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The history of
English Language
English, today would be considered a lingua franca (a world
language) spoken as 1st (native) language, a second language and
a foreign language making it the second most popular language
behind Mandarin Chinese.
But, the form we use today is vastly different to the forms during the
earlier periods when English emerged as a new language.
Language change is therefore an inevitable process and is always in
a constant state of flux.
Causes of language change
The most prominent causes of language change historical, sociopolitical factors and scientific/technological developments.
Wars and invasions brought words which were often absorbed
making English richer and more versatile.
New inventions and processes encourage the introduction of new
words or semantic change in order to describe the products
effectively.
Commerce, immigration and emigration are often catalysts for
change. Contacts with international traders can introduce new terms
e.g. <pyjamas> taken from Hindu entered English due to the
colonial presence in South Asia in the 1870s.
Each generation adapts language so it is fit for purpose.
Development of English
Old English (OE) 450 1100
Middle English (ME) 1100 1450
Early Modern English (EME) 1450 1700
Modern English (ModE) 1700 1900
Late Modern English (LME) 1900 present day

These dates are approximations as changes were gradual.

Prior to 450 AD
The initial inhabitants of the island we know as Britain did not speak
English.
The Celts (or Britons) spoke a variety of Celtic languages including
Welsh, Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Irish and Manx.
They were settlers from across the North Sea and spoke Celtic until
the Romans invaded and occupied mainland Britain in 43 AD. Those
who worked for the Romans adopted Latin as their official language.
When the Romans withdrew to address issues in the Empire, the
Britons were attacked by the Scots and the Picts.
449 AD
The reigning sovereign at the time, King Vortegern, invited
Germanic tribes to help in their fight against the Scots and Picts.
When they realised the Britons were defenceless, their intentions
became more sinister and they claimed the land for themselves.
Nevertheless, their real intention was to attack it. At first they
engaged the enemy advancing from the North, and having defeated
them, sent news back of their success to their homeland, adding
that the country was fertile and the Britons cowardly. Whereupon a
larger fleet quickly came over with a great body of warriors, which,
when joined to the original forces, constituted an invincible army.
These newcomers were from the three most formidable races of
Germany, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. (Bede 730 AD)
The land was named Englalond the land of the Angles and the
language they spoke Englisc or Anglo-Saxon.
This formed the basis of the language which evolved into English as
we know it.
One significant difference was the pronunciation of English. AnglosSaxon English was a phonetic language with almost all sounds
pronounced.
Therefore, there were no silent letters.

Old English (OE)

There was no single version of Anglo-Saxon used but a variety of
dialects, each associated with a different geographic area.
There

were four distinctive dialects:

Northumbrian: spoken north of the river Humber
Mercian: East Anglia to Welsh border
Kentish: South East and influenced by the Jutes
West Saxon: South and South West

They were mutually intelligible although there were instances where

mutual understanding was difficult.
Al the longage of the Norumbres, and specialych at York, ys so
scharp, slyttyng and frotyng, and unschape, at we Soueron men
may at longage unnee undurstonde
All the language of the Northumbrians, and especially at York, is so
sharp, piercing and grinding, and unformed, that we Southern men
can that language hardly understand.
The language at this stage had not undergone standardisation as
the country had not reached social or political unity.
Old English Graphology
Although Old English used the Roman alphabet in writing, OE written
texts often look difficult to decipher due to the presence of some
runic symbols.
These were used in addition to the Roman alphabet to represent
sounds not included and were preserved in Anglo-Saxon printing.
</> ash (from its runic name) is pronounced /a/ as in the
present day <at> but is different to <hall>.

</> thorn represents /th/ as in present day <thumb>. These

letters were introduced later as a by-product of the Viking
invasion.
</> eth pronounced /th/ as in pdE <this>. These two sounds
were used interchangeably and did not differentiate the
voiced or voiceless pronunciation.
Other runes existed in handwriting but did not appear in printed
Anglo-Saxon texts.
7 used in manuscripts as a representation of <and>.
wynn pronounced /w/. The sound /w/ was represented
in
the earliest OE printing as <uu> which was then
replaced by
wynn.
- yogh pronounced /g/ or/j/ represents pd <g>.
Other letters were not common <k>, <q>, <z> or used at all <j>
and <v>.
Old English Lexis
OE lexis consisted largely of Germanic words with very few
loanwords borrowed from other languages.
Many OE words looked similar to words used in Present day English:
Lufu
fdre
wif
hus
blc
Love
father
wife
house
black
Some, however, look similar but their meanings were different:
Tide = time
Wi = against
Sellan = give
Some lexemes survived as part of compound nouns or formulaic
expressions such as the Anglo-Saxon words for <man>; <guma>
and <wer> in <Bridegroom> and <werewolf>.
Others looked similar but were disguised by inflections (bound
morphemes; prefixes, suffixes and affixes) to indicate number,
agreement and tense.
geseted: ge set ed
set out

geleornode: ge leorn ode

learn

The inflections indicate number agreement and past tense. You do

not need to analyse anything such as this in the exam, it enables
you however to say with confidence there were significantly more
inflections/inflexions during this time period
Old English grammar and syntax
An important feature of Anglo-Saxon grammar was the significance
of inflections.
Today, word order is fixed and follows SVO pattern.
This allows us to establish the meaning of the
construction easily.
<The man saw the king> does not mean the same as <the king saw
the man>.
The subject (person responsible for the action) typically precedes
the predicator (the action) which is followed by the object (recipient
of action).
Grammatical functions (cases)
When exploring word order in PDE we determine the function of the
word by its place in the construction.
Subject: Doer/person responsible for action
Predicator: action
Object: recipient of action/the affected
In Old English, we determined the grammatical function by the
inflection used. They had a case system, allowing them to identify
who was responsible etc
Nominative: Subject / subject complement
Accusative: Direct object / object complement
Genitive: Possession
Dative: Prepositional phrases and indirect object
OE word order, however, did not follow the SVO pattern, instead the
grammatical function was indicated by inflections.
<The man saw the king>: Se guma geseah one cyning
<The king saw the man>: Se cyning geseah one guman
The determiner <the> changes according to the function of the
word it is attached to, <se> subject and <one> object.
The OE <guma> meaning <man> takes an additional inflection
indicating it is in object position - <guman>.

OE Verbs
Like PDE verbs, OE differentiated between regular and irregular
verbs but were labelled as weak and strong respectively.
Weak (regular) PDE indicates past with <ed>
Base:
Kiss
Cyssan
Past:
Kissed
Cyste - <t> used to show simple past
Participle: Kissed
Cyssed - <d> used to show perfect past
Strong (irregular) PDE indicates past with vowel change
Base:
Drink
Drincan
Past:
Drank
Dranc - <a> shows simple past
Participle: Drunk
Druncen - <u> shows perfect past
Viking invasion
Towards the end of the 8th century in 787AD, Vikings from
Scandinavia began a series of raids in the north and east of
England.
They eventually led an invasion and although were defeated by the
English after a hundred years, King Alfred allowed them to remain.
In 886AD they settled in a large area of the north, naming their land
Danelaw and spoke their own language; Old Norse.
Old Norse was in some ways similar to Old English which meant
speakers could communicate with each other.
Loss of inflections
Although Old Norse was eventually absorbed by English, it did have
some effects as English developed.
Old Norse had many similar words but the grammatical ending s
were different therefore they were often omitted when English and
Viking speakers communicated with each other. This sped up the
loss of all inflectional endings due to their being unstressed.
Some ON words absorbed remained in the English language as
synonyms e.g. OE <sick>, ON <ill>, and OE <hide>, ON <skin>.

Other Norse influences

Old Norse contained some words which did not exist in Old English
and eventually replace them.
The most notable were third person pronouns <they>, <them> and
<their>.
They also introduced place names such as <scunthorpe> with
<thorpe> meaning village and supplied us with new words including
<skirt> for OE <shirt>, <egg>, <skin>, <leg> and <take>.
Influences of Old Norse are still found in northern accents and
dialects and to some extent Standard English today.

Middle English
Middle English is the term used to describe the variety of English
spoken and written from approximately 1100 1450 AD.
The traditional end of the Old English period is recognised as 1100
although the Norman invasion in 1066 (the battle of Hastings)
served as the catalyst for the next major change in the history of
English.
This marked the decline and eventual loss of the OE standard West
Saxon and to some extent the loss of English.
The earliest Middle English texts were dated 1150-1200AD.
Socio-political influences on ME
After the battle of Hastings, West Saxon fell into disuse and was
replaced in both official and social domains by French and Latin.
William dispossessed almost all English nobility of their lands and
titles replacing them with Normans.
French gained prestige and was recognised as the chosen form for
communication.
As a result, written English declined rapidly, but spoken English
remained as the chosen form for the common people. However,
some descendants of the Norman French invaders adopted English
as their language.
Therefore for the majority of the ME period there is no record of
written English.

It wasnt lost completely but remained in a phonetic sense with each

vernacular developing their own written systems. This was
particularly evident in Chaucers texts and were the first literary
representations of the dialectal variations.
Trade, intermarrying and wet nursing encouraged the retention and
spread of English and it began to re-emerge in its written form
during 1150s.
The forms developed prior to its reappearance reflect the historical
and dialectal variations with local patterns of spelling
(orthography), grammar and lexis.
As English gained status and began to be used in official domains,
the need for a standard developed.
Decline of French
In 1204, King John lost Normandy to France and the two countries
became enemies.
In 1362, English was used for the first time to open parliament and
was universal by 1425 establishing the language as the official
language of British Isles.
The Norman invasion had significant influences on English, most
notably in the lexicon with an estimated 10,000 French words
entering the language.
Outcomes?
When a word was borrowed which had the same meaning as a preexisting English term, there were only two likely outcomes:
It would replace the English word: <leod> replaced by
<people>, <stow> by <place> and <herion> by <praise>.
They would co-exist as synonyms although the meanings were
slightly different e.g. <doom/judgement>, <house/mansion>
and <hearty/cordial>.
Latin loanwords
The majority of Latin loanwords were concerned with learned areas:
Religion: <dirge>, <redeemer>
Legal: <client>, <conviction>
Scholastic: <index>, <library>, <scribe>
Science: <dissolve>, <equal>, <orbit>
Most died out after a short time although some entered the
language and created more synonyms.
8

Graphology
Some of the OE runic symbols declined rapidly during the ME period
or were lost altogether:

<> eth died out and was last used in 1400s

<> thorn this form died out but another form survived in
printed English as <y> e.g. <ye> until it was replaced by
<th>.
<> ash began to fall out of common use
<> wynn was replaced by <uu> by Norman scribes
<> yogh was retained by some scribes but it also
represented <w>, <z> occasionally.

