Child Language Acquisition: Syntax and Semantics

Question 1

Negation

Answer 1

1. negative + rest of sentence
   • Children put no or not at the beginning of the sentence
2. noun phrase + negative + rest of sentence
   • Learn don’t and can’t as alternatives; put second in the sentence
3. noun phrase + auxiliary + negative + rest of sentence
   • Recognition of auxiliary + negative; negative forms of to be still missing

Question 2

Questions

Answer 2

1. Rising intonation is used.
2. Wh-questions formed without auxiliary
3. Inversion of subject and auxiliary eg. - What you are playing?
   - Where she is going?

Question 3

Overgeneralisation

Answer 3

children use lexemes to refer to anything that shares similar characteristics.

Eg ‘dog’ for any animal with four legs. Character names are often used in this way, eg ‘Thomas’ for all trains.