Stages of Child Language Acquisition

Stages of electric shaver Language Acqui modelionA electric razor starts to communicate with those around him/her since birth, although in the setoff few months this communication occurs on a non-verbal level. However, as a nestling develops physically, he/she gradually acquires language skills. Overall, child language acquisition begins from phonological development and proceeds to syntactical and semantic development. The aim of the present essay is to analyse three major stages of the first language acquisition (phonological, syntactic and semantic). Although linguists and new(prenominal) scholars have agreed in opinion that language is a process of acquisition (rather than the process of learning), they provide contradictory theories of child language acquisition (Cole Cole, 1996). Among the intimately famous theories atomic number 18 a reinforcement theory, an fictive theory, a critical-age theory and an analogy theory. Despite the fact that all these theories present a valid business traffichip of language acquisition, certain problems occur when they are applied to practice. The most managely counselation of phonological, syntactic and semantic development of a child is provided by imitation and analogy theories hence, these theoretical concepts are utilisationed for the analysis. According to these theories, the process of child language acquisition is aimed at adjusting to adults speech that has its rules and structures.As acquisition of language is a rather intricate process, a child only listens to adults speech in the first few months. Actually, in this period a child is involved in the process of language perception rather than the process of language production (See Table 1). However, as a child reaches the age of 6 months, he/she starts to enounce various sounds (Fee, 1995). At first a child pronounces vowel sounds and further he/she manages to unite vowels and consonants (e.g. sa, da, ma, ba, di, ti, gu, etc.). At well-nigh 8 m onths a child unceasingly repeats syllables (e.g. ba-ba-ba or di-di-di) and by 12 months he/she successfully combines these syllables into a simple article (e.g. mama, papa or baba). It is significant that childs pronunciation of sounds also invents intonation and stress according to Echols and Newport (1992), through these patterns a child makes an attempt to impart certain meaning or reveal his/her emotions. This babbling is the initial step in childs phonological development (Macken, 1995) the true phonological skills are exposed by a child at approximately 1.4 eld (though level off at the age of 0.4 0.9 months a child already has some phonological abilities, as he manages to recognise native and non-native speech). At this clipping a child demonstrates comprehension of the relation between sounds and meanings moreover, he/she starts to identify phonemic differences in adult speech. In the process of sound production a child certainly makes pronunciation mistakes that li nguists regard as phonological deviations. Generally, phonological deviations are divided into twain basic categories substitution errors and syllable errors (Bankson Bernthal, 1998). Further, these categories are divided into some(prenominal) sub-categories, including weak syllable deletion, terminal consonant deletion, consonant cluster reduction, velar fronting, palatal fronting, stopping, gliding of liquids, word final devoicing, etc.Due to an immature speech apparatus, some sounds are more complex for childs pronunciation than other(a)s for instance, such consonant sounds as l and r are learned by a child later than sounds p and m, because the former sounds are phonetically similar, charm the latter sounds are different. As a result, a child substitutes voteless sounds with voiced sounds (e.g. gap sooner of cap or tad kind of of dad) it is context sensitive voicing. The minute of arc deviation is word final devoicing it is a process when final voiced consonants are su bstituted with voiceless consonants (dad is pronounced as dat). A child may also employ final consonant deletion, pronouncing co instead of cow or pin instead of pink. Velar fronting (e.g. tiss instead of kiss) and palatal fronting (e.g. sake instead of shake up) are used by a child, because it is easier for him/her to pronounce consonants that are at the front of the mouth and teeth. Other phonological deviations include weak syllable deletion (pape instead of paper), consonant harmony (goggy instead of doggy), cluster reduction (tool instead of stool), stopping (pan instead of fan) and gliding of liquids (wat instead of rat). In reality, as Maye, Werker Gerken (2002) demonstrate in their research, a child perceives accurate phonemic contrasts, but he/she is unable to produce correct sounds until a befitting age. Moreover, unlike adults, an infant may even distinguish foreign phonemic contrasts from native contrasts due to this ability a child who is adopted in a foreign countr y may easily acquire language of his/her parents. At the age of 3-4 age most children learn to respectablefully pronounce all sounds, eliminating the mass of phonological deviations. However, some children may continue to employ these deviations in their speech specialists regard these children as individuals with certain phonological disorders that may have a bad effect on their reading skills (Ingram, 1989).When a child learns how to pronounce simple words, he/she proceeds to combine known words into small vocalisms. In this respect, a child acquires syntactic skills that are usually developed in dickens stages the holophrastic stage and the 2-word stage. During the holophrastic stage (between 0.9 and 1.0 years) a child forms one-word utterances with a certain intonation. In general, these utterances are composed of all verbs or nouns, while adjectives and other parts of speech are acquired by a child afterwards. In fact, it is rather difficult for adults to interpret chil ds one-word condemns, as, for instance, book may mean that he/she wants his/her parents to read a book or that he/she sees a book or that he/she does non like this book. The situation is even more complicated when a child pronounces a phrase without intervals. According to OGrady (1997), m some(prenominal) children initially enshroud whats that? look at that, come here, and similar expressions as single units that are linked holistically to a particular situational context (p.13). In other words, if a child hears phrases that are somehow stressed, he/she may extract them from the rest of speech and use them as a single entity, making no pauses among words.In the two-word stage (1.5-2.0 years) a child creates two-word condemns that are pronounced with single intonation and start to reflect the first semantic traffic, for instance, baby read or sit table (Pinker, 1994). In general, these utterances are categorised as follows1) Noun Utterances My apple, His Daddy.2) Verb Utterance s Me play, Girl sing.3) Questions Mom read? Baba go?4) Negatives Not eat, No shirt.As the examples show, though these sentences are non grammatically right yet, they are constructed in a right order (Ingram, 1989). By the age of 2-3 years a child easily produces several megabyte syntactic utterances, and the major stress in these utterances is placed on the word that provides more study (e.g. Mummy COME or MUMMY come). Initially, these sentences wishing such function units as on, the or of and such inflections as -s, -ing or -ed (hence, childs speech at this stage is usually regarded as telegraphic speech), but gradually a child includes negations, passives, comparatives, relative clauses and conjunctions in his/her sentences. In some cases a child may use right patterns and wrong patterns in one sentence, for instance, I reading and Mama is cooking. Such a combination reveals that a child knows certain grammar patterns, but he/she has non mastered them yet. However, if an adul t uses these patterns incorrectly, he/she will obviously point at the mistake. As a child acquires knowledge of such a pattern as -ed, he/she usually ricks to overregularisation, that is, a process when all verbs become regular in childs speech (e.g. goed or spended). This overregularisation can be explained by the fact that a child acquires a language in certain patterns and, as he/she learns the pattern (e.g. mama helped or baba claimed), he/she applies this pattern to other verbs, including irregular verbs. It is certainly easier for a child to apply -ed to all verbs than to memorise all irregular verbs and differentiate regular verbs from irregular verbs. As the time passes, a child learns to change the wrong verb form for a right form. In addition, he/she gradually acquires knowledge of definite and indefinite articles, plural nouns, linking verbs and possessive cases. However, even when a child acquires knowledge of all these rules and patterns, he/she may still be unable to form complex utterances consequently, a child may turn to the repetition of certain phrases to fill gaps in his/her speech.Finally, as a child manages to create simple sentences, he/she acquires semantic skills (approximately 3.0 years). As word acquisition intensifies, a child collides with a necessity to form semantic patterns above all, a child uses those content categories that summon to objects, issuances and humans, although usage of these categories greatly depends on social, cultural and linguistic aspects. However, in all cultures a meaning that a child puts into a certain object or an utterance differs from a usual adult speech.As Harris (1990) states, young children are able to express complex meanings, although these meanings are concerned with the current interests and needs, rather than abstract concepts or events that are distant in impairment of time or space (p.4). If a child mainly interacts with his/her peers, consequently he/she adjusts language to this child ish realm. As a rule, a child employs both overgeneralisation or underextension when he/she creates semantic patterns. As for the first process, a child provides a word with more meanings than the word has for example, he/she may apply the word fox to different animals. In the case of underextension, a child uses fewer meanings than a word has in a usual vocabulary for example, he/she may associate a word arm only with a mother who touches him/her. In other instances a child fails to recognise a word. Besides, if a child can not find an appropriate word during speech, he/she may devise completely new words with new meanings. However, as a child grows and interacts with people in different situations, he/she learns more meanings of words and utterances (Beals Tabors, 1995). This especially regards interactions with adults as adult speech is more sophisticated, a child memorises unknown patterns and then employs them in his/her speech. Hence, as a child acquires words and phrases wi th a profound semantic content, he/she gradually eliminates less semantically valid patterns. According to Frawley (1992), a childs early semantic patterns reflect the following semantic categories constituent and Action Cat run mover and Object Girl raspberryEntity and Locative Baba farAttribute and Entity Wet hair cistron and Location Mother bathAction and Recipient Give birdiePossessor and monomania Papa penBut as a child shapes linguistic skills (3.54.0 years), he/she starts to employ more semantic categories, such as number, time, colour, substance, shape, position, etc., for instance, Mummy and I went to a playground, My doll cries and I calm her or I give it to you. Mastering the major concepts of grammar/meaning relations, a child manages to gradually employ complex grammar patterns negatives shouldnt, neednt, couldnt when-questions (as well as what and why) When do you go? tag-questions You will go with me, will you? be + verb + -ing Is Mummy Cooking? compound utte rances Papa is running(a) and I am playing. if sentences I will do if I wish.Thus, analysing child language acquisition, the essay suggests that from 6 months to 4-5 years a child gradually acquires phonological, syntactic and semantic skills. Although every child develops individually, language acquisition reflects common stages of speech perception and production. Some researchers (e.g. Pinker, 1994 OGrady, 1997) claim that syntactic and semantic development of a child occurs simultaneously. The fact is that meanings of some verbs can not be understood by a child plainly from a context it is the knowledge of syntactic patterns that provides a child with an opportunity to rightfully uncover the meaning of these verbs. Whether this viewpoint is valid or not, it is absolutely clear that while a child has connatural abilities for language, he/she needs particular(prenominal) social environment to acquire it. This became especially obvious with a discovery of Amala and Kamala, the feral children who were brought up with wolves and could not speak at all. Such findings certainly refute an innate hypothesis and reveal that linguistic skills of a child are formed by and within society.Table 1. Stages of Child Language Acquisition*PhonologyFrom birth to 0.5 years perception of adult speech0.6 years pronunciation of the first sounds (vowels consonants vowels + consonants)0.8 years repetition of syllables and recognition of phonemic differences1.0 year understanding of the relation between sounds and meaningUse of phonological deviations1.4 years cluster reduction2 years weak syllable deletion initial consonant deletion final consonant deletion2.0-3.0 years palatal fronting velar fronting stopping gliding of liquidsSyntax0.91.0 years the holophrastic stage formation of one-word utterances1.5-2.0 years telegraphic speech, formation of two-word utterances2.03.0 years overregularisation of grammarSemantics3.0 years application of meaning to language pat terns and grammar structuresUse of either overgeneralisation orUnderextensionUse of the following semantic categories1) Agent and Action2) Agent and Object3) Entity and Locative4) Attribute and Entity5) Agent and Location6) Action and Recipient7) Possessor and Possession3.5-4.0 years knowledge of complex grammar patterns negatives when-questions tag-questions be + verb + -ing compound utterances if sentences* The ages of childs language development are approximate the data in this table are generalised, while every child acquires phonological, syntactic and semantic skills on an individual basis. However, such a generalisation is important, as it allows specialists to reveal any deviations from the normal development of children.BibliographyBankson, N. Bernthal, J. (1998) Analysis of assessment data. In J. Bernthal and N. Bankson (eds.) vocalism and Phonological Disorders. Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann. pp.270-298.Beals, D. E. Tabors, P. O. (1995) Arboretum, bureaucratic and car bohydrate Preschoolers exposure to rare vocabulary at home. First Language, 15, 57-76.Cole, M. Cole, S. (1996) The outgrowth of Children. New York, W. H. Freeman Company.Echols, C. Newport, E. (1992) The role of stress and position in determining first words. Language Acquisition, 2, 189-220.Fee, J. (1995) Segments and syllables in early language acquisition. In J. Archibald (ed.) Phonological Acquisition and Phonological Theory. Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum. pp.43-61.Frawley, W. (1992) Linguistic Semantics. Hillsdale, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Harris, J. (1990) Early Language Development Implications for Clinical and Educational Practice. London, Routledge.Ingram, D. (1989) First Language Acquisition Method, Description, and Explanation. New York, Cambridge University Press.Macken, M. (1995) Phonological acquisition. In J. A. Goldsmith (ed.) The Handbook of Phonological Theory. Cambridge, Blackwell. pp.671-696.Maye, J., Werker, J. F. Gerken, L. (2002) Infant sensi tivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination. Cognition, 82 (3), 101-111.OGrady, W. (1997) Syntactic Development. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Pinker, S. (1994) How could a child use verb syntax to learn verb semantics? Lingua, 92, 377-410.AN ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC ROLES2007Until the 70s years of the 20th century semantics was completely excluded from any studies of grammar (Lyons, 1995 Bach, 2002). But recently, linguists and researchers have recognised a great variety of semantic roles (or theta roles) that provide valid information as to grammar/meaning relations (Cutrer, 1993). According to Payne (1997), a semantic role is a specific role that is classified in accordance with its meaning and is performed by a histrion with regard to the principal verb of an utterance. In other words, semantic roles provide an opportunity to identify either similarities or dissimilarities of verbs meanings in sentences. Actually, some semantic roles are regarded as principal, while others are thought to be less crucial for a linguistic analysis. But, as Langacker (1991) points out, in that location is no unique or exclusive set of role conceptions. Those cited as archetypal are analogous to the highest peak in a mountain range they coexist with others that may be significant despite their lesser salience (p.237). The major semantic roles include Agent, uncomplaining, Instrument, newspaper publisher, Cause, Experience, Goal, Benefective (or Beneficiary), Source, Location, Temporal and Path (Jackendoff, 1990 Dowty, 1991). According to Van Valin (1999), semantic relations may be also divided into two groups the first group includes the usual semantic roles, such as Agent, Patient, Theme, etc., while the second group includes merely two semantic roles Actor and Undergoer. The roles of the second group are usually referred to as semantic macroroles. Although this categorisation is not universally accepted, nevertheless, it is employed by res earchers for a profound investigation of grammar/meaning relations. In the present analysis the classification of Jackendoff (1990) and Dowty (1991) is used.Lets start from the following examplesTeddy killed the deer with a pursuit rifle. A hunting riffle killed a deer.A deer was killed.In the first sentence Teddy performs a semantic role of an Agent, while in grammatical relations Teddy is a Subject. For all that, Teddy is associated with a hunting rifle by means of a grammar/meaning relation of a kill event. In the second sentence a semantic role of a Hunting Riffle is an Instrument, but in grammatical relations it is a Subject. Finally, in the tertiary sentence a Deer appears in a semantic role of a Patient, while in grammatical relations it is again a Subject. Actually, if two instrumentalists are involved in an action of a sentence, a grammar/meaning relation is considered to be asymmetric. For instance, in the sentence Jimmy touched Marry two participants are involved in th e action, but they perform various roles. Jimmy is a person who starts the action, thus, he is an Agent, while Marry is a person who is influenced by Jimmys action and she is a Patient. In this context, an Agent performs a conscious segment of a particular action and a Patient unconsciously responds to this action.As the above example demonstrates, an Agent should necessarily be alive, as it starts an action however, this attribute is not ascribed to a Patient that is influenced by an action either in a direct or indirect way. There are some English sentences, where only an Agent is presented, such as Steven took a two-week holiday. Although this sentence differs from the previous utterance, both examples belong to a do kinsperson. But there are other categories of events, and sometimes it is really difficult to identify the right category (Frawley, 1992). The fact is that English sentences may reflect many similar features, but, despite these similarities, they may reveal various e vents and different semantic roles. For instance, in the sentence shit heard a noise, Peter is a participant, but unlike former examples, Peter does not appear as an Agent, because he is not an initiator of the action, he is an Experiencer. Therefore, such sentences may be attributed to an experience category. However, sentences that belong to this category may pose certain problems, as they may demonstrate different peculiarities of events, changing semantic roles in utterances. For example, in the sentence Ann looked at Ted, Ann is an Agent of the action, though she is also an Experiencer (similar to Peter from the previous example). Ann consciously pays heed to something, while Peter is unconscious of his action. both sentences look similar, but peculiarities of events and semantic roles are different in these utterances. The second complexity that may occur in the process of analysis refers to the second participant of the discussed sentence. While in sentences with a do categ ory the second participant is a Patient, because it is influenced by the Agents act, in sentences with an experience category the second participant (e.g. Ted) is not a Patient, as it is not influenced by the Agents act. As the above sentence shows, Ted is necessary for better understanding of the event hence, he may be considered as a Theme of an action. But some utterances in this category have neither an Agent nor a Patient, though at the first sight it is easy to make a mistake. For example, in the sentence Danny loves Mag there are no agents or patients, as Danny does not perform any action and Mag is not explicitly or implicitly influenced by this action (probably she does not even know of Dannys feelings). In this utterance Danny is an Experiencer, while Mag is a Theme. Unlike semantic roles, grammar roles can be identified more easily in the discussed sentence Danny is a keep down and Mag is an object. In fact, one grammar constituent may have a number of semantic roles for example, a subject may involve an Experiencer, an Agent, a Patient, while an object may include a Theme, a Patient, an Instrument, etc.Thus, semantic roles provide more accurate and profound information as to the meaning of an utterance than grammar roles however, both grammar roles and semantic roles are crucial for linguistics. In addition to the mentioned categories, there is also a come out category that is rather facile. For instance, the sentence My car is confused has one participant that is explicitly influenced by an action that is why this participant (My car) is a Patient (there is no Agent in this utterance).Unlike a happen category, a