Orthography
Some graphemes which did not exist or were not commonly used in
OE were introduced during ME.
A significant characteristic of ME orthography was the lack of
consistency. Although the OE period had garnered a standard this
was dismissed early into this period paving the way for a more
phonetic representation.
There were no fixed spelling rules as the notion of correct spelling
is a modern concept.
It was not uncommon to find scribes spelling the same word in
several different ways even in the same text. E.g. <nakid> /
<nakyd>.
<u> and <v>
The consonant grapheme <v> did not exist in the Old English period
but the sound (phoneme) did and was represented medially by /f/
e.g. <drifan>.
The introduction of the grapheme was an influence of the Norman
invasion and generally indicates the lexeme (word) to be of French
or Latin origin.
The Anglo-Norman scribes therefore began to replace <f> in medial
position with either a <v> or <u> e.g. <drivan> or <driuan>.
Although the grapheme was introduced, it had no concrete value
and was used interchangeably with <u> for both phonemes [] and
[u] and [v].

However, a general rule existed whereby <v> was used when in

initial position and <u> elsewhere e.g. <vsury> and <euery>.
If you come across this feature in a text, you must identify the word
class of the words it occurs in and explain why these two graphemes
are interchangeable using the information above. Once you have
done this, you must explain how it is different to Present day
English.
<cw> and <qu>
Another grapheme which didnt exist in OE was <q>.
OE <cw> was replaced by the Latin form <qu> giving us <queen>
instead of OE <cwene>.
OE <cwellan> became ME <quellen> (to kill).
The OE phonetic representation is closer to PDE pronunciation but
the use of Latin <qu> suggested prestige.
<i> and <y>
Initially in OE, these two phonemes had a distinctive value but they
later merged as a result of dialectal variation in early ME.
The two were then used interchangeably particularly where stroke
letters (minims) were used <m>, <n> and <u>.
The long, close strokes of some letters in handwriting could confuse
readers leading to the use of <y> e.g. <myn>, <homecomynge>.
In some cases, <o> replaced <u> to avoid this confusion. After the
introduction of standardisation, the two graphemes began to take on
distinctive values whereby <i> is recognised as a vowel and <y> a
consonant.
Ormulums spelling reform
A Danish monk named Ormulum attempted to standardise spelling
during the 12th century aiming to make spelling more consistent
and relate each sound to an individual symbol.
He wrote in the East midlands dialect teaching the Christian faith in
English as opposed to Latin.
The most significant feature of his attempts was the doubling of
consonants to represent preceding short vowels and singular
consonants indicating the preceding vowel is long.
10

Needless to say, his attempts at spelling reform were unsuccessful.

Phonology
Generally speaking, all letters in ME were pronounced including
vowels so <knight> was pronounced [knIt].
Although most OE inflections had fallen out of use, some remained
but by 1300s (Chaucers time) the final <e> had become silent in
normal speech.
Pronunciation of final <e> was optional in literature unless the
following word began with a vowel.
If a word contained two <e> in spelling on either side of single
consonant, the second <e> would be unstressed and removed e.g
<evry>.
Grammar
The most significant change to English grammar was the loss of the
majority of inflections. They were not as important for indicating
relationships between words.
Word order became much more important and a move towards
Present Day English SVO began.
Second person pronouns <thou> and <ye> (not to be confused
with <the>) had distinctive uses, similar to French <vous/tu>.
Thou: singular and intimate/informal
Ye: plural and formal
<ne> was used in ME to show negation but would often be
assimilated with the following word e.g. <ne + is = nis>.
Relative clauses in ME differ from PDE relative clauses insofar as
they can be separated from the noun phrase they modify e.g.
Aux
S
P
O
PDE: [May] [God, who redeemed mankind], [save] [you]
HW

Rel Cl.

S
P
O
Relative clause
ME: [God] [save] [yow], [that boghte agayn mankynde]

Early Modern English

The Early Modern period is typically identified as 1500-1700 AD but
the transition from ME began around 25 years earlier with the
introduction of printing.
11

There were a number of factors which had significant implications

for linguistic development:
Printing and standardisation
The Great Vowel Shift
King James I Bible
Renaissance
Early Modern English is much closer to PDE than its predecessors
making it easier to read and understand.
Printing
The first printer was introduced to Britain in 1476 by merchant
William Caxton.
He established his printing press in Westminster and began printing
books in English including a copy of Chaucers Canterbury Tales.
The emergence of mass literacy and demand for literature ensured
the printing press was successful paving the way for a standard
variety of the language. Renaissance loan words began to appear in
English.
However, a problem presented itself; which dialect formed the basis
of the standard variety?
East Midlands Dialect
Given the nature of English at the time, Caxton had to establish a
suitable punctuation system and dialect in which to print.
The dialect chosen was the East Midlands dialect (London), not
because it was considered the most prestigious form but because it
was his own dialect and was used in universities, trade centres, and
administration. It was the most accessible form for him.
Caxtons protg Richard Pynson favoured the Chancery Standard
and printed in this dialect which incorporated some Northern
features including the third person pronouns <they>, <them> and
<their>.
It was the most accessible dialect to use and so began the
standardisation process.
Standardisation
A language must progress through four stages in order for it to be
standardised:
Selection: choosing a variety to form the basis
12

Codification: developing a written system, standardising

spelling,
punctuation
Elaboration: incorporating new words, grammatical structures
to
make it fit for purpose
Implementation: Using it in official domains, developing
currency
(printing), pride and loyalty.

Standardisation is a gradual process which meant that spelling was

to some extent still inconsistent throughout the EME period e.g.
<things> may have been spelled <thynges> or <thingis> in the
same text. In writing an exam question, should you not this,
comment on it and link it back to standardisation to gain AO2
marks.
Other historical factors influencing Early Modern English include:
Education: literacy became more common during this
period,
illustrated by the increase in personal letters such
as the
Paston Letters
Travel: increased travel opportunities encouraged contact
with other cultures which increased the number of loanwords
entering the language.
Renaissance: Increased interest in learning; literature,
classical
languages and science, created demands on
English since it was required to describe new concepts.
Colonisation: In 1584AD Sir Walter Raleigh colonised
Roanoke
which marked the spread of English to America.
Orthography
The alphabet used in EME (sometimes considered Shakespeares
alphabet) was much like the PDE alphabet.
<> thorn was still used in EME but was typically restricted to
handwriting. In printing, there was no <> grapheme so it was
replaced by <> due to its graphological similarities. Note this can
be common in exam texts.
<e>, <at> and <em> would appear in printing in their
abbreviated forms <ye>, <yt> and <ym> as they only had access
to the standard alphabet.
<s> had two lowercase forms during EME; <s> or <> (PDE //). Like
<u> and <v> a general rule existed with <s> being used in word
final position and <> used elsewhere.
<u> and <v> were still used interchangeably following the rule
established during ME. It was not until the 1600s where their values
were distinguished. In the late 1600s, <vv> was used as an
occasional alternative for <w>.
13

<y> was still used sometimes in place of <i> e.g. <poynt>. But
<j> was now considered an alternative form of <i>. It was therefore
common during this period to find <j> in place of <i>.
<j> was often used in numerals e.g. <vij 7>. This stabilised in
1700s.
Where <y> appears in word final position in PDE, it was not
uncommon to find <ie> in EME e.g. <verbositie> and
<ortagriphie>.
Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster published Elementarie a book of 8000 words and
their spellings in an attempt to regularise English spelling and the
lack of consistent conventions.

Vowels were spelled in a more predictable manner e.g. double

vowels to represent long sounds <soon>
Final <e> was used diacritically to indicate vowel length
<u> and <v> began to settle and stabilise
Capitalisation became conventional to indicate names,
important common nouns and beginnings of sentences.
Orthography and spoken pronunciation began to diverge
Spelling guides started to emerge identifying homophones
school children had to learn

Final <e>
Final <e> is still present in EME texts but it ceased to have a
grammatical function and was used merely as a means of
justification or decoration e.g. <poore>.
It also took on diacritic status (changes pronunciation) which it
maintains in PDE.
Its function was to indicate the length of a preceding vowel e.g.
<while>, <sore> and <onely>. This is the function of final <e> in
PDE.
However, it caused some confusion with words such as <written>
so it became conventional to illustrate a short vowel with the
doubling of consonants e.g. <forrest>.
Etymological respelling
Spelling reforms were common throughout the history of the English
language.
14

There were some attempts to respell existing words in a way which

was intended to reflect their origins/history therefore leading to false
etymologies.
Some words which reflected Latin incorporated silent <b>
graphemes such as <debt> and <doubt> pronounced [debitum]
and [dubium].
However, some of words were respelled to include the silent
grapheme such as <subtle> in order to imitate Latin and lend
credibility to the words.
Graphology
The punctuation system employed during EME was different to PDE
punctuation as it was more rhetorical; it was designed to reflect the
pauses in speech.
(.) punctus a full stop
(:) colon used for a variety of purposes
(/) virgule comma
During the 16th century, semi-colons and exclamation marks were
introduced and with the increase in printed texts more punctuation
marks emerged resulting in the grammatical function used in PDE.
Capitalisation of all nouns, verbs and adjectives was common during
EME, particularly in Shakespeares work but it did not follow the PDE
pattern until late 19th century.
Phonology
The key phonological aspect of EME was the Great Vowel Shift,
named so due to the significant affect on the pronunciation of long
vowels.
It is a key difference between ME and EME with the change
occurring over a period of approximately 200 years between 14001600.
The short vowels remained relatively stable with only minor changes
such as the emerging strut phoneme //.
The cause of the change is unknown, although speculation infers it
was a way to reinstate prestige forms of English and reject French.
The Great Vowel Shift
/i/

/ai/

[teem]

[time]
15

/e/

/i/

[sae]

/a/

/ei/

[naam]

/o/*

/u/

[rote]

/u/

/au/

[hoos]

[see]
[name]
[root]
[house]

The phonemes changed their position in the mouth with the lower
phonemes (monothongs) pushing up and the higher phonemes
becoming diphthongs.
Lexis
There was large scale borrowing into English from a range of other
languages during EME, particularly from Greek and Latin.
The increased interest in classical literature and art can be
considered the catalyst for increased borrowings, in addition to
trade, travel and greater communication e.g. <encyclopaedia>
1531, <temperature> 1533, <conspicuous> 1545 from Latin and
<catastrophe> 1540, <larynx> 1578 and <pneumonia> 1603 from
Greek.
Romance languages contributed large numbers of loanwords e.g.
<rocket> 1611, <volcano> 1613 and <opera> 1644 from Italian
and <tobacco> 1588, <hurricane> 1555 and <guitar> 1621 from
Spanish.
Shakespeares influence
Shakespeare had significant influence on the development of the
English lexicon.
It led to the creation of idiomatic expressions, diverse hyphenations
and neologisms, some of which remain in the language today.

Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)

Neither here nor there (Othello)
Send him packing (Henry IV)
Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
Vanish into thin air (Othello)

Inkhorn controversy

16

Due to such large scale borrowing, some writers opposed this and
labelled the Latinate borrowings as inkhorn terms (pretentious
language of the over-learned).
They attempted to replace the Latinate terms with natively derived
words e.g. <divisibility> = <cleavesomeness>, <impenetrable> =
<unthrougfaresom> but were largely unsuccessful.
Many felt they had to apologise for their use of English: Elyot (1534)
If physicians be angry that I have written physiche in English, let
them remember that grekes wrote in greke, the Romans in Latine
which were their proper and maternal tongues.
Cheke (1561) I am of the opinion that our tong should be written
cleare and pur, unmixt and unmangled with the borrowings of other
tongs.
Whilst others defended the borrowings: Mulcaster: but why not
English, a tong of it self both depe in conciet and frank in delivre.
Semantics
Some common terms in PDE had a different meaning in EME and so
many readers can become confused when reading in context.
<Presently>
EME: immediately
PDE: After a space of time
<Melancholy>
EME: disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or
other of the four basic bodily liquids
PDE: mental or emotional symptoms of depression or despondency

Grammar
Generally speaking, EME grammar is very much like PDE grammar.
A significant amount of what is known about EME grammar comes
from studying Shakespeares works and King James Bible, published
in 1611.
Some non-standard features in PDE were acceptable in EME
including double negatives <not nowhere> and double
comparatives <more elder>.

17

Subordinate clauses and conjunctions were used to indicate

complex sentence structures more rather than conjunctions <and>
and <then> which were used in ME.
Syntax
Word order is similar to PDE following the SPO patterns e.g.
S
P
[this scul] [has laine] [in the earth three & twenty years]
But Predicator subject order is still fairly common in EME
P
S
[Heere] [hung] [those lipps]
Auxiliary and lexical verbs were separated when forming
interrogatives just as in PDE but the typical pattern may be deviated
form for stylistic reasons
O
Aux
S
P
[plots] [haue] [I] [laide]
Interrogatives
Forming questions differed in EME with the introduction of the verb
<do>.
In ME, the Predicator and Subject were inverted e.g. <Hadst thou?>.
In EME, the auxiliary verb <do> was used to form questions like PDE
<do you know what you say?>
It was also used to form negatives <Do you not know?> where
previously they would have taken the following form <Know you
not?>
Shakespeare used both forms in his work, <didst thou?>
Verbs
EME verb inflections were simplified as they moved towards Modern
English. In O.E. the second and third person inflections <-est> and
<-eth> were still in use but <-s> was introduced by Scandinavian
settlers and began to spread south.
Anglo-Saxon third person singular present <-eth> fell out of use but
<-s> survived, <with her, that hateth thee and hates vs all>.
Present plural forms became uninflected where they had been
marked by <-en>, <-th>, and <-s> previously. <-th> and <-s>
survived longest in <hath>, <doth> and <is>.
18

Second person singular was marked for present and past tenses
using <-st> or <-est> e.g. <walkedst>, <gavst>.
<art> was used for the present plural form of the verb <to be>,
<are>.
Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect had not been standardised in EME period due to
the inconsistent use of the primary auxiliary verb <to have>.
In its place, the verb <to be> was used as in this example from King
James Bible <But which of youwill say unto himwhen he is come
from the field, Go and sit down>. Although a rule existed:
Where a verb was transitive (takes a direct object) <have> would
be used:
S
Aux
P
Od
Oi
A
[He] [hath brought] [many Captiues] [home] [to Rome]
If the verb is intransitive, <to be> would be used:
S
P
O
[The King himself] [is rode to view] [their Battaile]
Progressive aspect
By the end of EME the progressive aspect <ing> became dominant,
although other forms were common.
These included the prefix <a-> e.g. <I am a-walking> which was
common in dialect forms, and the infinitive verb paired with <do>
e.g. <I do walk>.
The verb <to be> and present participle <-ing> could be combined
to express the passive voice without any additional markers giving
us constructions such as <The house is building>.
Modal auxiliary verbs
Modal auxiliary verbs in EME were accompanied by an infinitive verb
unlike in ME <I must to Coventry>, thus cementing their distinctive
syntactic function.
<Shall> and <will> retained the lexical meanings from OE;
obligation and volition respectively and developed a general rule
for their use; when expressing future tense <shall> should be used
with first person subjects and <will> to be used with second and
third person subjects.
19

<shall> could be attached to second and third person subjects

when asserting dominance e.g. <you shall do what I say>.
Other verbs ceased to function as modals such as <dare> from the
modal <durst> and <mot>, the present form of <must>.
Pronouns
Pronouns, like OE, ME and PDE were categorised by person i.e. first,
second and thirds person. Singular third person pronouns were
selected on the basis of noun sex e.g. <he>, <she> etc.
<thou> and <ye> were still present and had the same use as in ME
but <ye> (object form and to indicate plural) and <you> became
the more common, unmarked term of address and <thou> was used
more informally by 1600.
By the end of 17th century <thou> was restricted to non-standard
(dialect) varieties and to referring to God.
<thee> was used in the object position , <thy> and <thine> for
possession. It can be seen in formulaic phrases in PDE <fare thee
well>.
Determiners and demonstrative pronouns
Most determiners in EME followed the PDE pattern in terms of their
function, but some could co-occur with pronouns <this my virtue>.
A distinction was drawn between demonstrative pronouns as in PDE
although <yon> and <yond(er)> are much less common, <When
yond same star thats westward from the pole>.
There were no distinctions in the use of relative pronouns in EME
unlike in PDE.
Adjectives
They function largely as in PDE although there were some
differences.
The position of adjectives in noun phrases differ for stylistic uses i.e.
<inductions dangerous> or when in vocative expressions <Goode
my Lorde>.
They could also become the headword in a noun phrase when
describing a group of people e.g. <the poore haue cryde>.

20

King James 1 Bible 1611

The Bible was translated in English in 1604 and was completed in
1611. It was the third official translation of the Christian bible but
was the one which had the most impact on the development of
English.
It had significant influence on the lexicon and idiomatic phrases as
well as the literary influence with Charles Dickens claiming the New
Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be
known in the world."

Modern English
Modern English is largely considered to be the time period between
1700-1900s, although there is some debate among historical
linguists.
Texts from this period look very similar to present day English with
very few differences in lexis and grammar.
There were a number of significant events which influenced the
development of English during this time and saw English cement its
status as a national and international language.
Standardisation
Standardisation of English continued to develop gradually but was
heavily influenced by Samuel Johnsons dictionary in 1755.
It took 8 years to complete and took 6 people to compile it.
Although it was not the first dictionary, it was the first of its kind.
It offered spelling and definitions for many of the words and
stabilised English orthography.
At this time, phonology and orthography began to diverge
significantly after the GVS and Johnsons dictionary.
Prescriptivism
Prescriptivism and grammarians had a significant influence on
standardisation during the 1700s. This came about largely as a
reaction to English establishing itself as a language of science and
learning.
Many cast aspersions considering English a deficient form and so
this became a catalyst for prescribed forms of English.
21

It became associated with social class and status which is the same
as today.
Much of this was well-meaning scholars of the time misunderstood
the nature of language variation and sought to bring order into what
they saw as chaos.
This then merged with the view that regional varieties are inferior.
As a result, grammars were written and produced to provide a
correct usage of English. Robert Lowth was the most influential of
these writers
Lowths introduction to grammar
Lowth published his Short Introduction to Grammar in 1762 and was
responsible for the series of dos and donts in English grammar
including:
<whom> as a direct object
not ending a sentence with a preposition
<X and I>
Prescriptivists called for the use of <X and I> in all instances even
when it would not occur.
He formulated a rule for the use of modal auxiliaries <will> and
<shall> but it no longer exists in PDE.
Orthography
Thorn <> became obsolete replaced in all contexts with digraph
<th>.
<i> and <j> and <u> and <v> were stabilised completely taking
on distinctive values as vowels and consonants respectively.
Modern English used the Roman alphabet exclusively containing 26
graphemes.
Lexis
English lexicon continued to grow as the British empire expanded
introducing lexemes such as:
<bangle> 1787 <dinghy> 1810 and <thug> 1810 India
Scientific and medicinal lexemes were introduced:
<centigrade> 1812, <biology> 1819, <laryngitis> 1822
<antibiotic> 1894

22

During this period, American continued to diverge and create a

national identity through the introduction of American English
orthography. This was pioneered by Noah Webster.
Grammar
Grammatical changes were gradual and subtle during this time
period therefore there are very few differences.
There was no distinction in the use of second person pronoun
<you> as there had been during the EME. It was used to indicate
singular and plural as well as formal and intimate.
Periphrastic <do> cemented its function as an auxiliary used to
formulate interrogatives.
Sentence structures became much less complex using punctuation
conventions rather then multiple sub. clauses.

Late Modern English 1900 present

This the time period we are currently in today and there have been
very few significant developments in English since the modern
period.
The more prominent factors of English in this period are:
increased social mobility
Accents and dialects
Estuary English
International soap operas
Lexical developments continue to enter the language particularly
through innovations including clippings, neologisms etc.

International varieties of
English
English in America
English spread to America during the Early Modern English period,
more specifically 16th century.
The Roanoke settlement of America in 1584 marked the spread of
English to America but it wasnt until 1607 when the first permanent
colony was settled.

23

In 1620 Puritans migrated to America in search of religious freedom

and settled in modern day Massachusetts.
By the mid-1600s, 25,000 immigrants settled in colonies in America.
This time in American history is known as the colonial period.
National Period 1776-1898
In 1776, the Declaration of American Independence was drafted and
agreed enabling America to create an identity separate from Britain.
At this time, mass immigration from Europe and the Middle East
continued and the population of America reached 4 million.
The settlers brought their own languages with them, which had a
significant impact on English in America particularly the lexicon.

