The attribution of function of various kinds to elements of child speech is discussed, and the question of the validity of the interpretations on which such attribution rests is explored with reference to Halliday's work on the development of meaning. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect exposure to linguistic input pertinent to kinship terms and kinship relations has on the acquisition of the meaning of such terms. The subjects were 84 German children living in families, and 84 orphans. (Author/CFM)

Reports on studies examining the extent to which mothers tailor their speech to a child's level of linguistic ability. Methodological implications for language acquisition research are discussed. (AM)

On the basis of an analysis of several earlier classifications of language functions a three-dimensional classification is presented. It interprets the utterance in question in terms of 1) the speaker's intended influence on the listener, 2) the speaker's intentions and attitudes, and 3) the speaker's intentions with respect to the content of the…

This paper describes the apparatus and methods of recording used in a study of language acquisition. Recording equipment, study time and length and procedures are discussed. (CHK)

A longitudinal study examining the role of imitation on children's lexical acquisition is discussed here. Findings did not support the view that imitation may enable new lexical items to be acquired, and it is noted that other functions of imitation in language acquisition should be explored. (CHK)

This paper reports data for voice onset time (VOT) for /d/ and /t/, from six children at average age 3;0. Values for /d/ clearly achieve the short voicing lag category of adults, reported previously. Values for /t/, however, are much more varied, although falling within the category long voicing lag. (CHK)

Data are presented that reflect a particular strategy used by a boy from age 1;10 to 2;2 to manage certain polysyllabic words. Analysis shows that substitution was not involved, and an interpretation is made in terms of "underlying forms." Details of the strategy and its component sub-strategies are presented. (CHK)

Reports on the phonological form of one child's productive vocabulary from age 0;10 to 1;8 with primary focus on his production of multisyllabic targets. Findings indicate that there is a developmental and perhaps maturational limitation in the capacity to carry out the processes underlying word and sentence production. (33 references) (Author/CK)

Focuses on the question of how language rights can be subjected to legal provisions. Argues that, because language has social and individual aspects, working out solutions for specific situations is more important than universal principles. Argues against the idea that languages are objects deserving of legal protection. (14 references) (Author/CK)

Argues that an important type of child knowledge about letters is knowledge of the phonological structure of the letters' names in English. Concludes that learning the alphabet forms the basis for generalizations about the structure of letter names. (22 references) (Author/CK)

Case studies are presented for two early talkers, one of whom represents a striking dissociation between vocabulary size and mean length of utterance. Each child is compared to controls in the same language stage, and the data are examined to determine whether the dissociation is best characterized as one between grammar and semantics, or a…

Distinctive feature specification and representation in phonological acquisition are examined in 30 children in the context of underspecification theory. Three questions were addressed: which features do children use to categorize segmental information; do the defining features of a category shift as the phonological system advances; and which…

Presents the Lexical/Semantic Hypothesis, which proposes that early learning is more lexically oriented, and that early word combinations can be explained by more semantically oriented accounts than the Full Competence Hypothesis. The article also replaces the Grammatical Infinitive Hypothesis with the Modal Hypothesis. (32 references) (Author/CK)

Investigated associations between expressive language and symbolic play in deaf children with deaf parents or with hearing parents, and hearing children with hearing parents. Defined three language level groups. Hearing status was associated with duration of symbolic play. Higher language levels were associated with more canonically sequenced and…