Language Aquisition

1
Language Aquisition
2
Reasons for believing that language is wired into
us

• Common mistakes not modelled by adults (eated)
• Rapidity of acquisition (by age 4½)
• Uselessness of correction
• Lack of relation to intelligence
• Fixed onsets

3
Fixed Onsets Birth to 6 months

• Eye contact
• Imitation
• Crying

4
Fixed Onsets 6 months

• BabblingCV syllablesvoiced stops and nasals
• Object permanence
• Turn-taking (peekaboo)
• Tool use (spoon)
• Vocables
• ADULT CONTRIBUTION baby talk

5
Fixed Onsets One Year

• One-word stage
• words for familiar people, toys, foods
• Locations/states, social forms
• Overgeneralization
• Reduplication
• Holographic?

6
Fixed Onsets Two Years

• Two-word stage
• Phonological substitutions
• stop ? /tap/
• juice ? /dus/
• soup ? /zup/
• ADULT CONTRIBUTION expansion

7
Fixed Onsets After Two

• Telegraphic stage
• Few bound morphemes
• Few nonlexical categories
• Few word order errors
• Single clauses
• 15-20 new words a day by age 5
• Passive voice around age 7