American Lexis
There are four significant categories in which differences between
BrEng and AmEng are visible:
Same word in BrEng and AmEng but different meanings
Same word but additional meaning in one variety
Same word but difference in use (formality, frequency)
Same concept but different words in each variety
When America was first colonised, the English people took with
them their language; grammar, syntax, lexis and pronunciation,
therefore much of the lexis used was initially British.
<fall> was used in England during the 16th Century to refer to the
season Autumn.
Likewise, <trash> to refer to rubbish, <mad> to describe being
angry and <deck> to refer to pack as in a pack of cards.
All of these lexemes were used in England but fell out of common
use. Due to the standardisation of English and the influence of
Johnsons dictionary, the two varieties spoken in England and
America began to diverge significantly.
The coining of new lexemes began as soon as colonists borrowed
lexemes from Native American languages for unfamiliar concepts
e.g. fauna and flora, <racoon>, <opossum>.
Languages of other colonizing nations enhanced the American
lexicon

cookie, stoop, and pit (of a fruit) from Dutch

24

portage ("carrying of boats or goods") and (probably)

gopher from French
barbecue and rodeo from Spanish

There is a large influence upon language from media, the growing

popularity of American dramas and soaps often lends itself to
borrowings from Am Eng.
There are a number of vocabulary items which are used in one
variety but not the other.
E.g. <creamcicle/popcicle>
The differences that we see can be divided into four sections
although there may be some overlap.
Orthography
This is perhaps the most obvious difference between BrEng and
AmEng but it wasnt until 1804 when Noah Webster decided to
diverge from BrEng spelling to help the establishment of the
American identity.
Initially, Noah Webster followed the conventions for spelling as laid
out by Johnsons dictionary. This was seen in the American Spelling
Book published in 1783.
But, he later revised the book and omitted <u> from <our>
endings, <k> from <ick> and published the American Dictionary of
the English Language in 1828.
American English Phonology
American English pronunciation was influenced by the English
settlers whom migrated during the 16th century. They, unlike, BrEng
did not have an equivalent to R.P. however in recent years Network
American or General American is recognised in the same manner.
Post vocalic /r/
In some varieties /r/ dropping is becoming increasingly popular. This
was most common along the east coast of America having been
colonised by the south west English.
/a/ & //
Now sound homophonous (the same) e.g. <father>, <bother>
// & //
Are homophonous, the same as Scottish dialects. E.g. <caught>,
<cot>
/j/
25

Like British English /j/ dropping is increasing <news> becomes

[nu:z]
//
In some accents // is pronounced as /e/ before nasal consonants
<Can> - [ken]
//
Intervocalic /t/ and /d/ are often pronounced // in words such as
<butter> and <atom>.
It may also occur at the end of words whats up.
Words such as <ladder/ latter>, <atom/Adam> sound
homophonous
Grammar
There are fewer significant differences in grammar between BrEng
and AmEng than there are in lexis, orthography and phonology.
It is important to remember that BrEng was undergoing
standardisation at the time which English spread to America. Given
the distance between the two countries, the languages evolved at
different rates, therefore changes in BrEng after this time are not
found in AmEng.
Most AmEng grammar is understandable to BrEng users but may not
be Standard British English.
Morphology
AmEng morphology is much more simplistic than BrEng particularly
when looking at tense and aspect in verbs.
In BrEng we use different morphemes to indicate tense and aspect
depending on whether the verbs are regular or irregular.
In America, the tend to regularise most verbs. This means they are
more likely to add the <-ed> morpheme rather than <-t> which is
found in BrEng forms.
BrEng <learnt>

AmEng <learned>

AmEng are innovative with morphemes particularly when creating

new verbs.
They create new verbs by adding suffixes <ize> and <ify> to
nouns.
26

Can you think of any more examples?

Burglarize / burglify
Millionise
Zero plurals
A zero plural is the form of a plural noun which is identical to its
singular form e.g. <sheep>.
There are few examples in BrEng.
However, this is common in AmEng as they tend to leave off plural
markers.
<How many shrimp would you like?>
Quantitive nouns do not show plurality in Am Eng; this is also a
common feature of British Dialects.
<Eight Mile>
<ten pound>
Prepositions
What is the purpose of prepositions in English?
Prepositions indicate the specific relationships between the
elements of sentences; they convey time, place, direction, purpose
and source.
There are minor differences in preposition use within AmEng and
BrEng.
<Out the shed> (BrEng)

<At the back of the shed>

<Out of the shed> (AmEng) <At the back of the shed>

Prepositions and time
There are a few minor differences in terms of how AmEng and BrEng
convey time.
<The sale started January 1st>
prepositions are usually omitted before dates in AmEng.
When expressing time and duration BrEng and AmEng differ with
respect of the prepositions they use.
27

<I havent seen him for six weeks.> (BrEng)

<I havent seen him in six weeks> (AmEng)
Adjectives and adverbs
Am Eng uses the adjective <real> as an adverb;
<That was a real good meal.>
The comparative adjective <different> is followed by <than> in
AmEng. In BrEng it is followed by <to>.
<This one is different to the last one.> (BrEng)
<This one is different than the last one.> (AmEng)
Am Eng also tends to create adverbs by adding the suffix <-wise>
to nouns; this is not common in BrEng.
Momentarily
The SE meaning of momentarily is for a moment, however Am Eng
uses it to indicate in a moment.
Presently
The SE meaning of presently is soon. This is the case both varieties
of English.
However, Am Eng uses presently to indicate that X is here now.
e.g. they are presently here.
Articles
In BrEng the definite article is not needed when using the phrase
<next day>.
AmEng uses <the> before this phrase.
<The next day it was raining>.
BrEng does not use the article when discussing the phrase <in
future>; AmEng insert
<the> before the noun.
<In future all essays must be handed in on time>
Pronouns
The pronoun <one> was used rarely in AmEng writing and was
much less common in speech. However, it is becoming used more
widely, this is seen in the American TV drama Big Bang Theory.

28

This is used by formal educated speakers of English as well as being

the SE written choice.
Reciprocal pronouns are used frequently in BrEng such as <each
other> and <one another>. Am Eng uses the first but not the latter.
International period
America was propelled to international heights and was recognised
as one of the super powers in the world.
It is now one of the more common varieties of English heard.
Chinese learners often use AmEng rather than BrEng as the basis of
their learning.
In 1990s the re-emergence of political correctness in America led to
the changing practice in use of lexis and phrases that were
considered offensive to minority groups. A practice which has since
spread around the world.

Pidgins
A pidgin is a contact language created by amalgamating two or
more languages for the sole purpose of communicating and is said
to be the Chinese lexeme for <business>.
They occur where there is no common tongue no lingua franca.
The language will contain features from both languages to construct
a new form that fulfils the limited communication needs.
Once these needs have been fulfilled the form will no longer exist.
19th Century African slaves transported to North America created the
first pidgin language in order to communicate with other slaves and
their plantation bosses.
The Slaves were generally separated from their own community in
order to reduce the likelihood of them formulating plans to escape.
Colonisation also influenced the development of pidgin languages,
which can be seen across the world and over time.
Short life
Due to the nature of pidgins, they tend not to exist for long. Once
the need for them is gone, so too is the language form.
29

It is rare for a pidgin to exist for more than 100 years, if they do,
they tend to undergo expansion.
If this occurs, the pidgin form will become more complex and
undergo creolisation to be become a creole language.
Given that they are spoken forms, they do not have a written form.
Pidgins are significantly reduced and simplified forms of language
given their sole purpose brief communication.
Their phonology is often reduced and grammar is simplified making
it easier and more efficient in communicating.
One of the languages which forms the pidgin tends to be more
dominant than the other. In English based pidgins, English would be
the dominant language as a result of its status and social
superiority.
Superstrate and Substrate
There dominant language which contributes more to the pidgin than
the others is known as the SUPERSTRATE language.
The minority languages that contribute are known as SUBSTRATE
languages.
This is evident in the simplification and reduction of the languages,
as well as in the mixing of languages together.
Tok Pisin is an expanded pidgin; its superstrate language is English
and its substrate language is Papua New Guinean.
Simplification
Simplification refers to the process whereby grammar is made more
simplistic by omitting or reducing the number of inflectional
morphemes, tense markers and markers for plurality etc.
The forms therefore tend to become regularised. This means the
number of ending is generally reduced. In verbs, irregular verbs,
which often indicate tense with a vowel change will now do so using
the regular inflectional ending <-ed>.
Verb <to run> would become <runned> to show past tense.
This can also be shown through the loss of grammatically redundant
elements within structures.

30

If there is some information in the construction which can tell us

time, place, plurality etc and is repeated in some way, then the
forms will become more simplified
<I walked there yesterday>
Given that there are two markers for tense, one will be simplified.
The verb <to walk> has been inflected with the inflectional
morpheme to show past tense <-ed> and the adverb <yesterday>
is used as an adverbial of time to show a past action.
One of the first things to be simplified is inflections; prefixes and
suffixes.
<un->, <in-/im->, <a(n)->, <de->, etc.
Since the majority of these prefixes generally translate as the
opposite of, the pidgin form will only have one, this is often <un->.
Comparatives and superlatives are generally quite difficult in
comparison to other adjective forms, in order to reduce this
difficulty, the pidgin will use one form for positive and attach the
prefix un- to form the negative.
<Good> = <un good>
In terms of grammatical structure pidgins tend to be very simple.
They do not have subordinate clauses or relative
clauses.
They tend to use SVO structures and use separate words to
indicate tense/aspect.
They repeat words to indicate plurals, superlatives
They tend not to have pronouns, function words or the
copula
(verb <to be>)
Nouns etc tend to have no inflections (monomorphemic
structures)
Reduction
Reduction refers to the reduction of articulated sounds, in particular
whereby some syllables are slurred in speech.
It is very common in natural speech and can sometimes be visible in
pidgin / creole languages.
Phrasal verbs <Going to> => <gonna>
<Lot of> => <lotta>
As the pidgin language begins to develop we can see instances of
reduction being integrated into speech, although these will
generally be adopted as the standard word in that language.
31

<Come up> => <kamap> (Papua New Guinea Creole)

Mixing
They will be a mix of two languages. When you speak a foreign
language you will almost certainly have an English accent and may
well use English expressions and grammatical constructions.
It will therefore be common to find lexis from both forms although
the superstrate will typically dominate.
Many pidgins are difficult for the BrEng user to understand because
the mixing and wildly differing pronunciation (which is reflected in
the spelling) means the language appears alien.
Tok Pisin: talk pidgin
Tok Pisin was an expanded pidgin spoken in Papua New Guinea but
has undergone creolisation and the language form is more complex.
It is now a first language for many speakers in Papua New Guinea
and no longer a lingua franca for those without mutual
understanding of one language or another.
Its form however, is still much more simplistic in comparison to its
superstrate language; English.

