Lecture XIV

Lecture XIV

First language (L1)

acquisition

November 14th, 2008

Structure of the lecture

Structure of the lecture



Chronology of L1 acquisition



Babbling

Chronology of L1

Chronology of L1

acquisition

acquisition

Canonical babbling

Canonical babbling



Begins at the age of six months



Children experiment with and gain
control over their vocal apparatus



Children manifest significant
cross-linguistic similarities in their
babbling

Cross-linguistic

Cross-linguistic

similarities in babbling

similarities in babbling

Cross-linguistic

Cross-linguistic

differences in babbling

differences in babbling



Sound frequency plays an important
role in babbling, e.g. in English the
fricative // appears late, while in

Estonian, Bulgarian or Swedish the
sound is acquired much earlier



Ingram (1999) suggests that the
function a given sound fulfils in the
phonology of a language plays a crucial
role in the acquisition process.

Early phonetic processes

Early phonetic processes



Syllable simplification – reduction of
consonant clusters:

- /s/-deletion – stop, small, desk
- liquid deletion – try, crack, bring, from,

sleep

- nasal deletion – bump, tent



Substitution – the process of systematic
replacement of one sound by another that
the child finds easier.

Substitution in child

Substitution in child

language

language



David Stampe (1979: 1) defines the term phonological process as

“a mental operation that applies in speech to substitute, for a

class of sounds or sound sequences presenting a specific

common difficulty to the speech capacity of the individual, an

alternative class identical but lacking the difficult property”.



According to natural phonologists, the functioning of

phonological processes is observable in the speech of children

acquiring their first language or, more precisely, at the early

stages of the process as “in its language-innocent state, the

innate phonological system expresses the full system of

restrictions of speech: a full set of phonological processes,

unlimited and unordered”



In the process of acquiring adult pronunciation, the child has to

overcome some serious articulatory obstacles and he/she does

that by means of suppression, limitation and ordering of some of

the natural tendencies.

Phonological substitutions in

Phonological substitutions in

lamb

lamb

Underlying representation

/  /

Adult form



Denasalisation



Devoicing



Gliding



Frication

Processes  Stopping


Assimilation

 Neutralisation

Surface form [  ]

Child’s form

(adapted from Shriberg – Kwiatkowski 1980: 11)



 

Strong innateness hypothesis

Strong innateness hypothesis



The founders of Natural Phonology claim that only

children at the very beginning of first language

acquisition have access to all processes



In the course of the acquisition period, the

processes undergo suppression, limitation and

ordering under the influence of the input the child

receives from his/her native language environment.



The suppressed processes that are no longer

needed in the speaker’s native language lie

dormant and can, but do not have to, be activated

in second language acquisition (Dziubalska-
Kołaczyk 2002a: 35)

Morphological

Morphological

development

development



Morphological development emerges
over the period of a few years.



Developmental order:

-

case-by-case learning

-

overuse of general rule

-

mastery of exceptions to the general
rule

Overgeneralisation vs. overregularisation

Developmental sequence

Developmental sequence

– bound morphemes

– bound morphemes

1.

-ing

2.

Plural –s

3.

Possessive -‘s

4.

The, a

5.

Past tense –ed

6.

Third person singular –s

7.

Auxiliary be

Determining factors

Determining factors



Frequent occurrence in utterance final

position



Syllabicity



A straightforward relation between

form and meaning



Few or no exceptions in the way it is

used



Allomorphic invariance



Clearly discernible semantic function

Word formation rules

Word formation rules



Derivational affixes and compounding
are also acquired in a fixed order.

-

agentive – er

-

compounds

-

adjectival – y

-

instrumental – er

-

adverbial – ly

Syntactic development

Syntactic development



The one-word stage (holophrases): one word

stands for a whole meaningful utterance,

e.g. Daddy – ‘I see daddy’.



The most informative word is always chosen,

e.g. I want up is usually expressed as ‘up’.



Two-word stage – in the vast majority of

cases employ the correct word order



The telegraphic stage: utterances lack

bound morphemes and most non-lexical

categories

The development of phrase

The development of phrase

structure

structure



Holophrastic – 1 – 1.5 years



Two-word – 1.5 – 2 years



Telegraphic – 2 – 2.5 years



Later – 2.5 years up

Development of question

Development of question

formation

formation



Rising intonation



Inversion: note *Can he can look?



Wh questions – takes place between 2 –
4 years



Three stages:

-

Where that?

-

What he did yesterday?

-

Where should I go?

Semantic development

Semantic development



The first 50 words:

1.

Names for people: mummy, daddy, etc.

2.

Words referring to:

-

humans: baby

-

Food and drink: juice, milk, water, bread, apple

-

Animals: cat, dog, duck

-

Clothes: dress, shoes, hat

-

Toys: ball, doll, blocks

-

Vehicles: car, boat

-

Other: bottle, key

3.

Properties: hot, cold, dirty

4.

Actions: go, see, sit

5.

Personal-social: bye, yes, no, thank you

Determinants of language

Determinants of language

acquistion

acquistion



Imitation and correction



Correction



The role of adult speech

The features of motherese

The features of motherese



Slow speech



Higher pitch



Exaggerated intonation and stress



Longer pauses



More restricted vocab



Concrete reference to here and now



Fewer incomplete sentences



Short sentences



More commands and questions



More repetitions