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    Early Language Development

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    From: A. Slter amc G. Bremner (ads) (1984), Infant Developmect, London: Erlbaum. Early Language Development Martyn Brett Department of Psycholoay, ‘Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, Egham Hil, Egham, ‘Surrey TW2000EX InTRopuCTION “The word fant is derived from the Latin word. nf, which means ealy "unable to speak. Comaquety, the aquisition of pach is often eparded smarking the end of nancy. However deciding pros whon spec has ‘ppeaed (and hence, whon infancy has ended) eno a easy mar. This rons tho eal deeopment of langage lakes place very gradual. Ths, daring the months which follow the production ofthe fst word, the infant ‘ght arn o produc ony one, two a ier new words pr month (Bena, 1993; Neon, 1973). Consquent, during thes early months of language evelopment th infant stl res much more Bel upon ee, ction ‘sures rather han spec for he parpses of communication (Lock, 1978, 1960; Lock, Serv, Bato, & Chander, Chapter 10, hs volume Schafer, 1977, chapter 8, ths volume; Zinober Marte, 1985, 1830). And even er the lust has come to rely upon words a5 x major medium of Communication, tat infant might tl not be able to combine words gether {o form simple two-word trans with ay degre of regula eal several ‘more months hve pased (Bloom, 1973; Garman, 197) “The present chapter deserts these various ingustie developments which ‘radully draw te period of infanoy toa close. The chapter i divided into three pats. The fit part considers the frst words which tant squire, ‘whereas the second part describes the subsequent linguate developments that ecur during the period of single word speech. The third part considers a 212 warn eannere ‘ow infants make the final tension into the muki-word speech of early chilahood ‘THE FIRST WORDS OF THE INFANT ‘Tere considerable varsity inthe age a which infints produce thie ‘ry it word, While some infants may proce their fist word at months ‘fap Bates et al, 1979), other may ot doso unl they are 1 mom old ‘acest, Hats, Jones & Brookes, 1986). Sil, infants vary consider ably in the age at which they achieve a productive vorabulay of 10 diffrent ‘words: Neon (173) found that this ean ooeur anywhere between 13 and 19 ‘months o ge (he average age being 1S month) ‘The Context-bound Nature ofthe First Words [As far asthe fs 10 words are concerned, it ha eenty beth argued by sever! dferent oberer that tes very carly words are not used by the {infant referential to name particular objets nd action (ee, for example, Baeet 986; Bates et al, 1973; Dore, 1985; Neon & Laci, 1985) Trsead, thas been proposed thatthe infants ert worde are sully ontest-bound in ature, tee predominant characterising tha hey re produced only in very limited and speci tuations or context in which Particular actions or events cir, To give some examples which might hep {o cai this notion, loom (1973) reports the cate af oe fant who Inlly began to use the word carat 9 mont of ag oly while she Wes {ooking out ofthe ving room window at ears moving othe srs below, ‘She id not use this word at this early agen anyother contexts whic might sugges that she was able oust referential Tor example shed ot ust to efer to stationary eas, to refer to plies of ear, ot whl she was ctl siting ina car. Sir, Bates al (1979) report that one of he infant sj only ever produced the word Bye, when was ft acquired, while hat infant was puting telephone reiivet down, Further instance oF ound word Use ar reported in Bare (1986) and in Barrett (19863) and Barret, Harri, Jones, & Brookes (9866); for example, one lakat 1 observed frst began 1 produce the word dick ony whl he was iting toy duck ofthe ee ofthe bath and never in any other context ‘hi inl stage, Observations such as these (ee Table ors rummary of ‘hes and other similar examples) have therefore le to the proposal thatthe infants nt words are usually context-bound in nature, wih referent ‘wordusage beng a ater phenomenon that docs not eres un later Doin in devslopment TARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 213 Whelan pt phone ier don, ne.) ‘9 Whe int te rl seta) “Wie in pi, er oe fe Bea 99) sok We tt i yd ef ee beth, a iN) oe Win bin, et 189) | Wenn er mate dor stn by ou wh Rae (4) Wien tig an Tis examples which ae shown in Table | uae see fbr characteris of ths vor erty cots ound wade: Py cthogh any cues the wor ae rode whl he har & cage evoring puter acon, rst segs the Far esse ue ‘oti cr and apa were bots prods vies he lant me ees Farle of eat securing i the nics, ele ere Active print inthe vent tht ce oe we othe meds Dat eg pat of howe evens Ty, would bea mae toca hee ‘orale ig ted ote travis of ena ce Sold enor aor to done tem arbi id toe secure of part eves, ee which fen (two sae) he ‘motor activity by the infant. pias “Sond one he omens fr he prado