Creoles
Evolution of pidgins
Although pidgin languages tend to exist for less than 100 years and
disappear once their purposes are lost, occasionally it will acquire
native speakers and begin to expand.
Once this begins, the pidgin undergoes creolisation which involves
the expansion and development of the grammatical systems,
lexicon and written systems.
New generations are taught the expanding form which then
becomes their native (first) language. As a result and with little
influence from older speakers, the language forms develop into a
fully functional language (socially and message oriented).
The nature of creoles
Most creoles (within Europe) derive from four continents having
originated in the slave trades:
32

Europe
Africa
North and South America
Historically, creole languages were considered low in status and
referred to as patois / patwa.
Creoles do not demonstrate a lack of stability they are as
describable as any officially recognized language and are not
simple languages.
Levels of creole
Like pidgins (and indeed any form of language), there exists a
variety of forms:
Acrolect: The top level. These are closest to the
this case Standard English

standard, in

Mesolect: In the middle will be versions further from the

Standard both grammatically and lexically.
They will show
some features of creole.
Basilect: These are far from the standard and are deep
These are difficult for BrE uses to understand.

creoles.

Mesolect
The form you are most likely to see in your exam is the mesolect
form as it enables you to discuss features of creolisation and how it
differs from Standard English.
There are many distinctive features found in mesolect varieties of
creoles, many of which vary depending on a number of factors,
much like BrEng dialects and accents.
Jamaican Creole is one of the more prominent creole language forms
but is not to be confused with Jamaican English.
JamEng is a variety of English, in the same manner as AmEng and
AusEng.
Creole development
As the creoles develop and evolve, many of the features absent in
the initial pidgin forms will begin to be reintroduced (although not to
the same level as in Standard English or the superstrate
influence).

33

Grammatical forms become more complex with additional clauses in

some structures.
Creoles tend to have a larger, more expansive lexicon and more
morphologically complex lexemes.
The copula and inflectional morphemes may be present.
Vocabulary
Like any form of English (be it a regional dialect in the British Isles or
an international variety) there will be a large number of words that
are specific to that form. It may be that these are words which
reflect the Caribbean or adaptations of existing English words. You
will encounter this pattern in American and Australia English.
Examples of some Jamaican Lexis
<To carry>
to take or transport
<Dread>
terrible/excellent
<Duppy> ghost
<Licks>
a beating
<Vex>
angry
Grammar
Although not as complex as Standard English, creole grammars are
systematic and have their own rules.
Nouns are not usually marked for plurality using inflections, instead
a quantifier is used. But when referring to people, <dem> is
attached to the noun e.g. <di gyal-dem> - <the girls>.
Pronouns have some similarities to Standard BrEng:
1st person
sing. <me>
plural <we>
2nd person
sing. <you>
plural <unu>
3rd person
sing. <him>
plural <them>
Verbs tend not to be inflected to show 3rd person <-s> and tense
markers are usually omitted.
The past tense is likely to be identical to the present forms e.g. <he
pull-up> therefore auxiliary verbs and adverbs may be used to
indicate tense.
The copula <to be> is often omitted altogether or used in its
infinitive form (base form) e.g. <be>.
Interrogative pronouns <wh-> may be inverted with the subject
when used to create interrogatives.
34

Phonology
There are some distinctive features in creole phonology, most of
which result from mixing. These features sometimes found in urban
areas of the UK.
/t/ and // are not distinguished and both are pronounced /t/
/d/ and // are not distinguished and are pronounced /d/
There appears to be a lack of dental fricatives, with
the
creoles using alveolar plosives in their place
Consonant clusters are reduced with the final consonant being
omitted e.g. <most> - /ms/
Elision and reduction are common in creoles:
e.g. <and> - [n], <for> - [f]
Another common feature in creole forms is metathesis. This is the
rearranging of phonemes and syllables in lexemes.
One of the most common examples is the verb <to ask>. In creoles
and AAVE <ask> is often pronounced /ks/.
This derives from Old English verb form <ascian> which had
derivations including <acsian> / <axian>. The form used most
commonly in ME was <aks>.
Code switching
People of Afro-Caribbean descent born in Britain often learn BrEng
as their first language but can use and understand creole forms.
This may result in the use of features from both the creole language
and BrEng in the same sentence/utterance.
This is known as code-switching and is common in bilingual
speakers when the conversation is private and informal.
Code-switching however, is frowned upon in some language
communities.

Decreolisation

35

This is a hypothetical phenomenon whereby over time a Creole

language reconverges with one of the standard languages from
which it originally derived.
This is influenced more so by the Superstrate language than the
substrate language.
Typically, the language with higher prestige (most often the lingua
franca) will exert a much greater influence on the lower prestige
language (the Creole).
Thus leading to the reintroduction of such complexities in the
superstrate language e.g. inflections, subordination.

Child Language
Development
Spoken acquisition
The acquisition of language is a gradual process regardless of the
time or state at which it begins.
There are many factors which contribute to language learning and
myriad theories describing the process. When examining the range
of perspectives, it is imperative you acknowledge the paces at
which children learn.
There are three common factors which contribute:
Physical growth the maturity of speech organs
Social factors influence of environment and culture
Critical age age of child when acquisition begins
Language acquisition theories
There are four predominant theories outlining the process of
language acquisition:
Behaviourist
Cognitive
Nativist
Interactive

36

These approaches explore language acquisition from different

angles and examine the influence of a range of factors.
Behaviourist approach
The underpinning concepts of this approach are imitation and
reinforcement.
B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist studied the influence of
environmental factors on cooperative behaviours and related this to
language acquisition.
He believed children acquire language by repeating language
structures and vocabulary they hear (imitation).
The caregiver, then rewards the childs efforts with praise and
repeats the lexemes and grammatical structures back, correcting
any errors (reinforcement).
Child language behaviourists believe that children acquire language,
as they learn modes of behaviour.
As the behaviour is copied, the language is copied.
This theory fails to explain, how children ignore adult correction and
resist to use their own language.
Skinner took a more radical view. He presented verbal behaviour as
a function of controlling consequences and stimuli, not as the
product of a special inherent capacity.
It seems that language is merely a vehicle to support human
behaviour.
Gilbert Ryle was a soft behaviourist. He believed that we can tell a
persons state of mind by observing them (implying a mind or
internal origin of language).
Criticisms of Behaviourist
There are some criticisms of this theory:

Children can construct new sentences theyve never heard

before so they arent directly imitating.

They dont memorise thousands of sentences to use later, so

their development cant be exclusively based on repetition

37

Imitation cant explain over generalisations <he runned

away> - children dont copy these errors as adults dont make
them

If the acquisition of language was entirely dependent on

parental reinforcement, there would be much more variation
between individual children

All children pass through the same stages of language

development regardless of the type and amount of
reinforcement they receive.

Modelling correction
Child: my train is bea
Mother: no (.) not by there (.) just there
Child: my train is bea
Mother: no just there
Child: oh (.) my train is just bea
Why does this child hold on to its own language?
Nativism
This theory of language was devised by Noam Chomsky and looks at
language acquisition as an innate ability - a predisposition to
language that is inbuilt in our brains.
LAD (language acquisition device).
Chomsky used this concept as a way to object to Skinners theory of
behaviourism. He rejected it claiming the brain is a blank state upon
which experiences can be imprinted.
The idea of a LAD cannot be proven or disproven but his ideas are
illuminating.
His basis for the LAD are the unique phrases and syntactic
constructions uttered by children.
<her got her rattle> / <her not gone> / <he wented out>
These are unique and have never been uttered by adults, which
suggests children have some subconscious understanding of syntax
despite never having been taught it.
This, he referred to as the deep structures of language. Chomsky
considers the difference between surface structures and deep
structures in all languages and suggests that while the surface may
be different, the deep structures are all the same.

38

Virtuous errors
This is the term used to refer to the syntactic and grammatical
errors generated by children when acquiring language.
These are more than simple mistakes as they reflect the childs
language understanding and intelligence.
Common virtuous errors include the formation of past tense in
irregular verbs such as <go> and <hold> and forming plurals in
nouns such as <foot>.
Chomsky argues these errors indicate an understanding of how past
tense and plurality works but occur as a result of the irregularity of
some lexemes.
It is unlikely children will have heard syntactic structures such as
these so why do they create them?
It would appear they understand the application of bound
inflectional morpheme <-ed> enables us to express the past when
attached to the base form of the verb.
This is thought to be a consequence of exposition to large stores of
regular patterns in speech and language. But it is impossible for any
child to hear and be exposed to every single possible construction in
language, which provides further ammunition for Chomskys
rejection of Skinners Behaviourism concepts.
Poverty of Stimulus
This refers to a theory of learning which provides evidence for
Chomskys innate ability to acquire language.
Children are exposed to a cacophony of sounds, including, but not
limited to:
People talking simultaneously
People talking quickly, sometimes inaudibly
Incomplete utterances
Interruptions
All of which affect the fluency of language. Given the stimulus
exposed, children edit their language to omit these features.
So, Chomsky argues this provides evidence for a LAD.
Support and criticisms for nativism
Speed at which children acquire language and learn to speak
39

Children from all languages pass through similar stages of

language development
The existence of grammatical features common to all
languages such as nouns, verbs, subject, predicators etc
The main criticism of this theory is the underestimation of
interaction.
Chomskys theory implies that if a child is exposed to language, he
will automatically acquire that language. BUT will he competent?
Case study Jim
Bard and Sachs 1977
Psychologists studied the language competence of a child named
Jim who was the son of two deaf parents.
Jim was not deaf himself and was not taught much sign language as
a means of encouragement to speak.
Jim watched a significant amount of TV and listened to the radio but
his language skills were seriously retarded.
His speech did not begin to improve until her began sessions with a
speech therapist. He was clearly ready to speak but the lack of
human contact reduced his competence.

Nature vs Nurture
Jerome Bruner generated a supporting concept in connection with
the LAD, Language acquisition support system (LASS) which
considered the impact of the childs environment.
He agreed with the notion of innateness but added the significance
of input from others.
If the input is absent, how does this affect language acquisition and
competence?
Interaction? What about feral children?
Bruner acknowledges the innate ability for language acquisition but
disregards Chomskys notion of poverty of stimulus.

