Language Development From Birth To Three

Moshe Anisfeld

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138437777
• eBook ISBN: 9781317757542
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology

With selections of philosophers from Plotinus to Bruno, this new anthology provides significant learning support and historical context for the readings along with a wide variety of pedagogical assists.Featuring biographical headnotes, reading introductions, study questions, as well as specialPrologues andPhilosophical Overviews, this anthology offers a unique set of critical thinking promtps to help students understand and appreciate the philosophical concepts under discussion.Philosophical Bridges discuss how the work of earlier thinkers would influence philosophers to come and place major movements in a contemporary context, showing students how the schools of philosophy interrelate and how the various philosophies apply to the world today.In addition to this volume of Medieval Philosophy, a comprehensive survey of the whole of Western philosophical history and other individual volumes for each of the major historical eras are also available for specialized courses.

1	Introduction

 

 

 

In the course of the first 3 years of life the child becomes transformed from a squirming, crying, and impulsive creature into a thinking and talking human being. This book tells the story of this fundamental transformation, tracing the small steps and the large leaps that children take in achieving it.

The story of development that unfolds in the following chapters has the quality of a good drama. In the flow of developmental events, as in the sequencing of scenes on the stage, there is anticipation and continuity. Every major change in functioning has been prepared for by antecedent events. The antecedents are often not appreciated at the time of their occurrence; their full significance emerges only when they are viewed from a broad developmental perspective. We see, for instance, that such behaviors as sucking and grasping, which appear intellectually inconsequential, serve an important function in the development of thinking and in the preparation for language. We also see that the distorted speech of the toddler reflects internal patterns and constitutes a step toward the acquisition of the standard speech of the community.

The material I draw on includes observational and experimental studies, as well as formal linguistic studies. In observational research the investigator observes the natural behavior of children—be it speech, play, or interaction with the mother—records the observations, and analyzes them in search for patterns and trends. The methods of recording and analysis can vary. Some investigators write down what they see or hear; others use recording devices, such as video equipment. The analysis may involve impressionistic summaries, quantitative statistical calculations, or a combination of both. A noteworthy type of observational study is the diary study, in which the investigator observes a child, often his or her own, on a regular and continuous basis over a period of time, which may range from a few months to a few years.

Experimental studies, in which specific behaviors are examined under predesigned conditions, are harder to conduct with infants and toddlers than with older subjects. But some ingenious methods have been developed in recent years, and they have produced results that contribute to our understanding of human development.

Also used in this book are the studies of linguists concerning the structure of language. In studying the structure of language, linguists do not typically test subjects or make observations on them. Rather, they try to develop an account of the structure of specific languages and of language in general by analyzing commonly observed phenomena. We use the work of linguists concerning the structure of language, because in order to understand how children acquire language, we need to know something about what it is that they are acquiring.

The most important source material for the present book is the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget, who died in 1980 at the age of 84, is generally acknowledged as a great developmental psychologist. I draw particularly on Piaget's theory of infant development, which is based on a study of his three children. In his work Piaget combines keen observation of naturally occurring behaviors with creative experimental interventions.

This book tries to synthesize the different strands of research, coming from different disciplines, using different methodologies, and deriving from different theoretical orientations, into a cohesive picture of development. My approach is based on Piaget's conception of development and is anchored in current thinking concerning the nature of human information processing. In some respects it is similar to the approach of Werner and Kaplan (1963). I make three basic assumptions: that similar behaviors can derive from processes at different levels of mentation, that there are both gradual and abrupt changes in development, and that children do not absorb passively the language of their community but construct it actively for themselves.

The substance of the book is presented in three parts. Part I, which contains Chapters 2–4, deals with the formation and socialization of the symbolic capacity. Chapter 2 lays the groundwork for the study of symbolic development. It clarifies the concept of symbol and relates it to other concepts. Chapter 2 also provides a preview of the nature of presymbolic mentation in infancy. Chapter 3 traces the steps infants go through in advancing from presymbolic thinking to symbolic thinking. In the presymbolic stage infants cannot represent objects and people internally and therefore do not realize that they have substance and permanence. For instance, young infants have no notion that their mothers continue to exist when they are not in sensory contact with them. The symbolic capacity, which is developed gradually in the course of the first 18 months, makes possible the construction of reality and the acquisition of language to represent it. Chapter 4 describes how words are learned and how their meanings change to approximate gradually the meanings of adults.

The use of sentences represents a higher level of symbolic capacity than the use of single words, and sentences appear in children's speech after single-word utterances. Part II, which contains Chapters 5–7, deals with the nature of early syntax and its development. Chapter 5 analyzes the nature of sentences in mature form and thus provides the necessary background for the study of syntactic acquisition. Chapter 6 describes the characteristics of children's early sentences, and Chapter 7 examines the developments that foreshadow the emergence of syntax and the factors that facilitate its growth. It describes how toddlers organize for themselves the task of learning to form sentences. Some children, for instance, divide the task of sentence construction into manageable parts and concentrate their efforts on learning each part separately.

Part III, consisting of Chapters 8–10, is concerned with the development of speech and morphology. Chapter 8 gives an introduction to the nature of human speech, providing background information needed for the following two chapters. Chapter 9 discusses children's acquisition of morphology. Morphology deals with the structure of words and involves such things as the use of inflections (e.g., the plural s). Chapter 10 discusses how children acquire the sound system of their language, and the ability to perceive sounds and to articulate them. The chapters of Part III, like the preceding ones, highlight the child's active part in learning language. We see, for instance, that children's pronunciation errors are creative attempts to construct a sound system on the basis of what they hear. Similarly, such childish renditions as doed (for did) and mans (for men) are mistakes only from the adult's point of view. From the child's perspective, they reflect discovery of inflectional generalizations.

The ordering of parts in the book is designed to reflect the chronological order of development. In this connection, a comment is in order on why I placed the chapters on speech and morphology after the chapters on syntax. Morphology emerges after the onset of syntax and therefore belongs after syntax in the exposition. Speech development begins before syntax, but I put it together with morphology because of the affinity of the concepts used in the two areas. Also, from a pedagogical point of view, it seems advisable to move gradually to increasingly more technical aspects of language; hence the progression from words, to sentences, to speech and morphology. In addition, it is appropriate to conclude the course of development traced in this book with the chapter on the acquisition of speech, because this chapter spans the entire age range (0–3 years) covered in the book.

I	THE EMERGENCE AND SOCIALIZATION OF THE SYMBOLIC FUNCTION

2	Representation, Language, and Infant Mentation

Sensory-motor intelligence aims at success and not at truth. It is an intelligence which is only “lived” not thought.

Jean Piaget

As adults we hold in our memories a vast amount of knowledge. The acquisition and storage of knowledge depends on the capacity for internal representation and on the availability of a system of mental codes. This book analyzes how the foundations of the representational capacity and of language as a map of reality are laid down in the first 3 years of life. As a preparation for this analysis the present chapter sketches the nature of internal representation in mature form and, in comparison, provides an introduction to infant mentation.

INTERNAL REPRESENTATION

The concept of representation (more precisely referred to by the terms mental representation, internal representation) is central to the study of cognition. Therefore, I attempt to explicate this concept at the outset.

When I stop my car on reaching a barricade, I am responding directly to the physical obstruction. But when I stop the car at a red light, it is not because the red light by virtue of its own physical properties prevents me from driving through, but rather because it stands for or represents a traffic regulation. Children start going back to their classes when they hear the school bell, not because of the acoustic properties of the sound of the bell, but because of what the bell has come to mean for them. There are numerous other instances in our daily lives where we respond to things and events by virtue of their representational, rather than their intrinsic, qualities. But language constitutes our main and most highly developed representational system. To appreciate the nature of representation afforded by language, distinctions have to be made between different levels of representation. I turn to this topic in the following section.

Signs and Symbols

Representation involves two entities: a representing entity, a signifier, and a represented entity, a signified. The level of representation depends on the characteristics of the signified entity. One type of signifier, the sign, relates directly to an immediate, specific object or event. Another type of signifier, the symbol, relates to a concept, not directly to an object or event. The philosopher Susanne Langer (1951, chaps. 2–3) characterized the difference between signs and symbols by saying that signs direct our attention and action to things, whereas symbols are vehicles of conception. They bring ideas to our minds instead of preparing our limbs and senses for reaction.

Symbols require higher intelligence, whereas signs are used throughout the animal kingdom. For example, animals use signs to inform each other of imminent danger. In fact, there is a training procedure known as classical conditioning that can be used to develop sign representations in animals (and humans, as well). This procedure was developed by the Russian physiologist I. P. Pavlov (1927) in experiments he conducted with dogs. In a standard experiment he would sound a metronome and then immediately give the dog some food. After a number of such occurrences, the dog would exhibit anticipatory food reactions (e.g., salivation) to the sound even before receiving the food. The dog thus reacted to the sound not for any inherent properties of its own, but in terms of what it stood for. Generally, stimuli that do not elicit strong reactions in their own right can become conditioned representations in this way.

For the dog that has been conditioned the sound of the metronome anticipates food, and its sole function is to prepare for the immediate intake of food. Similarly, the school bell creates for the child an expectation that classes are about to start (or to end). Familiar footsteps indicate the approach of a particular individual. These are all signs, functioning to prepare and orient directly toward action.

Symbols, on the other hand, have a conceptual function. Words are symbols. The word food, for instance, does not necessarily make one salivate or hungry; rather, it activates the concept of food in one's mind. The sound of a fire alarm arouses fear and makes people run outside. It is a sign. In contrast, the phraser fire alarm need not give rise to a fear experience; it may merely evoke the conception of fear.

Although words are primarily designed to be used as symbols, they can be used, and occasionally are used, as signs. That is, words can be used not in their conceptual function, but as stimuli that automatically elicit certain responses and as responses that are automatically elicited by certain stimuli. This is evident particularly in the case of social routines, such as “hello” as an automatic response when picking up a telephone and “thank you” as a stimulus that automatically elicits “you're welcome.” Also, the exclamation “fire!” may have the same effect as the sound of a fire alarm.

We see in Chapter 4 that children use words initially as signs and only gradually shift to using them as symbols. This shift was described dramatically by the deaf and blind Helen Keller (1902/1954):

We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motion of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.

I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• I. The Emergence and Socialization of the Symbolic Function
• II. Early Syntax
• III. The Development of Speech and Morphology
• Glossary
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index