Examines sex differences in vocalizations and play behaviors displayed toward an infant by preschoolers, preadolescents, and adults. Preschoolers showed less interaction than older subjects. Males talked and played less with the baby than did females at all ages; however, among adult subjects, no sex-role effects were found. (Author/RH)

Reports research on the communicative behavior of a hearing child whose parents communicated with him, from birth, in both signs and words. The child's expressive ability accelerated in both modalities and this is possibly attributable to the addition of the signed component. (PJM)

Presents two models of language acquisition: one postulating articulatory learning of underlying adult forms and the other both articulatory and perceptual learning. Reanalyzes the first model's data and concludes that two types of phonological rules are recognizable: perceptual-encoding rules and output (articulatory) rules. Identifies properties…

The author describes two approaches to the development of talk in early childhood--behavioristic, which provides instruction in specific skills of grammar and vocabulary, and the approach which encourages the development of meaning rather than refining the structure of speech. (KC)

Suggests that young children use their expectations of a context-specific, normal range of pause duration in timing the onset of a turn at speaking. (FL)

The effects of speech rate, intonation, and sentence length on children's ability to imitate sentences were examined. Results indicate that adult speech is more readily imitated by children when intonation is normal, sentences are short, and speech rate is close to that of the child. (Author/AM)

Ten objects were used to assess comprehension, production, and imitation of comparative and superlative suffixes in 100 children ranging in age from two years, six months, to four years, six months. (Author/AM)

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)

Outlines some problems that emerged when speech act theory was applied to the analysis of natural discourse, traces these problems to basic flaws or misconceptions in J. R. Searle's theory, and proposes an alternative view of speech acts within the complex organization of discourse processes. (FL)

Measures of pragmatic development for children in the second year of life were developed based on a 30-minute language sample drawn from 20 children. Results support the view that the range of pragmatic functions grows steadily during the one-word and early two-word stage and that it is measurable. (Author/AM)

Article discusses (1) implications of understanding children's functional language competence for assessment and evaluation, (2) application of this understanding to preparation of teaching materials and design of curricula, and (3) recognition of children's language as a viable system of its own rather than an incomplete rendition of the adult…

The attribution of function of various kinds to elements of child speech is discussed, and the question of the validity of the interpretations on which such attribution rests is explored with reference to Halliday's work on the development of meaning. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect exposure to linguistic input pertinent to kinship terms and kinship relations has on the acquisition of the meaning of such terms. The subjects were 84 German children living in families, and 84 orphans. (Author/CFM)

Reports on studies examining the extent to which mothers tailor their speech to a child's level of linguistic ability. Methodological implications for language acquisition research are discussed. (AM)

On the basis of an analysis of several earlier classifications of language functions a three-dimensional classification is presented. It interprets the utterance in question in terms of 1) the speaker's intended influence on the listener, 2) the speaker's intentions and attitudes, and 3) the speaker's intentions with respect to the content of the…