40

Bruner and other researchers state the predisposed talent for

acquisition is assisted by carefully structured input from caregivers
from their immediate environment.
This places significance on the interaction with adult speakers and
used the term motherese to describe this.
Other terms used include caregiver speech or child-directed
speech (CDS) which can refer to any influential speaker.
Critical Age Hypothesis
Popularised by Eric Lenneberg in 1967, the critical period hypothesis
states that the first few years of life is the crucial time in which an
individual can acquire a first language if presented with adequate
stimuli.
If language input doesn't occur until after this time, the individual
will never achieve a full command of language
especially grammatical systems.This evidence seems to contradict
Chomskys theory of innateness.
Features of Bruners theory

Simplified grammar and meaning

Shorter sentences (8 words per sentence to 4 for
two year
olds)
Restricted range of sentence types
Expansion and repetition of sentences
Slower speech
Use of special words and sounds (blanky, poopy)
High pitch
Large number of interrogatives
Embedded in the here and now (rather than
past/present,
imaginary or hypothetical)
Interaction Theory
This idea builds upon Bruners concept of the LASS and places a
significance with the amount of interaction and input from
caregivers.
This is often referred to as Child Directed Speech and observes the
ways in which adults speak to children.
In addition to the forms outlined previously, adults will introduce
new concepts by creating their own adjacency pairs e.g. <Whats
this? Its a flower>. This can become habitual when introducing new
lexemes.
41

What strategies does the mother/caregiver adopt to help her child

communicate?
C:
ball (.) ball
M: Yes thats a ball (.) its a big ball isnt it (.) big ball
C:
big ball
M: Yes (.) what colour is the ball Sophie (3.0) Tell mummy what
colour the ball is
C:
Pink
M: It is pink (.) Its pink (.) its a pink ball
C:
Pink ball
M: Do you want to play with the ball (2.0) shall we play with the
ball?
The input from caregivers, not only enables the children to acquire
language but outlines the rules of conversation inc. turn taking,
forming adjacency pairs and helps develop pragmatic
understanding.
But, the extent of the influence of interaction is difficult to measure
in regards to linguistic development.
It does not seem essential that adults address children in particular
ways, as children raised in cultures whereby adult speech is not
altered when speaking to children succeed in acquiring competent
forms of language.
Child directed speech
Common features of CDS:
Phonology
Slower, clearer pronunciation
More pauses between phrases and sentences (utterances)
Higher pitch
Exaggerated tone and stress
Lexis
Simpler, more restricted vocabulary
Diminutive forms <doggy>
Concrete nouns in reference to immediate environment
Grammar
Simpler constructions
Frequent use of imperatives
High degree of repetition
Interrogatives
Use of proper nouns (personal names) rather than pronouns
<mummy> instead of <I>
42

Many of these features ensure language is accessible for children

and allows the development to progress more easily. It gains their
attention for longer periods of time and so appear to listen more
intently.
Effects of CDS
Research suggests the frequency of interrogatives improves
understanding of modal auxiliary verbs.
Pausing after utterances encourages children to do the same and
introduces them to conversational rules.
There is some discussion of baby-talk, claiming it interferes with
the development of language as it provides inaccurate and distorted
versions of normal speech.
CDS can also be used in other contexts such as lovers speaking with
each other, and addressing pets. There is also evidence of this when
communicating with elderly people.
Cognitive Theory
This approach to language acquisition focuses on the mental
process and was pioneered by Piaget.
She stated children needed to have developed certain mental
capabilities in order for them to acquire language.
When children begin language development, they cannot process
concepts outside of their immediate environment which was coined
as egocentric.
Once they reach 18 months, they begin to realise objects outside of
their environment exist all time. This is known as object
permanence.
She claimed that once children comprehend object permanence, it
coincides with a significant increase in vocabulary and ultimately
develops their understanding of abstract ideas and concepts.
Piaget was interested in the overall cognitive development of
children not just their language acquisition.
She was intrigued by their understanding other concepts such as
volume and size and suggested there were links between this and
their linguistic development (the acquisition and comprehension of
comparatives and superlatives).
43

Their understanding of active and passive develops at a later stage

once they can use and recognise complex language structures.
<The red lorry is following the blue one>
<The blue lorry is being followed by the red one>
Lev Vygotsky socio-cultural theory
Vygotsky, a psycholinguist, followed Piagets work and devised
theories about the importance of the wider social environment on
their cognitive and language development.
He claimed the experiences of different social and cultural contexts
are important for language development and identified two factors
he believed where significant in their contributions:
Private speech (talking aloud to themselves)
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) (helping the child)
He believed other people (can be an older child) play an important
role in advancing a childs understanding he referred to these
influences as more knowledgable other (MKO).
Criticisms of cognitive theory
A significant concept of this theory is the close link between
cognition and language.
But, many critics believe this link is not as close as initially thought
particularly when you examine the linguistic ability of some children
with learning difficulties.
It is expected, to some extent, that language development in
children with learning difficulties would be impaired based upon the
deficiency in their cognitive development. But since, there are some
children who have acquired language fluently, it calls into question,
how closely connected these functions are.
Functional Approach
The functional approach was devised by linguist M.A.K. Halliday in
order to analyse language development.
His evidence for this theory comes from observations of his own
son, Nigel.
His approach explores language as a functional tool for
communication rather than a system of structures. He focused on
human communicative goals (physical, emotional and social) and
suggests there are four primary functions:
44

Instrumental: expressing needs for food

Regulatory: controlling the actions of others
Interactional: making social contact
Personal: expressing feelings

He suggested that even in very young infants, these features are

evident in the pre-speech stage. Many of these include gestures.
What gestures could you use to indicate the four stages?
At a later stage, Halliday suggests the child needs to achieve further
communicative goals. These help with and come to terms with
their environment.

Heuristic: asking for information

Representational: conveying information
Imaginative: telling stories, even lying to create an
imaginary world

These stages can be considered metalinguistics; language to talk

about language, rather than any other function.
Pragmatics and Discourse
These two concepts often overlap in language as you study the
overall structure of the texts, you may be engaged in the underlying
meaning of the language used which may include anecdotes,
jokes, phone conversations etc.
Your social awareness is instinctive which means you may not be
aware of the rules which govern language use and communication
until someone flouts them.
Children generally acquire (or learn through imitation and
reinforcement) these discourse conventions.
Politeness conventions
Children need to adjust their language use to fit in with others
needs. This means their understanding of politeness (or manners) is
crucial in social interaction.
There are many adverbs which are never included in textbooks
despite the fact they are influential. They add little in terms of
content but their function can be significant.
Hedging and mitigated imperatives alter the strength of an
utterance/sentence and make them less demanding.

45

<I just wanted> <Actually, I wanted> <not possible

though>
Other politeness markers may involve an initial agreement followed
by a contradiction e.g. <yeah, but> or modal auxiliary verbs
<could you >.
These conventions are learned primarily through imitation and
reinforcement. They understand that some social interactions
require specific conventions such as opening a telephone
conversation with <hello> and ending with <goodbye>.

Nature of Language
When examining language development, it is important to do so in
two ways:

Structure: focuses on forms such as grammar and phonology

Function: communicative approach which focuses on

meanings; examining semantics and pragmatics

Ferdinand de Saussure used two linguistic terms to describe the

differing focuses of language development: Langue (language) and
Parole (speech). These two concepts explore the link between
language (signs) and the interpretation imposed as a result of
environment and represent the two different roles language plays.
Structural approach
This will focus on the development of forms of language using a
range of key constituents including:

phonological acquisition
grammatical acquisition

The aim of this section is to explore the commonalities in childrens

acquisition whilst bearing in mind, there are exceptions to every
rule. While these features are common, it is unwise and can be
difficult to fit these to every child.
You must take care not to adopt a deficit rule whereby child
acquisition is compared to adult competency and use Chomskys
descriptions of <virtuous errors>.
Stages of development

46

There is an accepted pattern when exploring child language

acquisition:
First stage: babbling
Second stage: single words (holophrastic stage)
Third stage: two word combinations
Fourth stage: Telegraphic stage
Finally: child reaches pinnacle of grown-up language
Although this is an interesting summary, treat this model with
caution.
There are other forms of communication which can suggest
language development begins much earlier than simply babbling
Beginning of language development
Children around the world appear to acquire language by passing
through a similar set of stages. But the time and pace at which
individual children progress from one stage to another varies
according to the child.
The stages, themselves appear to be universal as the same pattern
of development is evident regardless of the language being
acquired.
There is some evidence which suggests language development
occurs before birth.
Before and after birth
It is suggested a baby can become acclimatised to the sounds of its
native language whilst in utero.
Mehler et al (1988) found that French babies as young as four days
old were able to distinguish French from other languages. When
they were exposed to French, they sucked their dummies more
strongly than English or Italian.
The research suggests that babies become used to rhythms and
intonation of the language spoken around them.
Other research
DeCasper and Spence (19986) found babies sucked on their
dummies more when their mothers read them the same story that
theyd read aloud to them during the last six months of pregnancy.

