Child Language Aquisition
Name of Linguist Theory Example
Aitchison, Jean Identified 3 stages of CLA: 1. linking relevant sounds and objects
1. labelling 2. understanding word range (causes over/under
2. packaging extension)
3. network building 3. understanding connections between words e/g
hyponyms, hypernyms, antonyms etc.
Bard and Sachs Proved a need for interaction. Jim was born to deaf parents and never fully
learnt language until he went to a speech therapist
despite watching TV and listening to radio.
Bellugi, Ursula 3 stages of negative formation: S1: ‘no wear shoes’
S1: ‘no’ or ‘not’ at the start or end of S2: ‘I no want it’
statements S3: ‘no, I don’t want to go’ ‘I am not...’
S2: no/not placed within the sentence
S3: use of aux verbs and better
understanding of copular verb ‘to be’
Bellugi cont. 3 stages of pronoun use: S1: ‘Tom play’
S1: use their own name
S2: recognise I/me pronouns and where
each fit in syntax
S3: base use of I/me on whether they are the
subject or the object rather than relying on
syntax
Benedict Children have c.50 words by 18 months but n/a
can understand around 5 times that
Berko Gleason, The WUG test. It proves children don’t Present a child with ‘wug’, then ask them what
Jean memorize or imitate plurals, they learn the they would call two of these, 76% of 4-5 year olds
rules. Provides evidence of Chomsky’s say ‘wugs’, as do 97% of 5-7 year olds.This shows
theory: Nativism they have mastered common pluralisation
Bowerman Once children have developed quite a bit of ‘I’m swimming my duck’
language they begin to test regularities so
start to mix up transitive and intransitive
verbs
Braine Pivot schema - use of patterns of 2 word Pivot: allgone
utterances revolving around key words or Slots: daddy, juice, rain etc
pivot words
Brown 2 word utterances tend to be in four 1. mummy eat, I walk
categories: 2. drink juice, eat apple
Subject + verb 3. juice allgone, doggie wet, daddy sad
Verb + object 4. I juice, daddy ball
Noun + adjectives
Subject + object
Brown cont. 75% of languages use SVO structure
supporting the idea of a Universal Grammar
Bruner, Jerome Every LAD needs a LASS (lang acq. support
system). Put emphasis on children partaking
in many social situations and also on quality
input from caregivers to facilitate acquisition
(scaffolding). They may do this through
recasting and reformulation, exaggerated
prosodic cues, expatiation and over
articulation.
Chomsky, Noam Coined Universal Grammar as grammatical
Name of Linguist Theory Example
Aitchison, Jean Identified 3 stages of CLA: 1. linking relevant sounds and objects
1. labelling 2. understanding word range (causes over/under
2. packaging extension)
3. network building 3. understanding connections between words e/g
hyponyms, hypernyms, antonyms etc.
Bard and Sachs Proved a need for interaction. Jim was born to deaf parents and never fully
learnt language until he went to a speech therapist
despite watching TV and listening to radio.
Bellugi, Ursula 3 stages of negative formation: S1: ‘no wear shoes’
S1: ‘no’ or ‘not’ at the start or end of S2: ‘I no want it’
statements S3: ‘no, I don’t want to go’ ‘I am not...’
S2: no/not placed within the sentence
S3: use of aux verbs and better
understanding of copular verb ‘to be’
Bellugi cont. 3 stages of pronoun use: S1: ‘Tom play’
S1: use their own name
S2: recognise I/me pronouns and where
each fit in syntax
S3: base use of I/me on whether they are the
subject or the object rather than relying on
syntax
Benedict Children have c.50 words by 18 months but n/a
can understand around 5 times that
Berko Gleason, The WUG test. It proves children don’t Present a child with ‘wug’, then ask them what
Jean memorize or imitate plurals, they learn the they would call two of these, 76% of 4-5 year olds
rules. Provides evidence of Chomsky’s say ‘wugs’, as do 97% of 5-7 year olds.This shows
theory: Nativism they have mastered common pluralisation
Bowerman Once children have developed quite a bit of ‘I’m swimming my duck’
language they begin to test regularities so
start to mix up transitive and intransitive
verbs
Braine Pivot schema - use of patterns of 2 word Pivot: allgone
utterances revolving around key words or Slots: daddy, juice, rain etc
pivot words
Brown 2 word utterances tend to be in four 1. mummy eat, I walk
categories: 2. drink juice, eat apple
Subject + verb 3. juice allgone, doggie wet, daddy sad
Verb + object 4. I juice, daddy ball
Noun + adjectives
Subject + object
Brown cont. 75% of languages use SVO structure
supporting the idea of a Universal Grammar
Bruner, Jerome Every LAD needs a LASS (lang acq. support
system). Put emphasis on children partaking
in many social situations and also on quality
input from caregivers to facilitate acquisition
(scaffolding). They may do this through
recasting and reformulation, exaggerated
prosodic cues, expatiation and over
articulation.
Chomsky, Noam Coined Universal Grammar as grammatical
