bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Young children's responses to neutral and specific contingent queries
Authors: Anselmi Dina , Tomasello Michael , Acunzo Mary 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis study examined young children's responses to adult contingent queries. Each of 22 children in Language Stages II–V conversed alone with their mother and alone with an adult experimenter. The adults queried the child's multi-word utterances with either a neutral or a specific query. Children at all stages responded differently to the two types of query. In response to the neutral query children tended to repeat their entire utterance, whereas in response to the specific query they most often replied with only the asked-for information. Some children found it easier to differentiate the query types when their mother was the listener. These findings suggest that very young children can comprehend the linguistic structure of specific queries and that they can make pragmatically appropriate responses.
A multi-functional approach to single-word usage
Authors: Rodgon Maris Monitz , Jankowski Wayne , Alenskas Lucias 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTLanguage is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional entity which involves symbolic and cognitive aspects, communicative aspects, and structural-linguistic aspects, both syntactic and semantic. The child's task during acquisition is to become aware of, to understand, and to operate according to convention in these three spheres. Analysis of the single-word production of three children revealed developmental changes in the salience of the three aspects and individual differences in functional styles of language acquisition. Use of the multi-dimensional approach also revealed differences in the relations between language, overt action, and a child's tendency to talk about action. Many differences, particularly in communicative style, were related to differences in parent–child interaction.
One idiosyncratic strategy in the acquisition of phonology
Authors: Priestly T. M. S. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTData are presented which reflect a particular strategy used by a boy from 1; 10 to 2; 2 to manage certain polysyllabic words. Analysis shows that substitution – although probably an impetus for this strategy – was not involved in most or even all of the strategic processes themselves. An interpretation is made in terms of ‘underlying forms’ (Ingram 1970); details of the strategy and its component sub-strategies (‘ruses’) are presented.
Four early stages in the development of Li negation
Authors: Wode Henning 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTNo reasonably successful theory of the acquisition of negation seems to have yet been proposed. Most studies describe post hoc what has taken place; but they fail to go on to suggest a theory that will predict what will take place. McNeill seems to be the only one to have explicitly aimed at a theory with at least a certain amount of predictive capacity, but his views leave much to be desired. This paper outlines an alternative proposal to cover four very early stages for the acquisition of negation systems in natural languages. It emphasizes the formal linguistic devices as the major variables that determine the various language-specific developmental sequences.
Conversational competence in children
Authors: Keenan Elinor O. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTObservations of early morning conversations between twin boys (2;9 at onset of research) indicate that young children are able to sustain a coherent dialogue over a number of turns. Contrary to the views of Piaget (1926), the interlocutors generally attend to one another's utterances. Coherence is achieved to a large extent by attending to the form of one another's utterances. Extended exchanges are maintained by speakers focusing on a sequence of sounds (sound play) or a constituent within an antecedent turn and reproducing it (with or without modification) in the next turn.
The acquisition of word-meaning for dimensional adjectives: the long and short of it
Authors: Eilers Rebecca E. , Oller D. Kimbrough , Ellington Judy 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTTwo experiments tested the semantic feature hypothesis with children younger than those previously studied. Two predictions were considered: (1) that order of acquisition of dimensional adjective pairs corresponds with their order of semantic generality; (2) that at an early stage of development, the marked members of dimensional pairs are interpreted as having the meaning of the unmarked members. In general, both experiments supported prediction one but failed to support prediction two. In Experiment II, a possible confounding variable (non-semantic size preference) was examined. Two general conclusions were reached: (1) that it is difficult to rule out semantically irrelevant factors (size preference) from experiments investigating the learning of dimensional adjectives; and (2) that refinements of the semantic feature theory may be necessary to accommodate individual differences (which may be age dependent) in strategies for learning dimensional adjectives.
Perception and production in child phonology: the testing of four hypotheses
Authors: Edwards Mary Louise 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTPerception and production data were collected from 28 children, ages 1; 8 to 3; 11, to test four specific hypotheses on the acquisition of initial fricatives and glides in English, based on the assumptions that perception precedes production and unmarked precedes marked. Perception data were collected by the Shvachkin-Garnica technique for ‘phonemic perception’. Pairs of objects are given nonsense names, CVCs differing only in the initial sound; the child is asked to perform certain actions with the named objects and if he is correct on 7 out of 10 trials he is assumed to have demonstrated phonemic perception of the opposition in question. Production data were compared to the perception data. Results only partially confirm the hypotheses and indicate that (a) children as late as age 3; 0 do not have complete phonemic perception, (b) phonemic perception develops gradually, generally in advance of production, and (c) the order of acquisition shows trends toward uniformity but is not universal.
Fronting in child phonology
Authors: Ingram David 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a proposed strategy of phonology based on acquisition data from two children, one French and one English. Both children showed a process of FRONTING, where the sounds in the child's words are ordered from those produced at the front of the mouth to those produced in the back. While this first appears to be an uncommon strategy, an examination of its implied universals suggests that Fronting at some more basic level may represent a general phonological process. Specifically, Fronting suggests that a marked or unmarked relationship exists between the initial and final consonants of a CVC syllable dependent upon their adherence to Fronting. It is proposed that back consonants are less marked in syllable final position than initial position and vice versa for front consonants. Thus Jakobson's theory, based on markedness in initial consonants, is just part of a more general phenomenon of markedness in syllables. Data are given that suggest that such is the case.
The ontogenesis of speech acts
Authors: Bruner Jerome S. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTA speech act approach to the transition from pre-linguistic to linguistic communication is adopted in order to consider language in relation to behaviour generally and to allow for an emphasis on the USE of language rather than on its form. The structure of language is seen as non-arbitrary in that it reflects both attention structures (via predication) and action structures (via the fundamental case grammatical form of language). Linguistic concepts are first realized in action. A pilot study focusing on the regulation of JOINT attention and JOINT activity within the context of mutuality between mother and infant is discussed, with emphasis on ritualization in mutual play as a vehicle for understanding the development of the formal structures of language.
Holophrases, speech acts and language universals
Authors: Dore John 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe arguments both for and against viewing the child's initial one-word utterances as HOLOPHRASES are reviewed. Some theoretical problems – concerning the innateness of language, the acquisition of syntax, the status of prosody and the child's comprehension of language during the one-word stage – with the holophrase controversy are pointed out. We suggest that an unresolvable theoretical stalemate exists because proponents on both sides of the controversy mistakenly assume the centrality of the notion sentence in discussing holophrases. An alternative view of early language development, which takes the SPEECH ACT as the basic unit of linguistic communication, is offered as a solution to the problems with the holophrase controversy as it now stands. We propose a more integrated description of the relations between functional and grammatical aspects of early communicative competence than is currently provided by sentence-oriented theories. In particular, we suggest that the child's PRAGMATIC INTENTIONS gradually become GRAMMATICALIZED as semantic and syntactic structures. Finally, three entities – communicative functions, referring expressions and predicating expressions – are proposed as LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS, as distinct from grammatical universals.
Requests and responses in children's speech
Authors: Garvey Catherine 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTAn investigation of children's ability to convey and respond to requests for action was based on the spontaneous speech of 36 dyads of nursery school children (3; 6–5; 7). Direct request forms (e.g. Give me the hammer) were frequent and the majority were acknowledged verbally. Examination of the contexts of direct requests indicated that speaker and addressee shared an understanding of the interpersonal meaning factors relevant to requesting. These meaning factors were invoked in justifying, refusing and in repeating or paraphrasing a request, and they also provided a basis for the communication of indirect requests. Examples of inferred requests are discussed, and a relationship between the structure of the speech act and conversational sequences is proposed.
Perceptual responses to infant crying: maternal recognition and sex judgments
Authors: Murry Thomas , Hollien Harry , Müller Eric 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTA perceptual study was conducted in order to determine (I) whether a group of mothers could recognize their own infant on the basis of tape-recorded cry samples obtained under three cry-evoking situations, and (2) whether an infant's sex could be correctly identified simply by listening to cry samples. The results of this study indicated that mothers could recognize the cry of their own infant with few instances of confusion and that the sex of an unknown infant cannot be reliably identified using a simple auditory identification paradigm.
Features of infant sounds: the first eight weeks of life
Authors: Stark Rachel E. , Rose Susan N. , McLagen Margaret 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTVocalizations of two female infants, recorded between one and eight weeks of age, were studied. The vocalizations were classified as cry, discomfort and vegetative sounds. Five examples of each sound type were selected randomly from the output of both infants and at each of three age levels (90 vocalizations in all). No changes in features were noted as a result of increasing age. The two infants showed individual feature patterns for all sound types; however, for both infants, certain features were found to be highly typical of cry and discomfort sounds, and certain others of vegetative sounds. The implications for later speech development are discussed.
