Table Of ContentPERSPECTIVES IN
NEUROLINGUISTICS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Harry A. Whitaker, Series Editor
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
HAIGANOOSH WHITAKER and HARRY A. WHITAKER (Eds.).
Studies in Neurolinguistics, Volumes 1 and 2; Volume 3. In preparation
NORMAN J. LASS (Ed.). Contemporary Issues in Experimental Phonetics
JASON W. BROWN. Mind, Brain, and Consciousness: The Neuropsychology
of Cognition
S. J. SEGALOWITZ and F. A. GRUBER (Eds.). Language Development and
Neurological Theory
SUSAN CURTISS. Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day "Wild
Child"
In preparation
I. M. SCHLESINGER and LILA NAMIR (Eds.). Sign Language of the Deaf:
Psychological, Linguistic, and Sociological Perspectives
JOHN MACNAMARA (Ed.). Language Learning and Thought
GENIE
A Psycholinguistic Study of
a Modern-Day "Wild Child"
SUSAN CURTISS
University of California
Los Angeles, California
ACADEMIC PRESS New York San Francisco London 1977
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
COPYRIGHT © 1977, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Curtiss, Susan
Genie : a psycholinguistic study of a modern-day
"wild child."
(Perspectives in neurolinguistics and psycho linguistics
series)
Originally presented as the author's thesis, University
of California, Los Angeles, 1976.
Bibliography: p.
1. Children-Language-Case studies. 2. Psycho-
linguistics-Case studies. 3. Speech disorders in
children—Case studies. 4. Languages—Physiological
aspects-Case studies. I. Title.
P118.C8 1976 40l'.9 76-55968
ISBN 0-12-196350-0
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To Genie
This drawing is testimony to the importance and strength of the mother-child relationship
for all human beings, and to Genie's need for a sense of her own history. Early in 1977, filled
with loneliness and longing, Genie drew this picture. At first she drew only the picture of her
mother and then labeled it WT miss Mama.'' She then suddenly began to draw more. The
moment she finished she took my hand, placed it next to what she had just drawn, motioning
me to write, and said "Baby Genie." Then she pointed under her drawing and said, "Mama
hand." I dictated all the letters. Satisfied, she sat back and stared at the picture. There she
was, a baby in her mother's arms. She had created her own reality.
Preface
Scholars have long been fascinated with cases of feral and isolated chil-
dren, hoping to learn through the study of such individuals, the possibilities
for man's development apart from societal input and influences. Questions
concerning the development of cognitive and intellectual faculties in such
cases have been of particular interest. The scholarly writings of Profes-
sor Itard on Victor (the child discovered in France at the turn of the
nineteenth century, popularly known as the "Wild Child") are fascinating
and represent the most reputable and widely known first-hand reporting of
such a case, although others have also been reported (cf. Singh & Zingg,
1942).
The opportunities that such cases present for studying human behavior
and development and the nature of the human mind are great and
challenging.
If it were proposed to solve the following problem of metaphysics:
to determine what would be the degree of intelligence and the nature
of the ideas of an adolescent who, deprived from his childhood of all
education, had lived entirely separated from individuals of his own
species . . . the mental picture of this adolescent would be of the
Wild Boy of Aveyron, and the solution of the problem would consist
in exhibiting the extent and the cause of his intellectual state.*
* From Itard, J.M.G. 1801. De l'Education d'un homme sauvage or des premiers
développements physiques et moraux du jeune sauvage de VAveyron. Paris: Gouyon. Reprinted
in The Wild Boy of Aveyron, Humphrey, G. and Humphrey, M. 1932. New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts, p. 7.
xi
Xll Preface
The Wild Boy of Aveyron died over a century ago, but another adoles-
cent who affords us equally rich opportunities for study has been discovered
in our own time: Genie.
Genie was discovered in 1970. Deprived and isolated to an unprece-
dented degree, she was not discovered until she was an adolescent. An
inhuman childhood had prevented her from learning language, and she knew
little about the world in any respect save abuse, neglect, isolation, and depri-
vation. Since that time, Genie has been rehabilitated and educated to the
fullest extent possible and studied in an attempt to answer questions of
interest to linguists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and others. This work
reports on the linguistic research carried out through studying and working
with Genie.
