In this article, we propose that the Root Infinitive (RI) phenomenon in child language is best viewed and explained as the interaction between morphological learning and syntactic development. We make the following specific suggestions: The optionality in RI reflects the presence of a grammar such as Chinese which does not manifest tense marking.…

Suggests that the concept of an interactive environment has significant ramifications for re-assessing and/or formulating a contemporary, comprehensive theory of language acquisition. (MH)

Dialogues of sets of socially similar twins are studied. The opinion that twins have slower syntactic development than non-twins is seriously questioned. Dialogues with twins saying the same utterance together, correcting each other, quarreling, playing verbal games, etc. are analyzed in their deep structure. (SCC)

The article reports on an experimental study undertaken in a suburban Parisian kindergarten to determine the optimum environment for child language development. Adult-child interaction is underlined as essential in the acquisition process. Observation methods and specific examples of the effect of child-adult interaction are outlined. (Text is in…

In speaking a child sometimes makes constructions in which a sequence of separate utterances expresses a semantic relation not expressed by either utterance. These "vertical constructions" are the main point of this study. Previous studies of construction in child language have largely dealt with sentences. In this study, sentences are…

Examines the spontaneous speech of Portuguese-speaking two-year olds in natural conversation with Portuguese-speaking adults. The children were separated into three groups based on Mean Length of Utterance in Words (MLUW). The children in the highest-MLUW group almost perfectly matched the adult speakers on every measure. (37 references)…

This publication reviews significant research in 1969 in the field of oral language in early childhood and reading. In general the paper discusses only those areas where these three topics intersect; thus detailed treatment is given only to language in early childhood education and language in relation to reading. Initial comments deal with…

"How does a child come to be able to relate his own experience to the formal means of communicating about that experience in the language to which he is exposed?" The author maintains that the innate predispositions that underlie the development of the cognitive ability to organize and structure experience also underlie the acquisition of the…

Three discourse-related formal aspects of model-imitation pairs were analyzed longitudinally in successive samples from two Hungarian children. Results revealed an unbroken developmental trend leading to lexically coherent conversational replies and that imitation aided the children in learning the lexicon, making phonological approximations of…

Children in school cooperate in the evaluation of their products and activities by teachers and other students by calling attention to these products and activities with various language strategies. The requests that someone notice something and/or praise it are the data base for this study. The unmarked speech act for this request type is in the…