First Language Acquisition

504 Pages·2009·3.45 MB·English

by  Eve V. Clark

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First Language Acquisition
Babiesarenotborntalking.Theylearnlanguage,startingrightafterbirth.
How does this process take place? When do children master the skills
neededtouselanguagesuccessfully?Whatstagesdotheygothroughas
theylearntounderstandothersandtotalkthemselves?Thisnewedition
ofEveClark’sbest-selling,comprehensivetextbookfocusesonchildren’s
acquisitionofafirstlanguage,thestagesofdevelopmenttheygothrough,
and how they use language as they learn. It follows children from their
firstsoundsandwordstotheacquisitionofadultlikeskillsinpersuading,
instructing,andstorytelling,whetherchildrenareacquiringjustonelan-
guage or two at once. Skilfully integrating extensive data with coverage
of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying first
languageacquisitionforcoursesinlinguistics,developmentalpsychology,
andcognitivescience.
eve v. clark is the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities
and Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University. Her books include
PsychologyandLanguage(withH.H.Clark),TheOntogenesisofMeaning,
TheAcquisitionofRomance,TheLexiconinAcquisition,andConstructions
inAcquisition(withB.F.Kelly).Sheisanactiveresearcherinthefieldwho
worksonallaspectsofmeaningacquisition.

First Language Acquisition
SECOND EDITION
EVE V. CLARK
StanfordUniversity
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521514132
©Eve V. Clark 2009
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2009
ISBN-13 978-0-511-47913-7 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-51413-2 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-73293-2 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
ToDamonAlistair
forallhistalk

Contents
Listoftables,boxes,andfigures pageviii
Acknowledgements xii
1 Acquiringlanguage:Issuesandquestions 1
PartI Gettingstarted 19
2 Inconversationwithchildren 21
3 Startingonlanguage:Perception 51
4 Earlywords 75
5 Soundsinwords:Production 94
6 Wordsandmeanings 122
PartII Constructionsandmeanings 149
7 Firstcombinations,firstconstructions 151
8 Modulatingwordmeanings 176
9 Addingcomplexitywithinclauses 199
10 Combiningclauses:Morecomplexconstructions 229
11 Constructingwords 254
PartIII Usinglanguage 279
12 Honingconversationalskills 281
13 Doingthingswithlanguage 306
14 Twolanguagesatatime 336
PartIV Processinacquisition 355
15 Specializationforlanguage 357
16 Acquisitionandchange 378
Glossary 401
References 406
Nameindex 465
Subjectindex 477
vii
Tables, boxes, and figures
Tables
2.1 Meanfundamentalfrequencyofadultspeech page33
2.2 Pitchrangesinadultspeech 34
2.3 Wordsperminuteinspeechtochildrenversusadults 35
2.4 Meannumberofdisfluenciesperonehundredwords 36
2.5 Socialclassandchild-directedspeech 44
2.6 Frequencyofdyadicandtriadic“εlεma”interactionsatthree
ages 49
3.1 PerceivingdistinctionsamongsoundsinRussian(between
theagesoftenmonthsandtwoyears) 67
3.2 Three-year-olds’recognitionoftheirownversusadult
versionsofwords 72
4.1 Earlywordproduction:Firstwordssaidbyatleast50%ofthe
monthlysample(ateachmonthfrom1;0to1;6) 77
4.2 Earlyworduses:Overextensionsbasedonshape 83
4.3 Overextensionsbasedonmovement,size,sound,andtexture 84
4.4 Narrowingdowndomainsbyaddingnewwords 85
5.1 David’scommunicativeschemasintheperiod1;1to1;4 98
5.2 Nounsunderstoodandproducedatage2;0bytwelvechildren 119
5.3 Verbsunderstoodandproducedatage2;0bytwelvechildren 120
6.1 Causativeerrorsinyoungchildren’sspeech 131
6.2 Usingmorethanoneexpressionforthesamereferent 138
6.3 Directionsaboutmeaningrelations 139
6.4 Copingstrategiesforplacementsinspace 142
6.5 Sometypical“lateerrors”withmake,let,give,andput 146
7.1 Sequencesofsinglewords 153
7.2 Sometypicalgesture+wordcombinations 156
7.3 Two-wordutterancesfromthreelanguages 157
7.4 Two-wordutterance-typesinthespeechofKendall,aged2;0 159
7.5 Percentageofeachwordorderinparent–childconversations
forchildrenaged2;2to3;8inTurkish 162
7.6 Utteranceswherementionoftheagentisinformative 163
7.7 SomecommonEnglishconstructions 168
viii