Reports on a study of three children's single-word responses to parents' questions, focusing on the interrelations between children's ability to answer questions, the types of semantic content used in appropriate and inappropriate answers, and questions asked by the parents. (Author/AM)

Describes study of relationship between seven specific factors and receptive language development of fourth and seventh grade culturally-different students. (JM)

A production-based method of investigating children's understanding of deictic verbs is described. Use of "come/go" and "bring/take" by 4-7-year-olds is compared with Clark and Garnica's 1974 study. Data reveal different facts about verb acquisition processes and order. (CHK)

Contradicts a previous assertion by C. Tanz that children commit substitution errors usually using objective pronoun forms for nominative ones. Examples from Dutch and German provide evidence that substitutions are made in both directions. (CHK)

Examines the link between music and language development in early childhood. Investigates three aspects in developmental processes: (1) early sound perception; (2) premusical and prelinguistic vocalization; and (3) the emergence of singing and speech. Discusses linguistic and musical environmental stimulation such as baby talk and lullabies.…

Three studies examined the developmental relationship between early linguistic and cognitive achievements. Findings showed that children's ability to classify objects in a spatial or temporal order was independent of advances in productive vocabulary growth, suggesting that developments in categorization and naming depend on abilities in addition…

Pointing and gestures in 47 infants was investigated in 2 experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication, and another study of 7 infants examined prepointing transitional phenomena. Results show gestures are produced differently in experimental conditions: reaching is only produced in…

Two experiments showed two-year-olds pairs of videotaped actions, one familiar and one novel, and asked them to select referents of novel verbs. For actions not involving objects, children tended to select the novel action over the familiar one in each of four experiments. For actions involving objects, novel actions were chosen more often than…

Drawing on the notion of the domain-specificity of recognition, reviews evidence on the effect of language in classification of and reasoning about categories from different domains. Looks at anthropological infant classification, and preschool categorization literature. Suggests the causal nature and indicative power of animal categories seem to…

Examines the process of language acquisition as well as scientists' understanding of the intricate process of learning to talk. Specifically addresses: (1) foundations of language; (2) prenatal period; (3) first month after birth; and (4) conversation. Also discusses adult-child activities that stimulate language-learning. (SD)

Investigates phonological cues available to children and explores the possibility that differential frequency in the linguistic input explains the priority given to masculine forms when children are faced with ambiguous novel terms. A connectionist model of determiner production was incrementally trained on a lexicon of determiner-noun phrases…

Reports on bilingual acquisition of syntax. Draws on data from a bilingual English-Dutch child whose word order patterns testify to the fact that movement never occurs beyond the target and when deviant word orders are attested they result from lack of raising. (Author/VWL)

Examines whether early simultaneous bilingual language exposure causes children to be language delayed or confused. Cites research suggesting normal and parallel linguistic development occurs in each language in young children and young children's dual language developments are similar to monolingual language acquisition. Research on simultaneous…

Argues that writing should play a more prominent role in classroom-based studies of second language acquisition. Contends that an implicit emphasis on spoken language is the result of the historical development of the field of applied linguistics and parent disciplines of structuralist linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and child language…

Examines the relationship between cross-sectional measures of referential style and measures based on the first 50 words in 12 first-born children. Because no relationship was found, it is argued that age-defined cross-sectional measures confound strategy differences in early language development with variation resulting from differences in…