1. CHAPTER 13 B
STAGES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
http://youtu.be/_JmA2ClUvUY

2. Cooing and babbling
 Crying: the first stage for some specialists
 First: vowel-like sounds-high vowels [i] [u]
 Around 4th month: velar consonants [k] [g]
( „cooing‟ / „gooing‟)
 Babies differentiate between vowel sounds [i] and [a]
and syllables [ba] [ga]

3. Cooing and babbling
 6th to 8th month: ba-ba-ba; ga-ga-ga (babbling)
 9th to 10thmonth: Later babbling; variation of
syllables; intonation patterns
 10th to11th month: emotions and emphasis
 The pre-language use of sounds

4. One-word stage
 12th to 18th month: single-unit utterances
 Speech in single terms and everyday items:
„milk‟, „cookie‟, „cat‟, „cup‟, „mama‟
 Holophrastic = a single form that functions as a
phrase or sentence. Example: „Milk!‟ = “Give me
milk!”
 Generally used to name objects
 Extension of its use to more complex
circumstances

5. Two-word stage
 18th to 20th month
 Child‟s vocabulary: around 50 words
 Baby chair, mommy eat, cat play
 Communication: after production of
speech child receives feedback. This
is interaction
 24th month: 200 to 300 words

6. Telegraphic Speech
 Strings of words in phrases or sentences
 Almost complete sentences
 Correct word order
 Inflections (wants, cats) and prepositions (in, on)
 Between 2 and 2 ½ years old: multiple word speech
 Variation in word-forms
 Physical development: running and jumping
 Adult‟s influence in child‟s speech development

7. Children do not simply imitate adults; they
actively construct words and phrases
based on the rules they pick up intuitively.
Do children learn or acquire language?

8. Correction/Repetition don‟t work!
 Child: Want one other spoon, Daddy.
 Father: You mean, you want the other spoon.
 Child: Yes, I want one other 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 one other spoon?
Quoted in Braine, 1971

9. Verb “to Woodstock”
Noah: This is Woodstock.
(bobbing a stuffed Woodstock toy in
Adam‟s face)
Adam: Hey Woodstock, don’t do that.
(Noah persists)
Adam : I’m going home so you won’t
*Woodstock me.

10. How First Language Develops
• ~ing form: Cat sitting, mommy
reading book. Normally this is
the first to appear
• Regular plurals with ~s form:
boys, cats.
•Overgeneralization process
= foots, mans, mouses
•Irregular past forms: went,
came
•Regular past forms: walked,
played
•Overgeneralization:
walkeded, wented, goed

11. “I *holded the baby.”
“We *goed to the store.”
“My *foots are big.”
http://youtu.be/PU9yUaZroq0

12. *Holded, wented, goed…
 Child: My teacher *holded the baby rabbits and we patted
them.
 Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
 Child: Yes.
 Mother: What did you say she did?
 Child: She *holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
 Mother: Did you say she held them tightly?
 Child: No, she *holded them loosely.
4 year old quoted in Cazden, 1972

13. Children‟s speech is creative and shows
comprehension, even when the child is unable to
repeat exactly what has been said:
Father: “The owl that eats candy runs fast.”
Child: “Owl eat candy and he run fast.”

14. Syntax
Syntax is the arrangement of words and phrases to
create well-formed sentences in a language. (Proper
placement of nouns, verbs, etc.)

15. Syntax: Acquisition of Questions
Questions:
1- Add a Wh form/rise intonation:
“Where kitty?” “Why go?”
2- More complex form, still relying on intonation:
“What book name?” “See my doggie?”
3- Inversion of subject/verb:
“Can I have a piece?”
“What did you do?”
“Will you help me?”

16. Syntax: Acquisition of Negatives
 1- No or Not at the beginning of sentences:
no mitten; not teddy bear; no fall; no sit here
 2- Don‟t and can‟t appear :
You can’t dance; I don’t want eggs
 3- Didn‟t, won‟t Later: isn‟t
I didn’t caught it; She won’t let go; This isn’t ice cream

17. Overextension
 Overextension: extension of meaning based on similarities of
shape, sound, size, color (also movement and texture)
Examples:
 Child uses the word apple to mean apple, tomato, and ball
 Child uses the word cat to mean cat and dog
 http://youtu.be/AgY7nkbYFaw

18. Steven Pinker: How Children Learn Language
http://youtu.be/ir7arILiqxg
Steven Pinker is a Psychologist
and Linguist at Harvard.