CLA Two-word Stage

Question 1

When does the two-word stage occur?

Answer 1

18 - 24 months

Question 2

What occurs during the two-word stage?

Answer 2

There is an emerging recognition of some syntactic relationship between two word utterances.
The two words will generally be the most significant in conveying information e.g. dolly gone’ - usually accurately positioned within the sentence however grammar comes later

Question 3

What are content words?

Answer 3

Words within a sentence that is vital to convey meaning e.g. teddy

Question 4

What are grammatical words?

Answer 4

Words within a sentence that are needed to indicate the relationship between content words e.g. teddy fall

Question 5

Roger Brown (1973)

Answer 5

Longitudinal study on American children and grammatical development
Identified syntactic structure of two word utterances and found a limited range of patterns:
agent + action
action + object
agent + object
action + location
object + location
possessor + possession
object + attribute
demonstrative + object