Chapter 13: First Language Acquisition

CHAPTER 13: FIRST
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
 studiesinfants' acquisition of their native

language.
 Each infant has special capacity for
language.
ACQUISITION
 A child requires interaction with other

language users.
 Case of Genie
 Does not hear or allowed to use language

will learn no language.
CAREGIVER SPEECH
 Speech often used by adults with young children.
 Simple sentence structure, a lot of repetition and
paraphrasing.
 Example:
Is muvver's 'ittle cutey takin' its 'ittle beauty nap

after its din-din? Did it like its din-din? Good din-din
with chicken in it for 'ittle cutey baby!
THE ACQUISITION SCHEDULE
Children develop language at roughly same time,
hence the same schedule.
Cooing
 Earliest use of speech like sounds.
 Two to five months old.
 Capable of producing vowels similar to (i) and (u),

velar consonants (k) and (g)
 Differentiate between (i) and (a) , (ba) and (ga)
Babbling
 6-8 months : A number of different vowels and
consonants such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga.
 9-10 months : Variation in combinations such as
ba-ba-da-da. Nasal sound become more common
and and certain syllable such as ma-ma-ma and
da-da-da interpreted by parents as “mama” and
“Dada”.
 10-11 months : expressing emotions and emphasis.
More complex syllable combinations (ma-da-ga-ba)
One Word Stage
 12 to 18 months, produce variety of single unit
utterances. Such as “Cookie”,”cup”.
 Usually everyday objects used.
 Holophrastic speech. A single form functioning as a
phrase or sentence.
Example : “peach”,”Daddy”,”spoon” – to describe a
situation where Daddy had cut a piece of peach
that was in a spoon rather than say it in a full
sentence like the adult does.
Two Word Stage
 Two distinct word used together.
 Begin around 18-20 months.
 Child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words.
 Generally two nouns or a noun and a verb.
 Examples: big boat, doggie bark, mama

dress.
Telegraphic Speech
 Two and Three years old.
 Child begins to produce large number of
utterances.
 This stage contains many three and four word
sentences.
 Child begins to see the links between words and
objects and therefore overgeneralization comes in.
 Child starts to incorporate plurals, joining words
and attempts to get a grip on tenses.
 Examples :-Mummy eat carrot…
-What her name?
-He is playing ball.
THE ACQUISITION PROCESS
Process of learning the language.
Imitation
 Child may repeat single word or phrases but not the
sentence structure.
 Example : The cat is cute. ~ Cat cute.
 Children understands what adult say but express it

in their own way.
Correction
 Adults attempt to correct child speech.
 An unlikely determiner of how child speaks.
 Child will still not follow the words corrected by adults.
 Example:
Child : My teacher holded the baby rabbits.

Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
Child : Yes
Mother: What did you say she did?
Child : She holded the baby rabbits.
Mother: Did you say she held them tightly?
Child : No, she holded them loosely.
DEVELOPING MORPHOLOGY
 Process after telegraphic speech.
 Usually inflectional morphemes.
 First to appear is the –ing form such as cat sitting.
 Next is the regular plurals with –s form, as in boys.
 Possessive inflection –’s such as Mummy’s book.
 Different forms of verb “to be” such as are and was.
 At about the same time, irregular past tense such as went
and came should be noted.
CONT…..
 Once the regular past tense form starts appearing such as –
ed (walked,jumped) the irregular past tense form may
disappear for a while.
 The – ed inflection may be added to everything such as
goed and comed.
 Finally the regular –s on third person singular present tense
verbs such as comes and looks and then auxiliaries
(does,has).
DEVELOPING SYNTAX
Forming Questions.
 First stage. (18-26 months)
Add wh- form (where,who) to the beginning or utter

the expression with rise in intonation at the end.
Example : “Where Kitty?” or “Doggie?”
 Second Stage. (22-30 months)
More complex expression, rising intonation

continues, more wh- forms such as what and why
come into use.
Example : What book name?
You want eat?
CONT…
 Third stage.(24-40 months)
the presence of auxiliary verb, the wh- questions
don’t really have same structure as adult speech and
the continuous problems with morphology of verbs.
Example:
Can I have a piece?, Did I caught it?
Why kitty can’t stand up? , How that opened?
Forming negatives
 First stage. (18-26 months)
Putting no or not at the beginning.
Examples : No mitten, Not a teddy bear, no fall.
 Second stage (22-30 months)
Don’t and Can’t appear,no and not increasingly
used in front of the verb.
Examples : He no bite you, I don’t want it.
 Third stage (24-40 months)
Auxiliary forms appear, typical stage one
disappear,some stage two forms used for quite a
long time.
Example: I didn’t caught it, She won’t let go.
DEVELOPING SEMANTICS
 Process called overextension which means

child overextend meaning of a word by the
basic similarities.
Example: Basketball
reference to any round object, but then
change its meaning to a round, orange, and
grooved ball that bounces.

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CHAPTER 13: FIRST

 studiesinfants' acquisition of their native

 A child requires interaction with other

 Does not hear or allowed to use language

Is muvver's 'ittle cutey takin' its 'ittle beauty nap

 Two to five months old.

 Capable of producing vowels similar to (i) and (u),

 Begin around 18-20 months.

 Child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words.

 Generally two nouns or a noun and a verb.

 Examples: big boat, doggie bark, mama

 Children understands what adult say but express it

 Child will still not follow the words corrected by adults.

Child : My teacher holded the baby rabbits.

Add wh- form (where,who) to the beginning or utter

More complex expression, rising intonation

 Process called overextension which means

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