First 257 words of the document:
Child Language Acquisition
Beginnings of Language Development
Possible that language acquisition begins in the womb.
French research, Mehler et al.
Babies as young as for days could distinguish French.
They learn rhythm and intonation.
Crying: Vegetative Noises
Used to represent a need for something.
Research found English parents could interpret cries (i.e, work out their needs) of foreign babies.
Instinctive noises. Not yet `language'.
Cooing: Openmouthed vowel sounds.
Babbling: Vowel Combinations
A period of phonemic expansion.
Child begins using consonants B, D, M, G, H.
Occasionally produces reduplicated monosyllables: `baba', `mama'.
Later move onto variegated babbling (advanced babbling).
Intonation and gesture are already beginning to be used.
After babbling children go through a process of phonemic contraction, and sounds become
restrictive to native tongue.
Adults could decipher babies nationalities already at this stage.
Not actual words.
Sound linked with object, want, etc.
Holophrastic (One word):
Nouns begin to appear.
Combinations. Generally have a fiftyword vocabulary at this stage.
Begin to understand semantics, grammar and pragmatics.
Three or more words linked. Usually content words.
`Telegraphic' because they are like Telegrams in that they really only needed information.
Previously omitted items (determiners, etc.), multiple clauses and inflections begin to appear.