Longitudinal observations of six congenitally deaf children (1-4 years old) with hearing parents were performed to determine the structure of semantic relation representation. Ss' semantic relation phrases were analyzed in terms of case relations. Cases were found to be distinguishable from each other in terms of production probability. Two…

Distinction is made between nonsignificant (i.e. definitional or accidental) and significant universals. Two approaches to discovering the significance of universals are characterized and evaluated: the process-state approach, which aims at "transmission-significant" universals, and the transformationalist approach, which seeks for…

To study the development of syntax in the language of deaf students, the Test of Syntactic Ability was constructed and administered to approximately 450 deaf students (10-18 years old) and 60 normal children (8-10 years old). The test contained 22 subtests covering seven major syntactic structures: relativization, conjunction, complementation,…

Semantic-cognitive language sampling procedures to assess language development are used at the Kennedy Center Experimental School which serves handicapped children from 3 months to 6 years of age. A half hour of natural language is transcribed with a written description of the context. Fifty consecutive sentences or 100 utterances are selected and…

Ten linguistic groups of Canadian Indians composed of a number of subgroups speaking related languages or dialects have been determined. Six major cultural areas (geographic) have been identified by cultural characteristics and linguistic affiliation of their inhabitants. Tables for each Canadian province identify Canadian Indians by band or…

The purpose of this study was to describe the function-form relationships in a child's developing language by establishing a methodology for examining the child's early propositions and the predications which express them, identifying the points in the syntactic hierarchy at which different "meanings" are encoded, and investigating the…

Designed to measure the acquisition of syntactic structures in kindergarten, first, and second graders, this test examines specific linguistic structures which appear to be acquired during the early elementary school years. Thirty-six sentences of equal length, consisting of words from a first-grade word list, are used to examine fifteen…

This study investigated the developmental nature of linguistic knowledge revealed in children's spelling. Five groups of children from middle to upper income families in grades 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 were selected as subjects. It was assumed that linguistic resourcefulness changes as a result of formal schooling and that spelling errors would…

This book is an introduction to linguistics, written for the beginning student. Among the topics explored are speculations about the origins of language, its nature, how it grows, and how it changes. Other topics include what is essential in the structure of language, the similarities and differences among languages, how the varying patterns of…

A study of the free speech pronoun usage of 15 normal and 15 language-delayed children (2-5 years old) showed that it is possible to distinguish between children at five different levels of language development by considering linguistically relevant pronoun properties. (Author)

Tests the hypothesis that the extent to which the durations of pauses (silences within the utterances of a single speaker) and switching pauses (silences between the utterances of 2 speakers) in the speech of children in conversation become similar (i.e., exhibit conversational congruence) is positively related to age. (BRT)

The language spoken to young children is described and shown to constitute a special speech style. (GO)

Endel Tulving's distinction between "episodic" and "semantic" memory defines age differences in word association norms more comprehensively than the usual syntactic classifications. As subjects mature the principal development is an episodic-semantic shift. Young children associate primarily with the stimulus' perceived…

Using Locke's 1983 model, analyzes one tendency, consonant use in babbling and early words, and phonological word-selection patterns in 10 children, aged 8 to 16 months. Individual differences were found in all three domains analyzed, with some increase in uniformity across subjects with increasing knowledge of language. (Author/SED)