47

Fitzpatrick (2002) found the heart rate of an unborn baby slowed

when it heard its mothers voice.
This reinforces the idea that children are accustomed to patterns in
voice and recognise them once born.
Using their vocal chords
Babies begin to use their vocal chords immediately and express
themselves through crying and cooing although this occurs around
6-8 weeks old.
Different cries are used to express a range of emotions including
hunger, distress or pleasure. Research claims English mothers can
differentiate between the cries of foreign babies as readily as they
can those of English babies.
This suggests cries are instinctive noises and cannot therefore be
considered language.
Cooing
This stage begins when babies are 6-8 weeks old and start with a
small range of sounds as they get used to moving their lips and
tongue.
The range of sounds made is small and generally begins with vowels
such as /u/ and /a/. Once they begin to control their vocal chords,
extended vowel combinations appear /u:/ and /a:/. They, then begin
to include velar consonants /k/ and /g/.
These sounds carry no meaning it is simply the baby
experimenting with sounds. Once they become more defined and
are strung together, this is known as babbling.
Babbling (6 months+)
This is one of the most significant events in a babys first year of
life. It usually begins around the age of 6 months.
These sounds often resemble adult language and may include
reduplicated monosyllables <ba>, <ma> etc.
Many parents are eager to believe their child is speaking its first
words - they are simply exercising their vocal chords and the
reduplicated patterns therefore hold no meaning or significance.
The repetition of these sounds is known as canonical or reduplicated
babbling.
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At times, some of the sounds are not repeated exactly and will
sound like <googigoo-ga>; this is variegated babbling.
Evidence for the lack of meaning comes from the babbling which
occurs in deaf children. They do this with their hands having been
exposed to sign language which indicates this is an instinctive
activity, not an attempt to convey meaning or language.
There is, however, some research which argues babbling is the
beginning of speech. Petitto and Holowka (2002) claim babbling
comes from the right side of the mouth which is controlled by the
left side of the brain. It is this side of the brain which is responsible
for speech production. As such, they argue babbling is a form of
preliminary speech.
Babbling can be divided into two distinctive stages:
Phonemic expansion
Phonemic contraction
Once the childs babbling increases its range of sounds, this is
known as phonemic expansion. Bilabial phonemes are generally
those produced first.
But, normally at the age of 9/10 months, the baby will reduce the
range of phonemes made by omitting sounds not heard in its native
language. It is at this stage of development, children of different
nationalities begin to sound different.
Proto words
Intonation patterns begin to emerge once the child starts babbling
and they will reflect the rhythms of adult speech.
At the end of a babbling sequence, the intonation may rise thus
mirroring the intonation used when forming interrogatives. These
may also be accompanied by gestures, whereby the child may point.
As phonemic expansion progresses, strings of phonemes are
combined and begin to carry meaning. A child may say <mmm> to
show they are hungry. While this is not a word, it functions like one.
These are called proto words and may also be accompanied by
gestures.
Other proto words begin to emerge such as /d/ when a child refers
to a cat. Although this is just a phoneme rather than a word, it refers
to an object so is not a random utterance.

49

At around 9 months old children start to attempting to speak and

sound as though they are making up their own language. This is
known as jargon.
During the later stages of babbling, sound and meaning begin to
merge and reduplicated babbling takes on meaning. /ma ma/
means <mam> and /ka-ka/ means <car>.
Phonological development
There are some general patterns of phonological acquisition,
although children can vary from this and acquire them at different
rates.
Most children will be able to use all vowel phonemes by the time
they are 2.5 years old. Consonant development, however, is not
considered complete and confident until the child is approximately 6
or 7 years old.
The earliest consonants tend to be nasals or voiceless plosives and
the last are likely to be fricatives including dental, palato-alveolar
and possibly some labio dental phonemes.
Some generalisations
The place and manner of articulation can influence the acquisition of
some phonemes:
Front consonants /b, p, t, d/ come before back consonants /k, g/
Plosives /b, p, t, d, k, g/ come before fricatives /f, v, s, z,
etc/
Word initial plosives develop before word final plosives
<book>
<book>
Word final fricatives develop before word initial fricatives
<Louise> <Spike>
Consonant clusters are often reduced to one consonant
through
simplification
Consonant clusters in final position develop before those in initial
position <orange> <green>
Vowel Phonemes
Most vowel phonemes do not pose the same issues regarding
development but there is some research which looks at vowel
acquisition.

Some unstressed syllables tend to be deleted e.g.

<pretend> could become /pen/
Addition of extra vowels between consonant clusters <blue> /blu/
Assimilation of consonant phonemes and reduplication
<doggy> - /ggi:/
50

Devoicing (substitution of voiced phonemes with voiceless

phonemes <gup> - /kp/

Methods of simplification
Children often simplify their language if they find it difficult to
pronounce and occurs with consonant phonemes.
Deletion: omission of a consonant, most likely in word final position
Substitution: replace a phoneme with another which is easier to
pronounce e.g /wegz/ instead of /legz/
Cluster reduction: Omits the second consonant in a cluster
Berko and Brown (1960) reported what they referred to as the fis
phenomenon. A child referred to his plastic fish as a fis which
suggests they recognise and understand a wider range of phonemes
than they use.
Other phonological features

Addition: adding another phoneme to the end of the word e.g

/dogu/
Assimilation: consonant phoneme changes due to
influence
from following phoneme e.g. /tub/ - /bub/
Reduplication: phoneme or syllable is repeated <choochoo>
Voicing: Some voiceless phonemes are voiced so <sock>
/sok/ would become /zok/
Devoicing: Voiced phonemes are replaced by voiceless
phonemes <bag> /pg/
/l/ (lateral) and /r/ (V approximant) tend to be replaced by /w/(VL
approximant) and /j/ (V approximant)
This is because children find these difficult to produce in the early
stages.
Pronunciation is not usually standardised until 2-3
Lexical and Grammatical development
Over- / under extension
This is common in language acquisition when a child first begins to
acquire lexemes and develop their semantic understanding of the
words, particularly as they learn each word in a specific context.

51

Over-extension refers to the process whereby children apply a word

learned to any person or object which displays the same
characteristics e.g. <daddy>
Under-extension occurs when a child uses the lexeme in a narrow
sense and does not understand that other people or objects can be
described in a similar manner e.g. <bear>
Thus if the child says <bye bye> when his mother leaves for work,
the child may not realise that <bye bye> may be used as a marker
of farewell to anyone.
They may label anything round as <clock>,
for them it is sufficient that the named object
is round.
Synonyms and antonyms can illustrate developing knowledge. A
young boy may use the noun phrase <little boy> to refer to
themselves but will not acknowledge the synonym <small> as an
alternative.
Much of this can be attributed to the exposure to variety of lexical
items and the concept of social environment debate.
Common lexical terms
The three most common areas of reference for early lexis are:
Body functions
Toys
Food
These are followed by areas of the house, animals and formulaic
phrases with a social function such as <yes, no, please and thank
you>.
Word class
Initially, they will acquire concrete nouns that refer to their
immediate environment.
Then once object permanence is understood, they acquire abstract
nouns but may still over - generalise these meanings.
It is not until their 2nd and 3rd years that adverbs, verbs and
adjectives are added, although there may be some difference in use.
Speed of learning

18mths- about 50 lexemes

52

24mths usually about 100 , but expands rapidly at this point

as the child learns grammar.

By 3yrs they learn that words are restricted in meaning and

that they have to learn a new vocabulary in order to
compensate. At this point they will be able to use about 1000
words. They also realise that words can have different
meanings e.g. bear, tape.

Grammatical Development
Children cannot be taught the rules of grammar explicitly.
Instead they extract the rules from the speech they hear.
Several stages of acquisition may be identified.

Holophrastic stage (One word)

Two word stage
Telegraphic stage (utterances)
Then the child reaches the pinnacle of acquisition

Most children are aged one when they utter their first words and
will come in single words, at first.
Occasionally, more than one word may be involved but will
usually have been learned as, and will therefore function as a
single unit. This means the child is not fully aware of the lexeme
boundaries.
E.g. <allgone>
In many situations, the single word will serve a naming function
and will be accompanied by a physical gesture such as pointing.
More complex functions?
The child will use a single word to convey more complex meanings.
When a child says <water> it may carry additional meaning such
as:
<I want water>
<I want more water>
<There is water>
<Is that water?>
Gestures and intonation may indicate the difference between these
utterances.
Although at this stage, the childs own utterances are limited, his
understanding is more advanced. They seem to have a greater
knowledge of forms than they can produce.
53

Three items of evidence support the holophrastic stage:

The child who utters a single word understands more in the
speech of others.
Children will vary their intonation at this stage (rising for
questions, falling for statements).
Given identical situations children will utter different parts of
the proposition at different times. This demonstrates that they
understand the full utterance but are unable to produce it in
full.
But
At this age a childs comprehension is not totally linguistic. It relies
on features like gaze and arm movements to augment its
understanding.
Adaptive parents who attempt to interpret the childs utterances
are very important in this stage.
The Two-word stage 18-20 months
The two-word stage normally begins around 18 months old and by
the time the child is 24 months a variety of these utterances will
appear:
<Baby eat> <Mammy chair> <Cat bad>
The utterances will follow SVO syntax and will be grammatically
standard in sequence including:
Noun + Verb <Jenny sleep>
Verb + Object <draw doggy>
Subject + Object <Sophie juice>
Subject + Complement <daddy tired>
Imitating
A child may attempt to repeat what adults say, but will often omit
some of the lexemes
<Look, Ben is playing in the garden>
The child will generally remove the components of the sentence that
are unnecessary to convey meaning and will follow the standard
syntax patterns
<play garden>
This illustrates their focus on key lexemes within the utterance.
Semantics / Meaning
54

These utterances can convey more complex meanings and shows

that the child understands that words interrelate and one word can
change the meaning of others.
Interpretation relies on context but can function as a range of
different sentence moods.
The ambiguity of some utterances occurs due to the absence of
inflections.
Telegraphic Stage 24-36 months
This is the first stage whereby it is universally agreed as being
present in all languages and usually occurs between the ages of 24
36 months.
Telegraphic utterances are typically condensed forms of sentences
structures without function words (closed class lexemes).
The name derives from the form of communication telegram,
where the message conveyed was shortened due to the cost per
lexeme, similar to SMS.
Due to the natural omission of closed class lexemes in childrens
speech, this stage provides further evidence for human
predisposition to language and our innate abilities.
This illustrates an intuitive sense of language structures and the
lexemes required for meaning to be conveyed.
Grammar
An area of interest in telegraphic utterances is the childs
understanding of how to manipulate declaratives into other
sentence moods or negatives:
<She is going>
<I want that>
How do we alter the above structures to show these forms?
Notice the difference between simple present and present
progressive.
They include periphrastic <do>.
Interrogatives and negatives
Children often develop these structures in stages and may opt for
intonation at first to illustrate the function of the utterance.

55

They then begin to use interrogative pronouns such as <what>,

<where>, <why>, <when> and <who> although the first two tend
to appear before the latter three.
Is this connected to behaviourism or cognition?
Example
C: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
A: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
C: Yes
A: What did you say she did?
C: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
A: Did you say she held them tightly?
C: No, she helded them loosely.
The child is NOT being taught language by its carers. Instead the
child constructs, via what is said to them, possible ways of using the
language.
They try constructions and see if they work.
Adult correction seems to have no part to play. Children ignore
corrections and continue to use their own forms.
Complex structures
Complex sentences and passive structures are considered one of
the more complex ideas in language and may be considered more
difficult to grasp and therefore implement.
Passive: <I think this idea might have been assimilated
experience of folk tales>

from

Complex: <I like that book as its colourful>

This is reflected in GCSE writing whereby pupils who rely on the use
of coordinating conjunctions to form compounds are scored lower
than those who use passive constructions in formal writing.
Morphology
The wug test demonstrates the childs understanding of the ways in
which words can be constructed; adding bound morphemes to the
root word.
The children were presented with an image of a blue, bird-like
creature and told This is a wug. They were then shown another
image and asked Now there are.
56

If the child understood inflections they were able to show plurality

through the addition of the inflection morpheme <-s>. If they did
not, they tended to use a cardinal determiner instead e.g. <Now,
there are two wug>.
Morphology
By the time the child is 3 years old, it is going beyond telegraphic
speech and is starting to incorporate inflectional morphemes.