Voice onset time in consonant cluster production by children and adults
Authors: Menyuk Paula , Klatt Mary 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTVoice onset time (VOT) characteristics of stops in initial clusters in American English words produced by children and adults were studied. Words were spoken in isolation and in sentence context by eleven three-and four-year-old children, and by a male and female adult. Spectrograms were made and VOT duration measurements taken. Three experienced listeners transcribed the isolated words and sentences. Analyses showed that overall timing characteristics were similar for children and adults. Speakers differed in their [±voice] boundary and there was no absolute time distinction between [±voice] stops; [+voice] stops showed less variability than [−voice]. VOT generally increased from labial to dental to velar clusters, and was shorter in sentence context and longer in clusters than in singletons. Children's VOT averages were generally, but not significantly, longer than adults' in all contexts, and coarticulation constraints affected the accuracy with which children produced the stop and liquid portion of a particular cluster.
Children's strategies for interpreting complex comparative questions
Authors: Townsend David J. , Erb Melinda 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTFifty-four children aged between 3 and 6 were asked questions such as ‘Which box is Xer than it is Z?,’ where Xer was taller, shorter, fatter, or thinner and Z was tall or fat, in the context of five rectangles of varying dimensions. For most questions, the largest rectangle was chosen most often as an answer, regardless of the adjectives used. The older children often chose the Xest rectangle in the array, indicating interpretation of only the first clause of the question. After providing feedback on incorrect answers for the five-year-old children, a post-test showed a decrease in frequency of choices of the largest rectangle, no change in frequency of choices of the Xest rectangle, and, for some questions, an increase in the frequency of choices of the correct rectangle. The results are interpreted to mean that the linguistic strategy of attending to the first clause is more resistant to change than the more primitive non-linguistic preference for choosing the largest object without interpreting the sentence.
The meanings of two-word utterances in the speech of young children
Authors: Howe Christine J. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTRecent attempts to classify the meanings of two-word utterances expressed by young children have assumed that children always intend ONE of the meanings adults might express. This paper challenges that assumption for two reasons. Firstly, it is by no means self-evidently true. Indeed, since children and adults conceptualize the world differently, they may also differ in what they choose to say about the world. Secondly, it has supported research strategies which are at best unjustified and at worst ambiguous. In fact, research based on the assumption that children always intend a meaning adults might express has provided interesting insights into the interpretations adults place upon children's utterances but said next to nothing about the meaning of these utterances. This paper concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to the latter problem.
Syntactic styles in emerging language
Authors: Ramer Andrya L. H. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTIn this longitudinal investigation of the emerging grammar of seven children, differences in linguistic acquisition were observed. The syntactic analyses applied to the corpora included examination of emerging complexity, observance of word order constraints and subject-predicate specification among others. These analyses revealed two distinct styles of syntactic acquisition. These linguistic styles appeared to be sex- and speed-related with specific ties to particular utterance types and grammatical-relational specification. The observed styles of syntactic acquisition were differentiated by these differences so that the differences themselves constituted the style characteristics.
The linguistic maturity of 11-year-olds: some analysis of the written compositions of children in the National Child Development Study
Authors: Richardson K. , Calnan M. , Essen J. , Lambert L. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe written compositions of 11-year-olds in the National Child Development Study were analysed using the T-unit length (Hunt 1965) as a measure of syntactic maturity, and composition length as a measure of productivity. Only a weak association was found between mean T-unit length (MTUL) and composition length. There were no statistically significant regional differences in either composition length or MTUL. There were statistically significant sex and social class differences in composition length but not in MTUL. Composition length was associated with Reading Comprehension, General Ability test scores, and teachers' ratings of certain scholastic aptitudes. MTUL was associated only slightly or not at all with these measures. The results are discussed in relation to cognitive and linguistic development.
The early acquisition of word meaning
Authors: Reich Peter A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe development of the meaning of shoe in one pre-lingual child, plus additional examples drawn from the literature, support a notion that word meanings start out very narrow and only become overextended later, though sometimes before the word is spoken. This appears to contradict the course of development of meaning hypothesized by Clark (1973). It is argued that the early development of word meaning is simply a special case of a much more general learning process.
Fundamental frequency characteristics of infant non-distress vocalization during the first twenty-four weeks
Authors: Laufer Marsha Zlatin , Horii Yoshiyuki 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTFundamental frequency (F0) characteristics of non-distress vocalizations produced by four infants during the first twenty-four weeks of life were examined. This study constitutes the beginning of a longitudinal investigation of phonological development displayed by these children from birth to two years. Vocalization samples were obtained from home and laboratory recordings. Period-by-period F0melody plots and descriptive statistics for each utterance were derived from computer analysis. Mean F0centred around 335 Hz, with little variation evidenced when data were pooled. Duration, within-utterance range and variability did show developmental change. Individual F0fluctuations deviating from the mean were felt to be associated with the infant's state, activity levels, and changing vocal repertoire. Sources of variation among studies of infant F0characteristics appear to be related to differences in sampling and measurement techniques.
