Development of Grammar

Question 1

Explain a Child’s acquisition of their first 50 words. (12 months)

Answer 1

First utterances are likely to reflect the baby’s relationship with the world, therefore the first words are often naming words.
- Katherine Nelson (1973) conducted research into the acquisition of early words, + grouped the vocabulary used in the child’s first utterances into 4 categories:** naming** (occurred most frequently, e.g. ‘ball’, ‘Daddy’, ‘dog’), followed by action (e.g. ‘give’, ‘stop’, ‘up’, e.t.c.), then modifying (e.g. ‘more’, ‘dirty), + finally social (e.g. ‘bye bye’, ‘no’.)
- Nelson found that nouns represented about 60% of the first 50 words a child utters, + social words about 8%.

Question 2

Explain the Holophrastic Stage (One-Word Stage) in a Child’s Acquisition of Grammar

Answer 2

• Holophrase: a single word representing a more complex thought (e.g. the word ‘juice’ may be used to signify ‘I want some juice’- in this context, ‘juice’ would be a holophrase.) ‘Up’ is another commonly used holophrase, usually signifying ‘please lift me up’ or ‘I want to get up’.
• Holophrastic stage of language development is usually in evidence in babies between the ages of approximately 9 + 18 months.

Question 3

Define Holophrase.

Answer 3

Grammatical Development: Holophrastic Stage (9 - 18 months)
- Holophrase: a single word representing a more complex thought
- Example: the word ‘juice’ may be used to signify ‘I want some juice’- in this context, ‘juice’ would be a holophrase.
- ‘Up’ is another commonly used holophrase, usually signifying ‘please lift me up’ or ‘I want to get up’.

Question 4

Explain the Two-Word Stage in a Child’s Acquisition of Grammar (18 months - 2 years).

Answer 4

• Two-word stage: usually occurs around age of 18 months to 2 years + refers to the child’s ability to start producing utterances which use words in combination. Often takes form of subject + verb (e.g. ‘doggie gone’), but syntactical variation is possible, as the child begins to shape meaning- sometimes using intonation as well (e.g. ‘mummy come’ (statement), ‘mummy come?’ (question), ‘come mummy’ (command)).
• Once baby begins joining words to create combinations a whole new range of expressions become possible.
• Two-word stage introduces the use of syntax. Baby may vary the sequencing of words to create those basic meanings that are necessary to navigate what must seem to a baby to be a big + rather unnerving world.
• Verb use starts to feature in the baby’s utterances, + ‘want teddy’ informs whoever is around that teddy’s presence is required.
• Two- word utterances tend to take one of the following grammatical forms:
  -Subject > Verb (me go, Ben Play)
  OR
  -Verb > Object (Hit ball, Hold hand)

Question 5

Explain the Telegraphic Stage in a Child’s Acquisition of Grammar (2 - 3 years).

Answer 5

• Telegraphic stage: term refers to speech that resembles an old-fashioned telegram, generally characterised by the omission of auxiliary verbs + determiners + with a focus on lexical essentials (e.g. ‘daddy get milk’ or ‘Ben feed ducks’)
• As child’s vocab grows, their repertoire of utterances automatically becomes wider.
• Term ‘telegraphic’ has its origins in a form of signalling whereby the wording of the message being communicated had to be extremely concise.

Question 6

Explain the Post-Telegraphic Stage in a Child’s Acquisition of Grammar (3 years onwards).

Answer 6

• Post-Telegraphic Stage: child’s early reliance on lexical (Content) words gradually expands to include auxiliaries, prepositions + articles (e.g. ‘Mummy car’ evolves into ‘Mummy is in the car’.)
• Use + understanding of pronouns develops.

Question 7

Explain the acquisition of asking questions, in a child’s grammatical development. (Bellugi’s Stages of asking Questions)

Answer 7

Construction of questions broken down into 3 key elements:
1) Intonation with rising inflection (18 months, 2 word stage) > ‘Mummy here?’
2) Question Words- what/where/why/who/how- (in second year) > ‘Why Ben go?’. Although these utterances are recognised a questions, they are telegraphic; auxiliary verbs are often omitted.
3) Auxiliary verbs + varied syntax used to form questions (third year) > ‘Is apple gone?’) Subject + verb order may be reversed.

Question 8

Explain the acquisition of using negatives, in a Child’s Grammatical Development (Bellugi’s Stages of Negatives).

Answer 8

1) Gestures + facial expressions used early on to indicate displeasure.
2) Reliance upon the words ‘Not’ + ‘No’ (e.g. ‘No bed’, ‘No like car’) (15 - 18 months)
3) ‘No’ may be used mid-sentence, + auxiliary + modal verbs may appear (don’t/can’t)
4) Greater range + precision in placing of modal verbs so that by 3, negatives will be integrated within sentences of standard syntax.
5) At 4 + beyond, child starts to understand + use more subtle forms of negative construction, including implied negatives (e.g. ‘We can do that tomorrow’- means we can’t do it today)

Question 9

Define Over-Generalisation.

Answer 9

Grammatical Development: Using inflections
- ‘Virtuous Error’
- Over-generalisation: the over application of rules about the formation of words; shows a child has internalised a grammatical rule + is applying it to create a new logical word form.
- Applying -ed suffix, used to indicate past tense, to irregular verbs
- Example: ‘Mummy wentED out’ or ‘my toy got brokened’