1. How do children learn language? Not just through imitation => Novel utterances Adult Grammar NP => Det Na pencil NP => Poss Nmy pencil Child Grammar NP => Det Det Na my pencil

2. Creative Morphology Noun > Verb Why didn’t you jam my bread? Let’s get brooming. Creative affixation I hate you and I’ll never unhate you ǃ

3. Not through reinforcement Child: Want other one spoon, Daddy. Father:You mean, you want the other spoon. Child: Yes, I want other one spoon, please, Daddy.

4. Grammar Construction Hypothesis Children make systematic, not random, “errors” Innateness Hypothesis Children learn the language of their environment naturally until puberty.

5. Characteristics of Innate Behaviors 1. Emerges before necessary 2. Not result of conscious decision 3. Not triggered by external events 4. Not affected by explicit instruction 5. Proceeds in stages, “milestones” 6. Has critical period for aquisition

6. Stages/Milestones Cooing:1-4 months Babbling:4-20 months One-word:12-18 months Two-word:18-24 months Multi-word:24 months

7. One-word(12 months) Dada(father enters the room) Down(child sits down) Door(father closes the door) Here(child points) Mama(child gives something to mother) Again(child watches lighting of a match again)

8. Two-word(1.5-2 years) Few function words No morphological or syntactic markers

9. allgone sock hi Mommy byebye boat allgone sticky more wet it ball Katherine sock dirty sock here pretty

10. Multi-Word (2-2.5 years) sentences 3 or more words in length few function words few, if any, morphological or syntactic markers

11. Cat stand up table. What that? He play little tune. Andrew want that. Cathy build house. No sit there. Chair broken. Daddy like book. What her name? Car make noise. Me wanna show Mommy.

12. Comprehension Precedes Production Children in the telegraphic stage respond better to grammatical utterances, even though they don’t necessarily produce them. 18 months Cookie Monster is tickling Big Bird. *Cookie Monster can tickling Big Bird.

13. 15 months you ___ the … V/*N the ___ is … N/*V

14. Questions Stage I:Intonation, no auxiliary verb See hole? I ride train? Ball go? Sit chair?

15. Stage II: wh-word, no auxiliary verb What he wants? What he can ride in? Where I should put it? Where Ann pencil? Why you smiling?

16. Stage III: Inversion in yes/no questions Did Mommy pinch her finger? Can’t you fix it? Do I have it? Will you help me? Is Mommy talking to Robin’s granddmother?

17. But not wh-questions What I did yesterday? Why Kitty can’t stand up? Where I should put it? Where I should sleep? Why you are smiling?

18. Overgeneralization SingularPlural catcats toetoes manmans footfoots

19. Critical Period Hypothesis “Genie” Mike paint. Applesauce buy store. Man motorcycle have. Want go ride Miss F. car. Genie have full stomache. Mama have baby grow up.