fhe words re iter hetetoptot never posi eos Set which fen characte tae contr. In many cca meee Sonat simply aan aedon which theft eps poner, hee ply th areal obt oy nd dc). here {et con of Speier da am & faut pind ‘esl nacional ote sucha pita ook ain or pees ‘too Inathd ype of come heel never bans wk ‘sadist cnlayby teint eps» prt dete et $2 6g anno. nna nto neath do aoe oy ‘otra by then th cont coins prepay so eee 214 uantyn aannert which the infant has tequenty experienced (eg car and pape). The {important point to notice hee i that ll of thee cases, the context i sharactersed by a fequenl occurring event furthermore, the belaviour hich comprise thes erets have olen aoquired a standrdsed and tal ‘ed format by the tine heft worde are produced (Brunet, 1983) In order to explain thee ndings, Barret (9834; T9E%by 1986) and Nelsoa (198, 1985; Nelson & Lucario, 1985) have propo that by the time the frst words are sequted, the infat has lend sequied tat ‘epresentatons of eran psa event In patel, they hype tal ‘he pring infant acquires aknowiede of Frequently recarng cunt thus the pretngusie infant would acquire mental repeentations ‘recisly thos evens which cur regularly in ree play, nso snteaive ‘outines, and in recurrent episodes af expresve haviour, and of tose eoeply salient events which repeatedly experienced bythe fan. Tn Addon it postulated thal, when a contextbound word nally ‘acauire, that word is linked with aparcular event representation. The ord is subsequently produced when the nfant recognises the ocurence of that parca even, the infant simply Weting the accrtence ots event 2s providing an appropriate context fr the production ofthe mor Thar, the word is produced in contet-bound manner (without te infant yet ndestanding tht it could peehape be aed sferetally the name o's ‘arco obet oration). Alfect Expressions However, although many of the eatet words do appear to be contst- bound, i is aio clear from the avaible studs that infants sometinss ‘produce another type of very early word which dplay tthe diffrent ‘haracterstie ome examples ofthis second syps of word are shown It “able 2. Notice that these words can be wed int vrety of ferent behavioural contests, unlike the context-hound word in Table |. However, aiavariant lexis serosal the diesen contexts in which cach word & produce, namely particular type of aft sae which the infant coms 0 ‘expressing by means of tht word, Tha, tee words are ao us nly limited rang of situations; howe, this ranges efi oto terns ofan ‘xtra event, but ia terms ofa pricular internal affect sate of the ta thas been suggested that the we of these act eresons (hich arc ‘fen phonetically siorpnerati) tends to precede the us of context ound ors (2 Dore, 985. owever, the evden from the studi by Davee 1, (1986; 1986) and Bates et al (1979) does nt suppor this suggestion, Indian instead that, iat expression are auired ty ai (which ‘anuy LinGuAGEoeveLoPmENT 215, cn te Eom Sot ch thin ns Vy Et Yost Wel Comer a ‘eo Weis pa Frege Do allocations, plasm at apparent 70 {so} Wh nn wh ea ren pt 3 Dae 98 (ikea hie ton won eon fo at ug When ash. are. 099) ‘mont _ Whe ate ant ata 79) {is not always the as), they ae usually aquired contemporaneous with ‘ontex-bound words ‘The Communicative Functions of the First Words Some recent inings concerning the pragmatic characterise of the ifs first words ean also be ilusuate by reference tothe examples shown ia “ables 1 and 2.As we have aeady seen, contexcbound words are wed simply as acompaniments tothe osurenc of particular actions or erat Consequently, many of these words do ol sem to serves communicative Purpose as sich, Isa, they appear to futon at pre “peformatives” Gn the sense that thir utterance is more Ike the performance of» aie ‘tion rather than the expression of eal meaning fo an addres: ee Barret, 198, and Greenfield & Smith, 1976). Nevertels is wally Posileoatibute a communicative funcion to some ofthe ants very ‘arly words, In particular ithas been argued that some fit word ed for expresive and dirtive functions (ee, for example, Grif, 1983; Haliay, 1973, 1975, The expresive func & the we of Ingiage to ‘expres internal tates suchas alect sate (epleasie,dtrey ee) and ‘eactions to objet (eg surprise, recognition, rejection, ee) The word nin ‘Table and all ofthe words in Table 2, coud therefore be ilerpreted us seeving expensive functions. By contrat, the directive fusion isthe we of language to diet the actions and behaviour of ote peopl, I ineludes ‘swing orders, regosing objes, obtaining tention, and dieting the tcation of others to objets nthe envionment The words se and gin “able I could thus be interpreted ae serving direst functions In this connection, it is interesting to note that statis nt the etaes hich infants ee to communicate with other people pio tothe seguision 216 manny annere oflanguage(e, for example, Lock, 1978, 196; Losk et al, Chapter 10, this ‘lume; Zinober & Mare, 1985s, 19855) have revealed that thse pre linguistic gestures are als used for both expressive and dictive communion tive function (eg arm waving hand flapping nd objet section are often ‘sed in th pre-ingustic period a expreanteral tac, while ope anded ng, a asing pointing, and dct phys contact att often wed ‘e-lingusically to det tbe behaviour of ther peopl). Thus there would ‘ppear to be considerable functional coninty between preinguisti end ‘ery cal guste communication, wth the transition fom the formet to ‘he ter consisting, atthe pragmatic eve ofthe scgusition of new mea for fling existing commancative funtion, rater than ty sual ‘xtension of those eablahed futons, ‘A Divergent Finding Before leaving this topic of the infant's ft words, there is one farther finding which ought o be mentioned hare, At we have lea sce, a mot ‘ect ats (4 Bartel, 1986; Bates et ab 1979; Dore, 1983) tas been fund that teint very early words ate nt uted erential when hey ae inly acquired. However, to the study by Brite a (19864; 1860), it was found that, although the majority of the fet words wich were ‘breed were inde content Bound, thee was ls substantia minority of these words which were not conlt-bound. Furthermore, most of thse contextuly flexible words appeared to be functioning rlrentially a te sams of objects Ge. nominally) right from the oust, with jst a fw fanesoning a non-nominals instead (8 Table 3 for exaipls- However, ‘he fans who were studied dered considerably rom one another in ers ‘ot ow many ofthe fist 10 words were uid in hie contextaly Reb ‘manner: the mumber here raged from 2 to 7. ‘The findings ofthis study 4s wll as the difeences betwen the ais and the ndings of previous studies) suggest that individual differences Probably exis in the way in which infants bop to we hc fs 10 words, ‘We wil tuto hint ate 0 dis. The explanation of how infants soul ‘ese referential words wll be examined inthe following scion, when We consider how alinfnts eventually acquire sch words, any UncunceoeveLorweNt 217 samp of Coney Fa Fe os Repo by arte (1984, 18860) Wed balm SSCS~*~« ‘ny Wnt oka plato ie yy. wala sora ewe pia oe si Wei psn ty ns rg indo those min Se een ee re Saeed, cho nyo sd we Ot LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE PERIOD OF SINGLE-WORD SPEECH [As we have already sen, the fit 10 word are acquired very slowly a the rate of1~3 new words pr month, with he enh word being acquired at 1S Ionths of age on average. Prom this time onward, the scguson rte ‘begins to accelerate sharply. Nelson (197) found thatthe Ifans inet sumple had acquired 0 words bythe ime they were 1 months od, wth he ‘Sequin ate nereasing very reply fowards the end ofthis period to well, ‘over 25 new word er month (ll the gues here are means: considerable Inalidual vation exist). Tit sudden nese in thera of sogison of ‘new words is called the "vocabulary explosion or "vosabulary Spur ee Barret, 1985; Bloom, 1973 Halidny 1979), Despite this major develope ‘ment, the infn'suteranestrouphout his prod il consist only of single ‘words which re arcuate separately from one nother: the st aterancs to contain two words enclosed wihin ange intonation contour ae not ‘ually prodaced una month or two aller the vocabulary explosion has ‘secured (0e Garman, 197) In this section, 1 wil consider the eal and ‘pragmatic development ofthe infant prior to the production ofthese firs {oeword ulerans, 218 saeryw amnerr LEXICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SINGLE-WORD PERIOD ‘lose examination ofthe vocabularies which are acquired during the piod ot snge-word spesth reves that thee ar in fat several ditt pheno ‘mena which characterise the lesical devlopment ofthe infant dung th Period, Fray, the infant coatinues to ace farther content bound words (Gare 19834; 1986) Secondly, some ofthe conet-bound words lich the Infant bas already acquired are decontestustsed sociated from th ocurenc of just one part typeof een and hey bin to be used much move feiby in a varity of diflret Bebuiouel contexts ee Baro, 19834, 1986; Bates ta, 1979; Lock, 1980) Thy, the infant sogies referential words for labeling objets and actions hes contextualy fee manner from the oust (Bere 1978), And Sal, the infant soquies «varity ooh os-hominal words which areal ued na contextually fee manne (ce Barat, 198%, 19836; Bloom, 1973; Gopal, 198% Gopek & Melo, 1986; MeCane-Nicolich, 1981). T wil dno each ofthese Tout phenomens Context-bound Words To begin wth he ane of context-bound words its clea fom esa studies that, during the course ofthe singl-word ptiod, te infsatsontinucs to scant uch words. For example, have previouly documented how words 8 varied catch off ind, ech a dog have all ben aeguie 9 ext-bound words during the couse of the singe-word period (ee ‘Barret 1983, 1986). As we sal sex, most contet-bound works ae soon

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