Ducks

(November 15, 2016; Fei Yen is about 22 months old.)

## Text

1. Charlie, balancing Fei Yen on her knee, Mister Soap, and Ducky sit at a refectory table, eating lunch.
2. Charlie (20;6.30 Black (Indigenous) Australian, 5’10”) turns a page in her textbook.
3. Mister Soap (0;4.6, yellow rubber duck, 2 ¼“) sits on the table contently.
4. “Yum yum yum,” hums Fei Yen (1;9.9, Chinese, 2’6”), arranging gummies for Mister Soap.
5. Ducky (13;3.1, White (1st gen Irish) Australian, 5′4″) glowers.
6. Charlie ponders a cannon diagram.
7. “Tarding. Kairo.”
8. Mister Soap faces the first gummy.
9. “Duck.”
10. Mister Soap comes down hard on a blue monster--
11. “BOOM!”
12. Ducky hunches over his mashed potatoes.
13. Mister Soap’s shadow looms over another gummy.
14. “Have any highlighters, Ducky?”
15. “Duck—”
16. Ducky yanks a handful of markers from his backpack, dumps them on the table, returns to his lunch.
17. “Thanks,” says Charlie.
18. Fei Yen studies Mister Soap.
19. Ducky grunts.
20. Fei Yen says, “Duck.”
21. Mister Soap falls on a gummy.
22. “/Duck.”
23. Mister Soap lies on a gummy.
24. “/Duck!”
25. “What?” snaps Ducky.
26. “Duck!” Fei Yen grabs Mister Soap. “Duck!”
27. Ducky grumbles, returns to his lunch.
28. Fei Yen fumes, twists in Charlie’s lap. “Duck.”
29. “What’s up, Feiby?”
30. “Duck!” Fei Yen waves Mister Soap at Ducky.
31. “I don’t quite understand what you’re trying to say,” Charlie says slowly. “One sec?”
32. “All kia!”
33. “I’ll be quick.” She leans back, scans the refectory. “Oi! Miyahira!”
34. From the other side of the hall, ““Yea?””
35. “C’mere!”
36. “”Coming~!””
37. Charlie smiles at Fei Yen. “Duck is coming?”
38. Fei Yen grumbles, throws down Mister Soap. “Duck.”
39. Ducky scowls.
40. Miyahira (19:1.3, Ryukyujin, 5′6″) skids, skips, and lands beside Charlie. “What’s—hey, Fei Yen! How’s life?”
41. Fei Yen gives two thumbs up.
42. “Awe-some,” replies Miyahira. Addresses Charlie: “What’s up?”
43. “You,” Charlie squeezes Fei Yen, “keep saying ‘Duck’ and I can’t figure it out.”
44. “Duck?” asks Miyahira.
45. Fei Yen, picking up Mister Soap. “Duck.” Points him at Ducky. “Duck.”
46. Ducky uses a little more force than necessary hacking at his meatloaf.
47. “Are they both ducks?”
48. Fei Yen bounces. “Duck! Duck duck!”
49. Charlie winces.
50. “Are you trying to say they both have ‘duck’ labels?”
51. Lost Fei Yen on that one.
52. “You can call both ‘duck’ and you’ll be correct.”
53. Fei Yen nods.
54. “That is some /**incredible**learn-age there, kid.” Miyahira holds out her fist. “Awesome fistbump of smartness.”
55. "Yosh!" Fei Yen gleefully throws forth her own.
56. The loudspeaker crackles.
57. “That’s my cue,” apologizes Miyahira. “Gotta jet.”
58. “Thanks,” says Charlie.
59. “Byebye,” waves Fei Yen.
60. Ducky grunts.
61. “Later folks.” Miyahira heaves herself to her feet, jogs from the refectory.
62. “I’m not a duck,” grumbles Ducky.
63. “You follow me everywhere.”
64. “I—” He stabs his potatoes.
65. “Finish up or you won’t grow up enough to be my co-pilot.” Charlie poofs Fei Yen’s hair. “Same to you, kiddo.”
66. “Big duck.”

## Analysis

Once children speak their first words, their language acquisition seems to grind to a halt, spending almost an entire year using only holophrastic utterances for no physiological, cognitive, or vocabulary reason (Lust, 2006).

Fei Yen has just learned the arbitrary nature of language and has shortly moved on to two (and later, three) word utterances (though probably not this quickly; Gillen, Julia. 2003.)

She can now produce /L/ but /r/ in the word-final position is a bit beyond her still (Hoff, 2013), as is the /kl/ consonant cluster (McLeod et al, 2001).

tʃɑrdʒɪŋ

Up until a child is two, gestures play as big a roll in their lexicon as spoken words; Fei Yen displays a dietic gesture in [29], and a transitioning representational-symbolic gesture in [55] and [59] (Gullberg & De Bot, 2010).

I imagine that, in 2017, they have more food than what we saw in the movie, but this is an excuse to have another source XD

Entity + Attribute ("Boosters")

## Source

archerybushidokid, shmoo92. (2015). *Party Food*. Retrieved from http://shmoo92.tumblr.com/post/125216925748/party-food.