Language Acquisition

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Dilek Göçer

What is language acquisition?

*The process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language.

Language acquisition has some basic requirements;

Children require interaction with language-users

Particular language-using environment

Physical capability of sending&receiving sound signals.

INPUT

Human infants are helped in their language acquisition by older children&adults in home environment who provide input for the child.

The speech style adopted by someone who spend a lot of time interacting with a baby is called caregiver speech.

Features of caregiver speech;

Frequent use of questions

Using exaggerated intonation

Extra loudness

Slower tempo with longer pauses

Some examples from Turkey;

-hanimiş annesinin kuzusu?

-senin o buynuşunu yeyim ben

-uçak geliyor aç ağzını bakıyım

-babası ne almış oğluşuna araba mı almış?

-düştü mü kızım hop etti bebeğim hop etti

The acquisition schedule

All normal children develop language roughly at the same time.

The language acquisition schedule has the same basis as the development of motor skills.

Cooing&Babbling

Cooing is described as the earliest use of speech-like sounds.

0-2 months:Reflexive crying, vegetative sounds (coughs, sneezes), Sounds reflecting their physical state.

2-5 months : Cooing and laughter. Early consonants develop, sounds from the back of throat, laughs and giggles form (to the enjoyment of parents).

4-6 months :Vocal play, babbling gets more adult-like, range and pitch play,, bilabial trills are common (raspberries).

6-12 months :Reduplicated babbling ex: mamama, pitch control develops, ability to sound out some consonants and vowels.

9-18 months :Non-reduplicative babbling, varying of consonants and vowels.

First Language AcquisitionThe one-word stage

can begin to utter recognizable words

phonemes that resemble words or simple phrases

Children’s first words typically employ the same consonants children favor in the late stages of babbling: stops [p, t, k, b, d, g], nasals [m, n], and glides [y, w], and often use consonant-vowel syllable structure. The most preferred first vowel is a low back [a].

Ba-ba, ma-ma sounds

The two-word stage

develop more complex phrases

a more complete thought than in the previous stage.

‘anne mama, baba gitti, su ver’, ‘kötü kedi’

'Baby chair' could mean...

Possession: 'this is baby's chair'

Request/command: 'put baby in chair'

Statement: 'baby is in the chair'

Telegraphic speech

the child’s analytical skills enhance

their ability to form complete sentences emerges.

Roughly age two

Multiple-word

‘ deniz çay sevdi’, ‘ anne odada uyuyor’

their vocabulary increases at a rate of as many as 10 words per week.

The acquisition process

Roughly 4 year old child

Repeat what they heard in a different versions

Adopt lots of vocabulary from the speech they hear

Do not correct the child

Developing Morphology

2,5 years old – telegraphic speech forms

Inflectional morphemes

First – ing form

Next – plural s (overgeneralization)

Possessive inflection –’s

Different forms of the verb ‘to be’

First regular past tense forms

Later irregular past tense forms

The regular –s marker on third person singular present tense verbs

Turkish Children

Plural (çoğul eki –lar, -ler ) is begin to use at 20-23 months. ( arabalar , bebekler etc. )

Children understand the pronouns at 2.5 years old and use them at 3 years old (beni , bana , seni , sana , senin ) (benim arabam, senin oyuncağın )

Developing Syntax

In the formation of questions and the use of negatives,

There are three stages

1. stage ( 18-26 months)

2. stage ( 22-30 months)

3. stage ( 24-40 months)

Forming questions

The child’s first stage

has two procedures. Simply add Wh form

( Where, Who) Rise in intonation In the second stage,

more complex expressions In the third stage ,

the required movement

of auxiliary ( Can I have.. )

Examples

Stage 1

Where Momy ?

Where horse go ? Sit chair ?

Stage 2

Why you smiling ? See my doggie?

Stage 3

Can I have ?

Why kitty can’t ( It doesn’t spread to all Wh questions automatically)

Examples from Turkish

15-17 months ‘ne’ ( mu ne ? )

18-20 months ‘nerede’ (neyde abba?)

23-24 months ‘niye’ (niye vermiyorsun?)

‘hangi’ (hangi abba? )

25-30 months ‘mi-ne zaman’

INTONATION

Child : Simiti kim aldı ?

Mother : Simiti dayın aldı.

Child : Dayı mı aldı ?

Mother : Evet , dayın kendi aldı simiti.

Child : Kendiiiii ???

Forming negatives

Stage 1 : putting no or

not at the beginning

(No sit here , no teddy bear)

In the second stage ,

the additional negative forms

don’t and can’t appear ,with no or not

( He no bite you I don’t want it)

Third stage : incorporation

of other auxiliary forms

( didn’t , won’t )

Children operate their own rules by forming negatives

Adult correction is useless.

Examples from Turkish

Anne yok / baba yok

Oyun şimdi değil

Turkish children use – me and –ma at 24. months ( gitme , oynama etc. )

Developing Semantics

Overextension

Followed by a gradual process of narrowing down the application of each term as more words are learned.

Lexical relations

( animal-dog-poodle)

Antonymous relations are acquired quite late.

Examples from Turkish

A child says ‘Bak baba , araba’ (pointing out a bike ) – overextension

A child pointing out a horse and says ‘dog’