Grammatical Development 1

Recap of grammatical terms … Syntax Adverbial Possessive Inflections Auxiliary verbs Determiners

Syntactic development… This lecture on grammatical development is primarily concerned with syntax. Syntactic development = development of a child’s ability to create grammatical constructions by arranging words in an appropriate order.

One-word stage … 12-18 months: child speaks in single word utterances. ‘milk’ ‘mummy’ Groups of words may be used as a single unit. ‘allgone’

One-word stage … In many situations, the words simply serve a naming function. Holophrases: single words which convey more complex messages:

Holophrases … ‘juice’ ‘I want some juice’ ‘I’ve spilt some juice’ Context, gesture and intonation: enable parent/carer to understand what child means.

Understanding … Although the child’s utterances are limited, their understanding of syntax is (predictably) more advanced. Evidence: children at the one-word stage can respond to two-word instructions: ‘kiss mummy’.

Two-word stage … 18 months: two-word utterances begin to appear. Usually: grammatically correct sequence.

Two-word stage … Common constructions: S+V ‘Daddy sleep’ V+O ‘Draw birdie’ S+O ‘Suzy juice’ S+C ‘Daddy busy’

Two-word stage … When repeating an adult, children at this stage commonly omit elements, but retain the correct order: Look, Ben’s playing in the garden. Play garden.

Two-word stage … Utterances focus on key words. Grammatical function words: commonly omitted (as they carry less information).

Meanings of two-word utterances … Range of complex meanings can be expressed. Possession: ‘Mummy car’ Action: ‘Paul eat’ Location: ‘Teddy bed’

Ambiguity … The scope for ambiguity at this stage arises because of the omission of inflectional affixes. Commonly possessive and plural ‘s’ and past tense ‘ed’ are absent.

Telegraphic stage … Age 2: 3 and 4-word utterances begin to be produced. Some will be grammatically complete:

Telegraphic stage … S+V+O ‘Lucy likes tea’ S+V+C ‘Teddy is tired’ S+V+A ‘Mummy sleeps upstairs’

Telegraphic stage … Other utterances will have grammatical elements missing: ‘Daddy home now’ ‘Where Josh going?’

Telegraphic stage … Hence the name ‘telegraphic’. Like a telegram, they include key words, but omit elements such as: Determiners Auxiliary verbs Prepositions

Telegraphic stage … Wider range of structures will be used: Questions (interrogatives) Commands (imperatives) Simple statements

Rapid progress … 3 years: items such as determiners begin to be used regularly. More than one clause appears Coordinating conjunctions Inflectional affixes (see next lecture) 5 years: many of most basic grammatical rules have been learned, though some (e.g. the passive) have yet to be mastered.

Vocabulary test … HOLOPHRASE TELEGRAPHIC COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES PASSIVE

Tasks! Each team must make notes on their stage AND Each team must reduce their stage one (or more) of the following: Less than 15 words A cartoon A mime A song or a poem Teams will present their work to the class!