Understanding Child Language Acquisition

[Pages:328]Understanding Child Language Acquisition

Taking an accessible and cross-linguistic approach, Understanding Child Language Acquisition introduces readers to the most important research on child language acquisition over the last fifty years, as well as to some of the most influential theories in the field. Rather than just describing what children can do at different ages, Rowland explains why these research findings are important and what they tell us about how children acquire language.

Key features include: Cross-linguistic analysis of how language acquisition differs between languages A chapter on how multilingual children acquire several languages at once Exercises to test comprehension Chapters organised around key questions that discuss the critical issues posed by

researchers in the field, with summaries at the end Further reading suggestions to broaden understanding of the subject

With its particular focus on outlining key similarities and differences across languages and what this cross-linguistic variation means for our ideas about language acquisition, Understanding Child Language Acquisition forms a comprehensive introduction to the subject for students of linguistics, psychology, and speech and language pathology.

Students and instructors will benefit from the comprehensive companion website (cw/rowland) that includes a students' section featuring interactive comprehension exercises, extension activities, chapter recaps and answers to the exercises within the book. Material for instructors includes sample essay questions, answers to the extension activities for students and PowerPoint slides including all the figures from the book.

Caroline Rowland is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on how children acquire language, with a particular interest in grammar and in assessing how the child's environment promotes and shapes language growth. She is a series editor for the Trends in Language Acquisition (TiLAR) book series and an associate editor for the Journal of Child Language.

Understanding Language series

Series editors:

Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany Greville Corbett, Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, UK

The Understanding Language series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to major topics in linguistics.Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasising understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position.

Other titles in the series:

Understanding Language Testing Dan Douglas

Understanding Morphology, Second Edition Martin Haspelmath Andrea D. Sims

Understanding Phonetics Patricia Ashby

Understanding Phonology, Third Edition Carlos Gussenhoven Haike Jacobs

Understanding Pragmatics Jef Verschueren

Understanding Second Language Learning Lourdes Ortega

Understanding Syntax, Third Edition Maggie Tallerman

Understanding Semantics, Second Edition Sebastian L?bner

For more information on any of these titles, or to order, go to linguistics

Understanding

Child Language Acquisiition

Caroline Rowland

Routledge

^ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

? 2014 Caroline Rowland

The right of Caroline Rowland to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rowland, Caroline, 1971-

Understanding child language acquisition / Caroline Rowland. pages cm. -- (Understanding Language Series)

Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Language acquisition. 2. Language awareness in children. I. Title. P118.R69 2013 401'.93--dc23 2013008620

ISBN: 978-0-415-82713-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-4441-5265-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-77602-5 (ebk)

Typeset in 11 on 12pt Minion by Phoenix Photosetting, Chatham, Kent

For George, Lauren and Amy

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Contents

List of figures and tables

xi

Acknowledgements

xiii

Preface

xv

1 Introduction to language acquisition

1

1.1 The issue

1

1.2 What is language?

2

1.3 Humans and other animals

8

1.4 Getting the conditions right

13

1.5 Chapter summary

17

1.6 Suggested reading

18

1.7 Suggested reading (advanced level)

18

1.8 Useful websites

19

1.9 Comprehension check

19

2 The sounds of language

20

2.1 The issue

20

2.2 Speech perception: identifying the meaningful sounds of our language

21

2.3 How do we learn to segment the speech stream?

32

2.4 Speech production: learning to produce the meaningful sounds of our

language

39

2.5 Chapter summary

45

2.6 Suggested reading

46

2.7 Suggested reading (advanced level)

46

2.8 Comprehension check

47

3 Learning the meaning of words

49

3.1 The issue

49

3.2 Constraints theory part I: the role of innate constraints

55

3.3 Constraints theory part II: the developmental lexical principles framework 58

3.4 Other routes to word learning

60

3.5 The role of syntax: the syntactic bootstrapping account

68

3.6 The integration: the emergentist coalition model (ECM)

73

3.7 Chapter summary

77

3.8 Suggested reading

78

3.9 Suggested reading (advanced level)

78

3.10 Comprehension check

79

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