR Paul McGhee told a joke to children of different ages: A man goes into a pizza parlor and tells the server to cut his pizza into four pieces because he isn t hungry enough to eat six pieces. 1 st Graders didn t laugh because they didn t get the joke. They hadn t yet mastered conservation. (Nilsen & Nilsen 10) 45 37 8 th Graders didn t laugh because they had mastered conservation so long ago that there was no tension. The students in the middle grades laughed the hardest. They experienced pleasure because they could take pride in the fact that they were able to figure out that the amount of pizza was the same regardless of how many pieces it was cut into. 45 38 (Nilsen & Nilsen 10).!6 LEVELS OF HUMOR DEVELOPMENT In Antony Chapman s It s a Funny Thing, Humor, Alice Sheppard has outlined six levels of humor development for children: LEVEL 1 (IDIOSYNCRATIC): Involves amusement related to a young child s individual experience as with a surprise, a physical sensation, or a response to someone else s smile or laughter. (Nilsen & Nilsen 10) 45 39!!LEVEL 2 (NORMATIVE): Involves a generalization that implies a rule, or a convention. Later, the child will violate the rule or convention. LEVEL 3 (EXPECTATION): Involves a reference to the unusualness or the improbability of an event. LEVEL 4 (RELATIONAL): Involves concern for inner motives related to a situation, relations among events, and multiple aspects of the situation. 45 40 (Nilsen & Nilsen 10)!!!LEVEL 5 (EXTRA-CONTEXTUAL): Involves context beyond the situation implied in the notion of parody, take-off, irony, or satire. It also involves the distinction between appearance and reality; the humor is revealed as contingent upon subtle aspects of events. References # 1: Aitchison, Jean. Predestinate Grooves: Is There a Preordained Language `Program? (Clark, 560-579). Bernstein, Basil. Class, Codes and Control: Three Volumes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971-1975. Braine, M. D. S. The Acquisition of Language in Infant and Child. in The Learning of Language Ed. C. E. Reed. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971. LEVEL 6 (PHILOSOPHICAL): Involves the ability to see what is ridiculous in the nature of things and to generalize an outlook from humor examples. (Nilsen & Nilsen 10). 45 41 Cazden, Courtney. Child Language and Education New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Chapman, Antony J., and Hugh C. Foot, eds. Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research, and Applications. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1996. 45 42 7
References # 2: Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin s Press, 1998. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. Language Acquisition. An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 313-362. Fromkin, Victoria, Stephen Krashen, Susan Curtiss, David Rigler and Marilyn Rigler. The Development of Language in Genie: A Case of Language Acquisition beyond the `Critical Period (Clark, 588-604). Heath, Shirley Brice. Teaching How to Talk in Roadville: The First Words (609-625). Hyams, Nina. Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters. New York, NY: D. Reidel Publishers, 1986. 45 43 References # 3: Lenneberg, Eric. Developmental Milestones in Motor and Language Development (Clark, 556-559). McGhee, Paul E. How to Develop Your Sense of Humor: An 8-Step Humor Development Training Program. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1994. McGhee, Paul E. Humor and Children s Development: A Guide to Practical Applications. New York, NY: Haworth, 1989. McGhee, Paul E. Humor Log for the 8-Step Humor Development Training Program. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1994. 45 44 References # 4: Miller, George and Patricia Gildea. How Children Learn Words (Clark, 580-587). Moskowitz, Breyne. The Acquisition of Language (Clark, 529-555). Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Acquisition of a Sense of Humor. Encyclopedia of 20 th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000, 9-11. Pines, Maya. Genie: A Postscript (Clark, 605-608). 45 45 8