Psycholinguistic

LATER SPEECH
STAGES
Rule Formation for negatives,
Questions, Relative clauses, Passives,
and other complex structures
Negation formation Features of Negation

"Kim wanted some candy"

Negation development
1. Where to insert the negative
Affirmative : Kim is hungry
Negative :
Kim is not hungry
Kim isn't hungry
Affirmative : Kim wanted some candy
Negative :
Kim did not want any candy
Kim didn't want any candy
marker.
a) If the verb is 'be', then
NEG is placed after the copula
'be' form. Thus,
'Kim is NEG happy' becomes
'Kim is not happy'.
b) If the verb is not 'be ', then
'not' is placed before the verb.
Thus,
"Kim not want + PAST some candy ,"
2. When and where to insert
auxiliary 'do'.
Insert 'do' when the verb is one other
than 'be'.
"Kim do not want + PAST some
candy."
'do' is not inserted if there is a modal
(will, can) or auxiliary (be, have)
present, as in 'Kim will not want to
go'.
3. When auxiliary 'do' is used,
then the tense from the verb
is shifted to the auxiliary 'do'.
Thus, from :
"Kim do not want + PAST...."
We get :
"Kim do + PAST not want
some candy."
Then, lexicalization (the asterisk
here and elsewhere indicates
ungrammaticality):
*Kim did not want some candy.
4. Lexical Concordances must
be made in the case of the
negative, e.g. 'some' must change
to 'any' so as to yield the
grammatical
"Kim did not want any candy."
5. Optionally, AUX + NEG ('did'
+ 'not') can be contracted to
'didn't', This would provide us
with :
"Kim didn't want any candy."

According to the classic research of Klima and Bellugi (1966) and others,
there is a consistent pattern in this, with negation being acquired in
three main periods. Incidentally, these data are those taken from the
same three children whose morpheme acquisition was described above in
the Brown study.
 The Brown Study
negation being acquired in three main periods.
Period 1.
'No money', 'Not a teddy bear',
'No play that', 'No fall', 'No the
sun shining' , 'No singing song'
a negation marker (NEG), in the
form of 'no' or 'not', is placed at
the front of an affirmative
utterance (U). Thus we see
utterances typically of the form,
Neg + U ('No fall').
Period 2.
'I don't want it', 'I don't know his
name', 'We can't talk', 'You can't
dance', 'Book say no', 'Touch the
snow no', 'That no Mommy', 'T
here no squirrels', 'He no bite you',
'I no want envelope' .
the negative marker tends to appear
internally within the utterance rather
than outside it as in the previous period,
and the auxiliaries 'do' and 'can' appear
with the negation marker.
Period 3.
'Paul can't have one', 'This
can't stick', 'I didn't did it', 'You The copula 'be' and the modal 'will' appear
didn't caught rne', 'Cause he with negation and imperative negatives are
fonned with 'do' rather than the simple
won't talk', 'Donna won't let go',
negative ('Don't touch the fish' as opposed to
'I am not a doctor', 'This not
'Touch the snow no' in earlier periods).
ice cream', 'Paul not tired' , 'I
not hurt hirn', 'I not see you The child now has a good idea of when 'do'
anymore', 'Don' t touch the must be inserted.
fish', 'Don't kick my box'.

After this period, it is only a matter of months before most of the problems
in negative marking are successfully dealt with, although children may rnake
occasional mistakes for years after.
 Question formations
Yes - no questions
Type 1 Type 2
'John is a very tall boy' copula 'be' 'Kim wanted some candy'
'ls John a very tall boy?' is fronted. 'Did Kim want any candy?

'Bobby can go to the store' Modal is AUX added to front,

'Can Bobby go to the store?' fronted. tense shifts to AUX,
lexical concord.
'Mary is singing now' AUX is
'Is Mary singing now?' fronted.
 who, what, wbere,
WH questions
when, how, why, etc

'The girl jumped on the table' WH for 'The monkey will be on the table'
'Who jumped on the table?' Subject 'Where will the monkey be?'
NP.
Modal fronted
'The girl hit the boy' WH for to follow WH
'Who(m) did the girl hit?' Object NP.
'The monkey is sitting on the table'
WH for
'The baby is on the table' 'Where is the monkey sitting?'
Prep Phrase
'Wbere is the baby?' of Location . AUX fronted
to follow WH
 Passive formations
'The boy pushed the truck' 'The truck be pushed by the boy'
'The truck pushed the boy'
Agent subject AUX 'by'
and object NPs appears before
are reversed. the verb

'The truck pushed by the boy' 'The truck was pushed by the boy'
'by' appears AUX is assigned
before agent same tense as on
NP. verb.
 Other Problems
Structures with
Later, WH-clauses appear with
two or more verbs abstract adverbials ('Can I do it when
we get home'). It is interesting that the
Almost all of these complex forms
adverbs 'when', 'where', and 'how'
consist of clauses thar are
emerge before the nouns that they
attached to the end of
replace.
utterances, e.g, 'I want Bill to go'.
For example, one child produced the
sentence 'I show you where we went'
Only much later do clauses appear
with the adverb of place 'where' about
within the utterances, e.g. 'The
one month before producing 'I show you
man who lives here is gone'.
the place we went' in which the NP
'the place' is used instead of the
adverb of location 'where' .
 Verb Problems

Carol Chomsky (1969) found that Researcher : Ask Ellen what to

some complex grammatical struc feed the doll
tures may not be acquired until Children : Feed the hamburger
quite late, even at the age of 10 Researcher : Allright now, tell Ellen
or 11 years what to feed her.
Children : Again?
For example, in the sentence 'John
told Bill to shovel the driveway' it
is clear to children that Bill will do
It is c1ear that between the ages
the shovelling. On the other hand,
of 5 and 10 children are still on
in a sentence such as 'John
the process of learning the more
promised Bill to shovel the
complex aspects of their Ianguage .
driveway'.