Studies of preverbal infants exposed to a bilingual environment have unveiled the existence of important similarities, but also significant differences in the way monolinguals-to-be and bilinguals-to-be solve the problem of language acquisition. In this paper, I review these studies and I argue that some apparent bilingual failures are the…

Notes that Charles Darwin's observations on babies are not examples of data collected to test hypotheses. Draws from Bakhtin to argue that they extend and vary existing modes of discourse, primarily debates about the place of instinct in language acquisition, traceable to his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. Concludes that the significance of Darwin's…

Reviews new developments in the field of child language acquisition that emphasize the role of communication and dialogue. Mentions work on precursors to dialogue in infancy, the development of communicative intent, and the importance of cognitive over syntactic strategies of language processing by the young child. (Author/SS)

Provides a general analysis of the problem of relating private, cognitive mechanisms of individuals to their public behavior. A computational model of language acquisition is offered. Conclusions are related to Piaget's notion of mutual verification and to some general philosophical questions about learning. (Author/RH)

Reviews pertinent developmental and neuropsychological literature and arrives at a hypothesis relating the left brain lateralization of speech to the origin of early naming as part of selective (right-biased) orienting to perceived salience or change. (Author/SS)

Suggests several factors to account for the onset of infant-adult joint attention initiated by the infant, and identifies several consequences of infants' understanding of others as intentional subjects, such as verbal development and infants' role in their own enculturation. Contends that infants learn referential gestures not only by imitation…

From a symposium on Cross-Cultural Studies of Mother-Infant Interaction at the Biennial Meeting for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1971. (MB)