so called information transfer category may pose certain difficulties for those who analyse semantic roles. In the sentence Jerome informed Timmy of a group there are two participants Jerome and Timmy. But while Jerome is an Agent of the occurred event, Timmy is not a Patient, as one may consider, taking into account the previous exam ples. In this utterance Timmy is a Recipient, and a Patient is absent in this sentence neither Timmy nor information can be regarded as a Patient, because information is not directly or indirectly influenced by Timmy or by the transfer. In this regard, information in the discussed utterance is a Theme of the event. Overall, in all mentioned examples nouns and adjectives refer or point at a particular event however, there are also sentences, where these parts of speech pay heed to a specific state instead of an event. Such utterances relate to a be category. For instance, in the sentence Viola is healthy again, Viola is a Participant that also appears as a Theme. In this utterance the state of Viola is determined by the adjective healthy, but not by a verb (as in the prior examples). Therefore, healthy fulfils a predicative role, unlike verbs in preceding sentences that fulfil an attributive role. Sentences in this category may also reflect temporal relations, like in the following utterance Garry is in front of Nick. In this sentence there are two participants that certainly appear in temporal relations undoubtedly, if the sentence is changed for Nick is behind Garry, the relations between Nick and Garry will not be altered. In this respect, both participants perform the role of a Theme in the sentence.In view of all observed examples, it is obvious that participants may fulfil either a central role or a bare(a) role in the action that is, a division is made between the principal and subsidiary participants. For instance, in the sentence Nelly embraced Steve before the guests, Nelly is the principal participant, an Agent, while Steve is the secondary participant, an Instrument with the help of which Nelly fulfils the action. Even if an Agent is absent, as in the sentence A stone broke the fence, there is a supposed Agent and an Instrument. Moreover, if two participants are mentioned in a sentence, the secondary participant may perform a role of a Beneficiar y, as in the following example florists chrysanthemum did homework for Sally. In this utterance Sally is a Beneficiary, as another person (his Mommy) does homework for him. Therefore, the analysed sentences demonstrate that each semantic role may reflect different properties, and identification of these properties may be rather problematic in the process of analysis, resulting in frequent confusions. Table 2 below epitomises the observed semantic roles, their major functions and possible problems.Table 2. Major semantic rolesSemantic roleFunctionPossible confusions / problemsAgentThe principal participant (always animate) that starts an actionAn Experiencer may be wrongly regarded as an AgentButAn Agent consciously fulfils an action, while An Experiencer is not consciously involved in the actions fulfilmentPatientThe principal participant (either inanimate or animate) that is influenced by an eventIn certain cases a Patient may perform a role of an AgentThis occurs in instances tha t signify moves that is, when a participant simultaneously performs an action and is influenced by itInstrumentThe secondary participant with the help of which an Agent fulfils an actionIf there are both an Agent and a Causer in a sentence, it may be difficult to rightfully identify instruments of an Agent and a CauserThe instrument for a Causer is an AgentAn Agent possesses other instrumentsThemeThe principal participant that does not induce an event and is not influenced by itIn the case of temporal relations there are usually two themes, instead of oneExperiencerThe principal participant (always animate) that does not explicitly fulfil an action instead, it undergoes a certain state (or an event)As an Experiencer is influenced by a state (or an event), it may be confused with a Patient or even with an Agent (when an action coincides with experience)BeneficiaryThe secondary participant (always animate) that make gains from a certain eventA Beneficiary should not be confused with a Patient that is the principal participantRecipientThe accusive (always animate) of an event that is connected with a transferA recipient may perform a role of an Agent in such a sentence as Father took a strange envelop from JackAs is shown in Table 2, there are no definite borders among semantic roles actually, every role may perform different functions in a sentence (Parsons, 1990), and the lack of an integrated structure complicates the analysis. The occurred intricacies can be explained by the fact that any semantic category is based on concepts of subjectivity rather than concepts of objectivity (Knott Sanders, 1998). For example, the word bookcase consists of certain letters and sounds, so it can not be attributed merely to an object. As words and meanings are acquired from a particular social, cultural and linguistic realm (Peregrin, 2003), the relations among all parts of speech are casual, but not natural. Therefore, semantic categories differ not only among members of v arious societies, but also among people of the same society. For instance, in two utterances Julia prepared bath for Jill and Julia prepared Jill a bath there are certain semantic roles that may be interpreted either as similar or as different. In the first utterance Julia is an Agent and Jill is a Recipient, while in the second utterance