This paper discusses the role of attention to uncertainty in mediating the transition from sensorimotor activity to language. It is proposed that language from the very beginning is used to resolve uncertainty by selectively marking points of change, deviation from the familiar or choice from among alternatives. Several research findings are…

THE AUTHORS HAVE CONCERNED THEMSELVES IN THIS STUDY WITH IMITATION AS A DEVICE BY WHICH THE INVESTIGATOR CAN LEARN ABOUT CHILD LANGUAGE. THE DATA EXAMINED ARE PART OF A LONGITUDINAL THREE-MONTH STUDY OF LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT IN A TWO-YEAR-OLD CHILD. THE REPORT IS BASED ON 1,000 ELICITED IMITATIONS. CERTAIN PHENOMONA WERE OBSERVED GENERALLY WHEN…

DESIGNED FOR USE IN SECONDARY CLASSES FOR THE DEAF, THIS DICTIONARY LISTS OVER 4,000 IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS. FOR EACH IDIOM, THE ENTRY MAY INCLUDE VARIANT FORMS, PART OF SPEECH LABEL, STYLE LABEL, DEFINITION, USAGE NOTE, ILLUSTRATIVE SENTENCES, CROSS REFERENCES, A SYNONYM OR CONTRAST, AND ETYMOLOGY. AN APPENDIX LISTS ESSENTIAL IDIOMS. THIS DOCUMENT…

Speech samples of 14 normal 2-year-old children and 14 Down's Syndrome 5- to 12-year-old children were analyzed to investigate the structural complexity. Results from the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure indicated that even when matched with normal children for mean length of utterance, Down's Syndrome Ss produced less syntactically…

It is the contention here that the "prelinguistic" period is an important phase of the language acquisition process. Accordingly the research reported represents an attempt to begin mapping out the types of linguistically relevant information to which a young child attends. Specifically it is hypothesized that young children are…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of deictic reference in the speech of 19 three-year-old Black children. The deictic verbs of motion are examined with reference to other aspects of the deictic system. The data for this study are approximately eight hours of spontaneous speech collected in a pre-school classroom. The hypothesis to…

The linguistic state-of-the-art relevant to the construction of a battery of tests intended to yield language proficiency profiles of preschool children is surveyed in this paper. A basic assumption is that language data can be structured with a model that reflects stages in the development of control over phonological features, morphological…

This paper is a report of two studies of the relationship between intonation and syntax. An analysis of intonation was used to decide whether the pivot-like two-morpheme constructions of a one- and one-half-year-old girl were single lexical items or two separate lexical items. Further, the intonation contours connected with her linguistically…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between maternal input to early language learners and language acquisition and to answer the following questions: (1) Does nursery language used with the child change after he begins to talk? (2) Is there reason to believe that the child's speech is influenced by or influences the mother's…

Scientific Russian vocabulary, as represented by substantives among the lead entries of a 1955 polytechnic Russian dictionary, is analyzed compositionally and by source language. (GK)

Active and passive sentences were presented with probable and improbable semantic content to 100 first graders and 100 kindergartners. "Irreversible" sentences were considered improbable. In a design employing syntax, probability, grade, and sex as factors, probability and syntax were found significant both as main effects and in their…

This article discusses the relationship between human gestures and the development of Chinese characters. The four main principles of Chinese writing are outlined, and the characters are discussed in terms of whole bodily attitudes, spatial relationships, and foot and manual gestures. (CLK)

Results confirm the value of play activities for language development, and illustrate the nature of linguistic interaction among groups of five-year-olds. (RL)

A discussion of the child's language acquisition including examples of syntactic development. This analysis is introduced by references to various language theories, particularly the generative and psycholinguistic theories, and to various systems of syntactic description. The examples given raise questions on the theoretic and ideological levels.…

A computer program for measuring the complexity of syntactic structures in different levels of graded reading materials and in children's oral and written language is presented. (RW)