L1 Acquisition—12 -36 months

L1 Acquisition—12 -36 months

Stages of First Language Acquisition—12 months on • Holophrastic stage — 12-24 months • idiomorphs • mutual exclusivity and whole object bias • overgeneralizations, undergeneralizations • referential vs. expressive children • Two-word Stage — 24-30 months • Subject-verb ‘Mary go.’ • Verb-modifier ‘Push truck.’ • Possessor-possesed ‘Mommy sock’ • Content words, no function words • Telegraphic Stage — 30-36 months • 2-5 words with little extra morphology • Morphological overgeneralization • Easier, more productive morphemes first

Basic methods for studying children post linguistically • Observations • Wug tests • ERPs (Event related potentials) • Experimental trickery

1. Observations Many of these studies done in 1950’s – 70’s Usually linguists or psychologists would follow own children around with tape recorder and analyze their language development

1. Observations At 1 year; 1 month (babbling) (in IPA): Production Production /ava/ /baewa/ /aelu/ /daevu/ /aw/ /gigi/ /n/ /paba/ At 1 year, 6 months: Gloss Production Gloss Production baby /bebi/ go /go/ bear /baeu/ big /gIg/ bib /bIb/ Brenda /pEnt/ blue /pu/ walk /wak/

M: Did you tell Daddy what you had for tea? N: aga (eggs) and gagadoodoodoo (cockadoodledoo = cornflakes [because of the picture on the box] cockadoodledoo also means a weathervane on a church spire and so he remembers his walk as well) tika (sticks) too. M: You didn’t have cornflakes for tea! And you didn’t have sticks either! N: ho (holes) too. (laughing—thinking this is a joke) M: You didn’t have sticks and holes for tea! N: doba (toast) Go wakin’, dada. (“I went walking, daddy”) F: What did you see on your walk? N: see ka (“I saw a car”) F: Yes, you went for a ride in a car, didn’t you? What else did you see? N: piti dedi mamma on gara (“a pretty flower (daisy) for momma in the garden”). [The flower wasn’t a daisy, but he calls all flowers daisies] (Parents get N. ready for bed) N: Help? Need help? (meaning “I need help). M: What is it you can’t find? Is it something under there? N, looking under couch: ba (“a ball”) (Later, looking at a book with his mother) N: ‘ats dat? (“What’s that?) M: That’s butter. N: (repeating) taba (butter) ‘ats dat? (“What’s that?”) M: Some ducks and a doggie. N: Sa kuks (“some ducks”) No goggie (but there isn’t a doggie)

1. Observations Basic findings: Growth of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU): number of morphemes used in a single utterance Baby socks Talked today Walks dogs

1. Observations • Brown’s (1973) Stages Mean Length of Utterance is a good index of child’s language maturity. Stages indicate growth of language complexity. Stage 1 - 12 to 26 months of age = MLU 1.00 to 2.00 Stage 2 - 27 to 30 months of age = MLU 2.00 to 2.50 Stage 3 - 31 to 34 months of age = MLU 2.50 to 3.00 Stage 4 - 35 to 40 months of age = MLU 3.00 to 3.75 Stage 5 - 41 to 46 months of age = MLU 3.75 to 4.50

1. Observations Corpora for children’s language acquisition Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) • http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/ • http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/CHILDES-English/childes-corpus.htm

1. Observations Pros? Cons?

2. Wug Studies http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/~gtesan/AcquisitionMq/videos/Berkosexp.mov

2. Wug Studies

2. Wug Studies Rules governing the use of irregulars follow a developmental U-shaped curve • went men worst • goed mans baddest • wented mens worstest • went men worst

2. Wug Studies Developmental U-shaped curve • Developmental U-shaped curve Proportion correct Time

2. Wug Studies 14 months: What that? Who that? 15 months: all-gone milk? no-no dada, woof-woof doggy, go store, daddy go? 21 months: Be quiet Shag. Baby cry. Baby crying. 24 months: Why not here? Don’t no play outside. 25 months: Where daddy go? I no go outside. I don’t can go outside. 4 years: God won’t let you die, Mom, until your child knows how to cook, will he? 5 years: Child: Was Daddy a Navy man? Mother: Yes. Child: Are they smart? Mother: Yes Child: Was Daddy smart? Mother: Yes Child: Why isn’t he anymore?

2. Wug Studies Pros? Cons?

3. ERPs Attach hat to babies head Hat has electrodes that measure Electrical movement across the skull Electrical movement tells us • What part of the brain is activated • When the brain reacts to the stimulus and how much it reacts

3. ERPs Basic findings . . .

3. ERPs Pros? Cons?

Stages of First Language Acquisition • Telegraphic Stage — 2-5 years • learning 20-30 words per day • more complex syntax • Fine-tuning — 5-10 yrs. • refining grammar • building vocabulary

4. Experimental Trickery • http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/~gtesan/AcquisitionMq/videos/MedialWHquestions.mov

4. Experimental Trickery How would you test . . . • 3-5 year olds’ comprehension of the passive • 24 month olds’ basic word learning (teaching words they’ve never encountered before) • The influence of motherese on learning questions • 3 year olds’ production of embedded clauses (before you touch your nose touch your head) • 3 years olds’ understanding of pronoun use in stories • Children’s progressive comprehension (over time) of the phrase “she’s easy to see” • 4 year old children’s ability to understand jokes or sarcasm • 3 year olds’ comprehension of embedded clauses (before you touch your nose touch your head)

4. Experimental Trickery Pros? Cons?

L1 Acquisition—12 -36 months