Child language / Alison J. Elliot.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elliot, Allison J.

Series:

Cambridge textbooks in linguistics

Cambridge textbooks in linguistics.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--Language.

Children.

Physical Description:

vi, 194 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [Eng.] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Summary:

The way children learn their native language has been the subject of intense and widespread investigation in the last decades, stimulated by advances in theoretical linguistics and the behavioural sciences. For the student, this has meant a bewildering number of research reports, often differing in their theoretical viewpoint and the methodological approach they advocate, and apparently conflicting in their conclusions. Child Language provides the student with a cool, clear and concise survey of the most important recent research work, and puts into perspective the contributions made by Chomsky, Piaget and others. The research surveyed, though primarily of English-speaking children, includes studies of children whose first language is not English and bilingual children.

Dr Elliot believes that the study of child language necessarily raises questions about the nature of language -- is human language something only humans can learn? -- and about learning itself -- how does our ability to learn language depend on biological factors, such as our age, and how important is our social and linguistic environment? Little justification is found for the view that language has an independent existence for the young child, and his linguistic achievements are studied within the context of his development in general.

The challenges to research that still have to be faced are made explicit, but Dr Elliot's book clearly shows that the study of child language does have 'its own intrinsic fascination'. Written primarily for students of psychology and linguistics, this stimulating and comprehensive textbook is accessible to anyone with a serious interest in that study.

Contents:

2 Mechanisms for language acquisition 7

2.1 Chomsky's views on language acquisition 7

2.2 Competence and creativity 11

2.3 Primary linguistic data 15

2.4 Language in chimpanzees 17

2.5 Biological factors in language acquisition 23

2.6 Learning and learning theory 28

3 Language in the developing child 37

3.1 Egocentric speech 39

3.2 Piaget's views on language 42

3.2.1 Piaget as an epistemologist 42

3.2.2 Child's expressive language 44

3.2.3 Child's understanding of language 44

3.2.4 Universals and language variation 47

3.2.5 Development of the concept 48

3.3 The cognition hypothesis 51

3.4 Functional origins of language 57

4 Development of the child's sound system 62

4.1 Vocal productions and discriminations in infancy 62

4.2 Early perception and production of phonemic distinctions 68

4.3 Awareness of phonological structure 75

5 Naturalistic studies of language acquisition 78

5.1 Comprehension and production in child language 80

5.2 The development of word meaning 85

5.3 Holophrases 90

5.4 Writing grammars for child language 93

5.5 Semantic relations in two-word utterances 99

5.6 Over the threshold 102

5.6.1 The development of negation 106

5.6.2 The development of questions 107

6 Experimental studies of linguistic development 110

6.1 Active and passive sentences 114

6.2 'John is easy to see' 121

6.3 Word order in other constructions 124

6.4 Relational terms 128

6.4.1 Dimensional adjectives 129

6.4.2 'More' and 'less' 131

6.4.3 'Same' and 'different' 135

6.4.4 Locative prepositions 138

6.5 Deixis and reference 140

7 The communicative context of language acquisition 149

7.1 Mothers' speech to children 149

7.2 Language and social class 163

7.3 Contextual variation in child speech 168

7.4 Learning more than one language 173.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 176-190.

ISBN:

0521295564

OCLC:

7173021