Through in-depth psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic research, I have
attempted to explore just what this case can tell us about some of the ques-
tions of interest for linguists and psycholinguists: Is there a critical period for
language acquisition? If so, what kind of language development is possible
beyond the critical period? Are language acquisition and language lateraliza-
tion interrelated? Will language be lateralized if acquired after puberty? If so,
will it be lateralized to the left hemisphere as it is in normal human brains?
What happens to cerebral organization in general when one of the brain's
basic functions fails to develop? These questions are addressed in Parts II
and III.
Part I (Chapters 1-5) provides a case history and background material
on Genie's personality and language behavior. Much of what I have written
in Part I does not follow the normal canons of scientific writing. To some
extent it is an account of the interaction between this remarkable girl and
myself. Since these circumstances will hopefully never be repeated, our
interaction is itself part of the data which other scientific observers must
consider.
Part II (Chapters 6-10) details Genie's linguistic development and over-
all language abilities. Chapter 6 describes the sources and kinds of data
analyzed in the ensuing chapters. Chapter 7 describes and discusses Genie's
phonological development. Chapter 8 details the extent of Genie's receptive
knowledge of syntax, morphology, and semantics. Chapter 9 discusses
Genie's productive grammatical abilities in syntax, morphology, and seman-
tics. Chapter 10 provides a comparison between her linguistic development
and the language acquisition of other children.
Part III (Chapter 11) presents a full description of the neurolinguistic
work carried out on Genie and discusses the implications of this aspect of the
case.
Preface Xlll
To protect Genie's identity, the names presented in the text are largely
fictitious. Only the names or initials of a few individuals are factual. Most
important, Genie is not this child's real name. It is a name given to protect her
privacy, chosen because it captures, to a small measure, the fact that she
emerged into human society past childhood, having existed previously as
something other than fully human.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental
Health. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, No. MH-21191-03.
A large number of people have contributed to this book and the work it
represents. To all those whom I inadvertently fail to mention, please accept
my apologies and thanks.
First and foremost, I am indebted to Victoria Fromkin. Her encourage-
ment, criticism, time, and ideas all played a major role in my writing and
completing this work. In addition to all her other help, she drew several of the
pictures for the tests used with Genie.
I am also indebted to Richard Harshman, who helped me with statistics
and suggested and made available to me many test materials to use with
Genie. In addition, our many discussions were extremely helpful and
stimulating.
I am grateful to Stephen Krashen not only for designing and administer-
ing all of the dichotic listening tests and for helpful and encouraging discus-
sion, but most of all for serving as an example of the unselfish pursuit of
scientific truth in his constant willingness to share ideas and credit.
There are several others to whom I owe thanks: to Warren Brown, who
offered his time and help to design and run the evoked potential studies on
Genie; to James Marsh and Roger Sperry for making their labs available to
us; to Eran and Dahlia Zaidel for sharing materials and helpful discussion; to
Peter Ladefoged for helpful comments and criticisms; to James Kent for
sharing his notes and other professional observations with me; to David and
Marilyn Rigler for sharing data of many kinds on Genie and making me part
XV
XVI Acknowledgments
of the family; to Caroline Carr for telling me things that Genie said when I
wasn't there; to Margie Lifflander for her beautiful test drawings; and to Phil
Hanff for some key help at a crucial time.
I owe thanks to John Gresham for many hours of help in proofreading
the manuscript, to Judy Rozzen for all the time and work she contributed
in helping me fieldtest normal children, to the Lawrence School for Early
Years for providing me with an enriching educational experience as well
as children to fieldtest, and the Michael Adam Rozzen, first for serving as
guinea pig for new test ideas, and second for providing me with love and
joy during otherwise difficult times.
Finally, I am indebted to Genie, herself. She has enriched my life
beyond measure.
