Boosters

## Text (3;4.6)

May 12, 2019

1. Cheung, Jin, and Hu (20;4.17, Chinese, 6′1″) tromp up the path to the Peak, taking turns pushing Fei Yen in her stroller.
2. “It’s pretty nice out today,” Jin remarks.
3. Cheung frowns, swats.
4. “Besides the bugs,” adds Hu.
5. Maaau (adult, solid grey, of average size) whines.
6. “Besides the bugs,” Jin agrees.
7. “Moekeetoes,” grumbles Fei Yen (3;4.6, Chinese, 3′1″). “I don’t wike moekeetoes.”
8. Cheung frowns.
9. “Our vaccines are up-to-date,” assures Hu.
10. “But are /hers?”
11. Cheung, Jin, and Hu pause.
12. Fei Yen whines, bats at her eyes.
13. “Kids get a few rounds of boosters, yea?” asks Jin.
14. “Sounds about right.”
15. “Anyone know /**when**?”
16. Fei Yen waves her arms wildly.
17. Maaau huffs.
18. Cheung, Jin, and Hu try to remember.
19. “Bad moekeetoes.” Fei Yen sticks out her tongue. “Moekeetoes, go pest tipets.”
20. Cheung, Jin, and Hu turn around and push Fei Yen and her stroller down the path to the train.

## Analysis

Fei Yen has acquired all of her early-developing sounds and most of her middle developing sounds, but late developing sounds, like /l/ (Hoff, 2010), remain difficult, so she fronts it to /w/ ("like" -> "wike" [7]).

Consonant clusters are still tricky ([6, 17]; McLeod et al., 2001) so she deletes the more difficult of the two (/sk/  -> /k/, /tr/ -> /t/, and /pl/ -> /p/).

Fei Yen's syntax and morphology is consistent with a child in Brown (1973)'s Stage Three of language development, working on grammatical notions like negations ("don't" [7]) and imperative commands ("go pest tipets" [19]). She has long since left Stage One and Stage Two, mastering elements like English word order ([6, 19]) and pronouns ("I" [7]), and regular plurals ("moekeetoe/s" [6, 19]) and relational meanings like attribute + entity.

## Sources

Boree, C. G. 2003. "Language Development." Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langdev.html.

Brown, R. (1973). *A First Language: The Early Stages*. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press.

del Toro, G. (Producer), & Beachman, T. (Director). (2013). Pacific Rim [Motion picture]. United States: Legendary Pictures.

demigirlpartypoison​​. (2015). *This Child Pronounces Mosquito Moe-kee-toes*. Retrieved from http://demigirlpartypoison.tumblr.com/post/121147579695/this-child-pronounces-mosquito-moe-kee-toes.

Hoff, Erika. (2013). *Language Development*. Wadsworth Publishing, USA.

IMDB. (2015). *Charles, Mark, and Lance Luu.* Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5743918/.

InterNations. (2015). *Hong Kong: Travel Health.*Retrieved from http://www.internations.org/hong-kong-expats/guide/15881-health-insurance/hong-kong-travel-health-15898.

* In Hong Kong, you have to deal with mosquitoes all year round. They are usually worst in spring and summer, starting in April, until cooler and dryer weather sets in around October.

Lonely Planet. (2015). Hong Kong Health. Retrieved from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hong-kong/health.

* The *Aedes aegypti*mosquito is most active during the day, and is found mainly in urban areas, in and around human dwellings.

McLeod, S., Van Doorn, J., & Reed, V. A. (2001). Normal acquisition of consonant clusters. *American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology*, *10*(2), 99-110.