Learning how ‘it’ works
Authors: Tanz Christine 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTIn a replication and extension of a study on the pronoun it by Chipman & de Dardel, 61 children aged 3; 1–5; 2 were asked to carry out instructions of the form ‘There is playdough on the table. Give it to me’. They were also asked ‘Give me some’, and ‘Give me the playdough’. The results indicate that children do observe the distinction between definite and indefinite pronouns as it applies to quantity, from the youngest age studied. It is also argued that to the extent that children fail to fully comprehend the implications of using the definite pronoun, their failure applies to definite reference in general, and not the pronoun in particular.
Conjunction reduction in child language
Authors: Lust Barbara 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTCoordinate conjunction was evaluated in early child language with regard to its structural properties. In a series of four studies, 60 two- and three-year-olds grouped by MLU were studied in an elicited imitation task where in the linguistic form of sentences was varied according to conjunction structure (whether sentential or phrasal) and according to pattern of redundancy deletion in conjunction reduction (whether forward or backward in directionality). Both factors were found to affect children's imitation. The results suggested specific constraints on the structure of coordination in child language.
A child's acquisition of Russian phonology
Authors: Timm Leonora A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper represents a partial condensation of the results of a study covering 14 months in a Russian-speaking child's phonological development. The original investigation tested a theory of phonological acquisition formulated by Olmsted (1971), finding that – though modifications were necessary to accommodate certain aspects of the Russian data – Olmsted's hypotheses were, by and large, upheld. The present paper gives the evidence in support of the theory and offers in addition some detailed information on the Russian-speaking child's acquisition of specific phones over the months examined.
More about the same: children's understanding of post-articles
Authors: Karmiloff-Smith Annette 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTAn experiment on children between 2; 0 and 7; 0 showed that they initially interpret the same X to mean ‘same kind’ in contexts where it actually means ‘same one’. This led to a critical evaluation of Piaget's implicit contention that young children are using determiners anaphorically. Stress is placed on the linguistic rather than conceptual component of children's behaviour in experiments involving questions of the type: Is it the same X? It is argued that language is not only the tool of intelligence for representing ongoing cognitive development, but that it is also a problem area for children within its own right. It is suggested that the importance of young children's processing procedures on the linguistic environment has hitherto been underestimated in Piaget's interactive epistemology.
Competence and talent in verbal riddle comprehension
Authors: Fowles Barbara , Glanz Marcia E. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTChildren in grades 1–3 (ages 6–9) were asked to retell and explain a series of riddles. The scoring system was developed to differentiate levels of competence. Ability to recall riddles was not found to be predictive of ability to explain them. Three cognitive factors seemed to determine level of riddle competence. Level of competence was NOT clearly related to age. Analysis of riddles yields descriptive attributes that distinguish easy from difficult riddles. Implications concern the relationship of riddle competence to reading ability and metalinguistic facility.
Native Spanish language acquisition: the effect of age, schooling and context on responses to ‘dile’ and ‘pregúntale’
Authors: Edelsky Carole , Muiña Virginia 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe ability to distinguish ask and tell in Spanish was studied with five groups of native Spanish speakers: adults, 7- and 10-year-olds in a full-bilingual-programme school (BISO), and 7- and 10-year-olds in a non-total BISO school. The interviews included context-present and context-absent items. Differences in these subjects' responses and those elicited by Chomsky (1969) among children acquiring English are explored. Increased age, bilingual schooling, and presence of contextual clues enhanced performance. Relative difficulty of dile and pregúntale, stages in distinguishing these in three types of constructions, and comparisons of first and second language performance are discussed.
The achievement and antecedents of labelling
Authors: Ninio Anat , Bruner Jerome 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe achievement of labelling was investigated in a longitudinal study of one mother–infant dyad, using video-recordings of their free play in a period between 0; 8 and 1; 6. Analysis of joint picture-book reading revealed that this activity had very early on the structure of a dialogue. The child's lexical labels might be regarded as more adult-like substitutes for earlier communicative forms that he had utilized in the dialogue. These were smiling, reaching, pointing and babbling vocalizations, all of which were consistently interpreted by the mother as expressing the child's intention of requesting a label or providing one. Participating in a ritualized dialogue, rather than imitation, was found to be the major mechanism through which labelling was achieved.