The present tense inflection <ing> progressive morpheme is

added to verbs <mummy reading, baby walking>
Regular <s> plural on nouns such as <cats> and <books>

This process is often accompanied by over-generalisation, but this

illustrates the childs underlying understanding of morphology.
Over-generalisation
This means the child adds the s form to all nouns including
irregular.
<Mans, foots, fishes>
The other s plural sounds (dogs and houses) will also be overgeneralised.
<Boyses, footses>
At the same time the child starts to learn the irregular plurals such
as men, but shortly after will start to apply a variety of rules at the
same time giving some potentially unusual forms.
<Mens, menses, foot, foots, footses, footsesiz>
Acquisition of Inflections
Brown 1973- 20-36 months old
Sequence of acquisition
1. <-ing>
2. Plural <-s>
3. Possessive <-s>
4. <the> <a>
5. Past tense <-ed>
6. 3rd person sing verb ending <-s>
7. Aux <be>
Verb forms
A similar process can occur with verb forms.
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Many irregular forms appear first (since they are used by carers
more often).
The first irregulars to appear are <went, came, are and was>.
When the child masters the <ed> inflection this is applied to all
forms even the previously correct irregulars!
<Wented, walked, walkeded, comed>
Interrogatives
18-26 months
In the two word stages the child will us a wh- word plus rise in
intonation.
<Where kitty? when home? Why bed?>
22-30 months
Same as above but an agent is added.
<Why me bed? What book name? Where mummy gone?>
24-40 months
Subject verb inversion starts but wh- word questions do not always
show this.
Why kitty cant stand up?
Will you help me?
Did I caught it?
How that opened?
Can I have piece?
18-26 months
No/not is added to the beginning of utterances
no teddy
not sit
no bed
22-30 months
No, not, cant and dont start to appear.

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He no bite you
There no squirrels
You cant dance
I dont know
24-40 months
By this age other auxiliary forms start to appear such as didnt and
wont.
The simple use of no and not starts to disappear. Isnt is a very late
form.
I didnt caught it
She wont let go
He not talking
This not ice-cream.
Discourse/Conversation
The childs acquisition of language is done in order to communicate,
not for the sake of it.
Several areas relevant to conversation need to be considered:
Articles
The use of articles (definite and indefinite) is important, as they
have to take into account listeners knowledge and perspective.
He put the frog in the pond.
He put a frog in the pond.
Children aged 32-60 months have a fairly advanced use of articles.
When they use the incorrect one it will usually be because they
have a specific reference in mind.
Indirect Speech Acts
Indirect speech acts are language events where the function of an
utterance must be distinguished from its content.
Put your toys away (direct)
Why dont you put your toys away? (indirect)
Children understand direct speech acts before indirect ones as they
need to develop a pragmatic understanding.

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Their ability to produce indirect speech acts is proceeded by the

ability to understand them.
Children aged 3yrs were shown a puppet show. The puppet gave the
following speech acts.
1. Give me sweets
2. I would like some sweets
3. May I have some sweets?
The children said that speech act 3 deserved the sweets because
they said please!
Speech style
In order to modify its speech style to suit various contexts a child
needs the following:
Flexible grammar and vocabulary
A recognition that different listeners have different needs.
A recognition that different modes of address are more polite than
others.
An ability to tell which audience demands a more formal style.
A group of 4yr olds were asked to teach a group of 2yr olds and
adults the rules of a game. It was found that they used more indirect
speech acts for adults showing some awareness of listener needs.
Conclusions
As children grow older they become less dependent on context for
producing and understanding language. They gain lexical flexibility
early and by 3 can refer to absent people and events.
By 4 yrs they become aware of listener needs and are able to
successfully detect underlying meaning.

Semiotics
The interpretation of signs
Children write for a number of reasons:
Record their existence
Record things
Express themselves
Communicate with others not present.
If the child does not have a reason to write, they will not see the
value in doing it.
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In order to write, they must develop an understanding of the

relationship between signs and language.
Semiotics outlines the relationship between signs and meanings
(similar to connotations and denotations).
One of the most significant concepts in language acquisition is
understanding how things relate to each other.
A child must learn that "THIS" refers to "THAT
(THIS) A sound, image, scribble, symbol = Object, concept
"THIS" does not mean "THAT"
Signs are not interpreted in the same way
Each child will interpret signs in a different way. They are subjective
and influenced by their individual experiences.
This is influenced by what they have been exposed to in their
environment. This is known as environmental print.
The more the child is exposed to, the greater their influences are.
They will be able to draw upon their experiences to generate
meanings and associations.
Environmental print is extremely important for children to develop
their written skills. Without exposition to signs or sign systems, they
are unlikely to develop properly.
Lev Vygotsky discussed the significance of this in regards The Zone
of Proximal Development.
Zone of Proximal Development
What a child can do with help and without help
This concept is based upon the idea that children learn via imitation.
The role of the educator is to provide children with experiences in
their ZPD in order to encourage and advance individual learning.
Early Research
Early research into childhood literacy failed to consider the
importance of signs and systems in improving their learning.

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The exposure to signs and sign systems in early childhood is

suggested to influence the development of literacy skills i.e. reading
and writing.

Early Literacy Development

The development of early literacy occurs in several stages through
which children progress in different ways and paces.
Suggested to occur between the ages of 5-8.
Individual children may take a variety of routes to master the skills
needed to be competent readers and writers.
Literacy
There are 4 stages of literacy:
Emergent literacy
Early literacy
Early Fluent literacy
Fluent literacy
Within each stage of literacy there are several stages involved in the
process of reading and writing.
Emergent Literacy
Emergent Literacy
Any reading/writing-like behaviour which mimics components of the
activities that are generally considered reading or writing
Emergent reading
Children comprehend or attempt to comprehend a message
encoded in graphic signs
Emergent writing
Children attempt to produce graphic signs representing oral speech
Processes they undergo
Understand written language conveys meaning
Pretend to read and write, pretending to turn pages
and inventing stories using images and memory
(links to environmental print)
Begin to match spoken words with print
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 May know some letter names and sound

associations
May recognise some words/letters in their
environment but not in other contexts
Can write some letters in their name
In writing, letters may be reversed and mostly in
upper case
May make scribbles or some strings of random
letters with no spaces, one letter may represent a
whole word
May read or attribute meaning to his marks but
may not be able to re-read at a later time

Childrens Written Language

Drawing and writing

Children, like adults, write for a purpose.
They acquired spoken language by imitation and acquire written
language in the same way.
The only context in which it can be argued they write for the sake of
writing is education.
Having no purpose for writing can be problematic for children.
Research into early literacy suggests that functions are more
important than forms.
How quickly a child progresses depends upon:
How much practice they have
Their intelligence
Role models who write
What do they understand?
When writing, a child understands:
print carries meaning
it is different from drawing
speech can be encoded in print
it can be read aloud
it has direction (left to right in English)

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Writing is not deciphering and translating, it is a learning process,

much like the acquisition of speech, therefore it is argued that
children do not simply copy from the adult model.
Ferreiro and Teberosky carried out some experimental work in early
literacy and found that children experiment with signs, in the same
way they experiment with speech.
Children understand the written system and how it works before
they become competent users of it.
They need to understand that symbols can be combined
number of ways.

in a

They need to comprehend the system for writing e.g. directionality,

spacing, lower case and capital letters, and punctuation.
They also need to understand that the function of the text can
determine its form and content.
Early writing
Writing however, doesnt just involve understanding. It includes the
development of motor skills and the practical ability to hold and
manipulate a pen.
In the very early stages of writing, children tend to ignore linearity
and write anywhere on the page, and includes letter-like forms.
Stages of development
There are said to be 6 clear stages of development, but can differ
depending upon the theorist.
Barclay 1996 argues there are 7 stages of development whereas
Kroll 1981 suggests there are only 4 and links them to specific age
groups.
Barclay 1996
Scribbling: Random marks are made but do not relate to
letters/words.
Learn mechanical skills of holding pencils/crayons.
Talk about their scribbles.
Mock handwriting: Draws shapes but they are unrecognisable and
letter-like forms begin to appear in or with drawings and first signs
of emergent writing.

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Mock letters: Random letters, no awareness of spacing or matching

sounds with symbols
Conventional letters: Sound and symbols begin to match. Words are
spaced
Use initial consonants to refer to entire word.
Invented Spelling: Most words are spelled phonetically but some
simple/familiar words are spelled correctly
Appropriate spelling: Sentences become more complex as child
becomes more aware of standard spelling systems. Writing is more
legible.
Correct Spelling: Most words are spelled correctly.
Kroll 1981 4 Stages
Preparatory stage: (from 18months)
Develop motor skills.
Begin to learn basics of spelling.
Consolidation stage: (6-8 years)
Begin to write in same way they speak.
Use lots of colloquialisms.
Short declarative sentences and familiar
conjunctions.
Not sure how to finish off sentences.
Little punctuation used.
Differentiation stage: (8-Mid-teens)
More aware of spoken/written conventions.
Understand different genres.
Begin structuring work using guides/frameworks.
More complex grammar/sentence structures.
Accurate/consistent punctuation.
Integration stage: (mid-teens upwards)
Writing is more accurate, wider vocabulary and
accurate spelling
Understand style changes for audience and
purpose.
Narrative/descriptive skills improve.
Develop a personal style.
Drawing

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Within Barclays scribbling stage and Krolls Preparatory stage,

children develop their fine motor skills enabling them to hold
pencils/crayons.
Children use drawing as method of communicating meaning, even
though it is often unrecognisable.
Betty Edwards and Viktor Lowenfeld outline several stages of
drawing, but we are only concerned with the first two stages.
When a child begins to draw people, they generally draw a large
head with arms and legs attached.
When a child passes from the early drawing into scribbling
stages, this is where we begin to observe the earliest forms of
emergent writing.
Children mimic the behaviour of the adult and view their writing as
having a purpose which will determine the shape and form chosen.
It is here that we can distinguish between writing and drawing.
Thus it is clear that, even in imaginary play, writing has a purpose; a
functional role.
The End

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