This paper investigates the second language acquisition of interrogative-word questions in English. It is shown that the data from some bilingual English speakers at Pan American University are comparable to the data noted by others for both second and first language acquisition of interrogative word questions. In particular, interrogative-word…

Cross-sectional and longitudinal acquisition data for English, German, Italian, and Turkish children ranging in age from approximately 1 to 4 provide a preliminary answer to the question of whether there is a consistent interlanguage order of development of notions of conjunction. It was found that children first conjoin sentences by simple…

The present volume is designed to help the student of child language, especially the beginning student, discover the high points of American and international research, such as French, German, Hebrew, Polish, and Russian. The selections in this reader are intended as an introduction to various fields of child language and to different theories and…

A cross-section of language research at mid-century from the viewpoint of the psychologist, biologist, and anthropologist is offered in this book bearing on problems of (1) maturation, (2) social anthropology, (3) human biology, (4) experimental psychology, and (5) primary acquisition of speech and language. Five papers delivered at a symposium on…

The aim of this study was to determine universal versus language-specific aspects of children's ability to organize cohesive anaphoric relations in discourse. Analyses examine narratives produced on the basis of two picture sentences by subjects of four ages (preschoolers, 7-year olds, 10-year olds, and adults) in four languages: English, German,…

Four conference papers on discourse are included. In "How Context Contributes to the Interpretation of Temporal Expressions," Carlota S. Smith provides a summary analysis of the temporal interpretation of English sentences. Many sentences are shown to be semantically incomplete; it is argued that information from neighboring sentences is…

This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

Classic studies in second language (L2) learning offer little evidence for the validity of the notion of universals in L2 learning. The present study investigates this notion in data collected from 15 observational studies of 40 L2 learners who acquired the L2 naturally, that is, they were not taught the language in any formal ways. Interpretation…

The present level of understanding of the psycholinguistic processes and capacities underlying the child's acquisition of language is reviewed in this publication. In the first chapter, linguistic theories, biological characteristics of language learning, and the distinctions between language competence and language performance are discussed. The…

This article provides a discussion of current topics in psycholinguistics and of the current research on these problems. The author discusses current thought on the biological foundations of language and the problem of universals. If human language is a species-particular achievement contingent upon a biological endowment, there should be certain…

Investigates the functional projections in second-language (L2) acquisition by examining the emergence of functional categories in the L2 acquisition of French by children. Data include the productive use of determiners, inflection, case marking, subject clitics, wh-questions, and correct negative placement. (57 references) (Author/CK)

Every speech community has a baby talk register (BT) of phonological, grammatical, and lexical features regarded as primarily appropriate for addressing young children and also for other displaced or extended uses. Much BT is analyzable as derived from normal adult speech (AS) by such simplifying processes as reduction, substitution, assimilation,…

While agreeing with psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic theories that suggest that innate language-related cognitive structures are the basis of language development, the author seeks to establish what it is that is innate and what is meant by innateness in the first place. The author considers the claims of psychological relevance made on behalf…

Investigated whether children's syllabification of Dutch disyllabic words with a single intervocalic consonant adhered to the universal principles of syllable structure and whether these syllabifications witnessed an overruling of the universal phonological constraints by language-specific ones. Results indicate that universal principles explain…

A study examined the development of discourse cohesion in first language acquisition within a functional and cross-linguistic perspective. The analyses focused on how children introduce new referents in discourse across four languages: English, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese. The data base consists of narratives produced by children between…