Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T01:34:05.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syntactic styles in emerging language*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Andrya L. H. Ramer
Andrya L. H. Ramer
Affiliation:
The William Paterson College of New Jersey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this longitudinal investigation of the emerging grammar of seven children, differences in linguistic acquisition were observed. The syntactic analyses applied to the corpora included examination of emerging complexity, observance of word order constraints and subject-predicate specification among others. These analyses revealed two distinct styles of syntactic acquisition. These linguistic styles appeared to be sex- and speed-related with specific ties to particular utterance types and grammatical-relational specification. The observed styles of syntactic acquisition were differentiated by these differences so that the differences themselves constituted the style characteristics.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , February 1976 , pp. 49 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This report is based on a portion of a doctoral dissertation completed by the author at City University of New York with the considerable support of Norma S. Rees, chairman of the dissertation committee.

References

REFERENCES

Bar-Adon, A. (1971). Primary syntactic structures in Hebrew child language. In Bar-Adon, A. & Leopold, W. F. (eds), Child language: a book of readings. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time: the use of single word utterances before syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Blount, B. G. (1969). Acquisition of language by Luo children. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1973). Early syntactic development: a cross-linguistic study with special reference to Finnish. London: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. & Bellugi, U. (1964). Three processes in the child's acquisition of syntax. HarvEdRev 34. 133–51.Google Scholar
Brown, R., Cazden, C. & Bellugi, U. (1969). The child's grammar from I to III. In Hill, J. P. (ed.), 1967 Minnesota symposium on child psychology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. & Fraser, C. (1963). The acquisition of syntax. In Cofer, C. & Musgrave, B. S. (eds), Verbal behavior and learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Cazden, C. B. (1967). On individual differences in competence and performance. JSpecEdz 1. 1–12.Google Scholar
Cazden, C. B. (1968). The acquisition of noun and verb inflections. ChDev 39. 310–21.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Dore, J., Franklin, M. B., Miller, R. & Ramer, A. L. H. (1976). Transitional phenomena in early language acquisition. JChLang 3. 13–28.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. H. (1963) Universals of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Gruber, J. S., (1967). Topicalization in child language. FL 3. 37–65.Google Scholar
Kagan, J., Moss, H. A. & Sigel, I. E. (1963). Psychological significances of styles of conceptualization. In Wright, J. C. & Kagan, J. (eds), Basic cognitive processes in children. Monogr. Soc. Res. Ch. Devel. 28.Google Scholar
Kernan, K. T. (1969). The acquisition of language by Samoan children. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kelley, K. L. (1967). Early syntactic acquisition. Santa Monica, California: The Rand Corporation.Google Scholar
Klima, E. S. & Bellugi, U. (1966). Syntactic regularities in the speech of children. In Lyons, J. & Wales, R. J. (eds), Psycholinguistics papers. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, L. C., Kagan, J. & Rabson, A. (1963). The influence of preference for analytic categorization upon concept acquisition. ChDev 34. 151–5.Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. (1954). Language development in children. In Carmichael, L. (ed.), Manual of child psychology. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Menyuk, P. (1969). Sentences children use. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Ramer, A. L. H. (forthcoming). The development of syntactic complexity.Google Scholar
Rebelsky, F., Starr, R. H. & Luria, Z. (1967). Language development: the first four years. In Brackbill, Y. (ed.), Infancy and early childhood. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, H. (1971). Language development. Paper presented to the LSA Conference, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1971 a). Universals of grammatical development in children. In Flores d'Arcais, G. B. & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), Advances in psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1971 b). Grammatical development in Russian-speaking children. In Bar-Adon, A. & Leopold, W. F. (eds), Child language: a book of readings. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Terman, L. M. & Tyler, L. E. (1954). Psychology sex differences. In Carmichael, L. (ed.), Manual of child psychology. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wallach, M. A. & Kogan, N. (1965). Modes of thinking in young children. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Witkin, H. A., Dyk, R. B., Faterson, H. F., Goodenough, D. K. & Karp, S. A. (1962). Psychological differentiation. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar