FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

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How do babies learn their mother tongue?

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 L1 acquisition

• How children can acquire (master) the

complexities of human language in a short period
of time is one of the major goals of contemporary
linguistic research.

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 Methods used in L1 acquisition

• Naturalistic observation
– Researchers observe (for years) and record children’s
spontaneous utterances.
– Diary studies
– Videotaping
• Experimental methods
– Tasks designed to elicit linguistic activity relevant to the
phenomenon that are studied.
– Cross-sectional studies investigate and compare the
linguistic knowledge of different children –or groups of
children at a particular point in development. (cf. Case
studies).
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 Experimental studies
• Tasks used in experimental studies:

 Interpretation tasks (e.g. picture selection, act-out)

 Production tasks (e.g. picture description)
 Imitation tasks (repetition of a sentence)

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 Some problems with tasks
• Problems associated with production tasks?
• Problems with imitation tasks?

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 Child language development
1) Phonological/Phonetic development
2) Vocabulary development
3) Morphological development
4) Syntactic development

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 Phonological development

Newborns respond differently to human

voices than to other sounds.
They show a preference for the language of
their parents over other languages by the time
they are 2 days old.
They can recognize their mother’s voice within
a matter of weeks.

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 Phonological development
From around one month of age, children
show ability to distinguish among certain
speech sounds.
Children are also found to be able to
distinguish between sounds in unfamiliar
language.
However, this ability ceases later on
(around 10-12 months old).

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 Phonological development
• Babbling: the ability to produce speech sounds begin
to emerge around six months of age.

– Babbling might be a prerequisite for later speech:

• It is likely that babbling provides children with
the opportunity to gain control over their vocal
apparatus.
– Children who are unable to babble for some
physiological reasons can subsequently acquire
normal pronunciation, but their speech
development is significantly delayed.
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 Phonological development
• There are cross-linguistic similarities in babbling.
– Frequently found consonants:
p,b,m,t,d,n,k,g,s,h,w,j.
– Infrequently found consonants: f,v, ð,š,č,dз, l, r, ŋ.

• What are the implications of cross-linguistic

similarities in early babbling?

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 Early phonetic development
Some of the tendencies found in the acquisition of
sounds:
– Vowels are generally acquired before consonants (by age
three)
– Stops tend to be acquired before other consonants
– In terms of place of articulation:
• Labials (bilabials and labiodentals) are often acquired first,
followed by Alveolars, Velars, Alveopalatals.
• Interdentals (ð, θ) are acquired last.

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 Early phonetic development
Some of the tendencies found in the acquisition of sounds

• New phonemic contrasts manifest themselves first in word-initial

position. Thus, the /p/, /b/ contrast, for instance, is manifested in
pairs such as pat-bat before mop-mob.

• Children’s ability to perceive the phonemic contrasts of their

language develops before their ability to produce them.

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 Early phonetic processes
Universal phonetic processes:
1) Syllable deletion
2) Syllable simplification
3) Substitution
4) Assimilation

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A 3-year old L1-Turkish
speaking child Phonetic modifications
• Market > Mardet
• Bana > Mana
• Polis > Pols
• Git > Dit
• Evet > Edet
• Geldi > Deldi
• Verir misin > Veyiy misin
• Araba > Aba
• Seni > neni
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 Early phonetic processes
Universal phonetic processes:
1) Syllable deletion
– Syllables that carry primary and secondary stress are more
salient (noticeable) hence retained in children’s speech.
However, unstressed syllables in the final position tend to
be retained probably because the ends of words are easier
to notice and remember.
• Target word: Child’s pronunciation
Spaghetti spə.ge.tı  ge
Potato pə.tej.do  tejdo
Banana bə.næ.nə  ænə

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 Syllabification
Syllables have the hierarchical structures: «dog»
Syllable (σ)

Onset (O) Rhyme (R)

d Nucleus (N) Coda (C)

α g
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 Syllabification
Syllables have the hierarchical structures: «stop»
Syllable (σ)

Onset (O) Rhyme (R)

s t Nucleus (N) Coda (C)

α p

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Please syllabify the Turkish word, «elma»

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 Early phonetic processes
Syllable deletion

Examples from Turkish

• Target word: Child’s pronunciation
– [elma]  [ma]
– [araba]  [aba] or [ba]

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 Early phonetic processes
2) Syllable simplification
– Deletion of some sounds (reduction of consonant
clusters)
• E.g., stop [stαp]  [tαp] (delete /s/)
• E.g., try [traj]  [taj] (delete
liquid)
• E.g., bump [bΛmp]  [bΛp] (delete
nasal)
– Elimination of final consonants
• E.g., dog [dαg]  [dα]
• E.g., bus [bΛs]  [bΛ]
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 Early phonetic processes
3) Substitution:
• Stopping
• Fronting
• Gliding
• Denasalization

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Early phonetic processes

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 Early phonetic processes
Substitution: (see other examples on the book)
• Stopping:
– Sing [sıŋ  [tıŋ st
– Zebra [zibrə  [dibrə  zd

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 Early phonetic processes
Substitution:
• Fronting: the moving forward of a sound’s
place of articulation.
– Ship [šıp  [sıp  šs
– Go [gow  [dow  g d

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 Early phonetic processes
Substitution:

Gliding: the replacement of a liquid by a glide.

– Lion [lajn  [jajn l j
– Rock [rαk  [wαk r w

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 Early phonetic processes
Substitution:
Denasalization: the replacement of a nasal stop by a non-
nasal counterpart.

– Spoon [spun  [bud n d

1. /sp/  /p/ (deletion of /s/) [pun

2. /p/  /b/ (assimilation in voicing) [bun
3. /n/  /d/ (denasalization) [bud
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 Early phonetic processes
Substitution:

Denasalization: the replacement of a nasal stop by a non-

nasal counterpart.

– Room [rum  [wub m b (denasalization)

rw (gliding)

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 Early phonetic processes
4) Assimilation: the modification of one or more
features of a segment under the influence of
neighboring sounds.
Assimilation is voicing:
– tell tεl  dεl t d ( /t/ becomes voiced)
– pig pıg  bıg p b ( /p/ becomes voiced)

Total Assimilation:
doggy dαgi  gαgi 
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 Early phonetic processes
What type of assimilation do you see here?

tell tεl   tεt 

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 Early phonetic processes

What does this suggest?

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 Phonetic modifications in Turkish
• Market > Martet
• Bana > Mana
• Polis > Pols
• Git > Dit
• Evet > Edet
• Geldi > Deldi
• Verir misin > Veyiy misin
• Araba > Aba
• Seni > neni
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 Vocabulary development:

• By the age of 18 months, the average child has the vocabulary

of fifty or more words.
• Children begin by focusing on words related to the here and
now.
• Many of the early words consist of nominals that refer to
concrete entities.
– Among the first vocabulary are expressions for
• displeasure or rejection (e.g. no),
• various types of social interactions (e.g. please, want, bye),
• food names (cookie, milk),
• toys (car, ball).

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 Vocabulary development:

• In early child vocabulary acquisition, first noun-like

words emerge.
• Then verb and adjective-like words appear.
• Children can understand more than they produce.
• By age 6: most children have mastered about
thirteen thousand words.

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 Vocabulary development:

• Early emerging words in L1 Turkish before the age of

16-18 months:
Süt, mama, ekmek, çay, etc.
Göz, kulak, saç, etc.
Anne, baba, dede, bebek, etc.
Araba, kamyon, tren

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 Vocabulary development:
Strategies for acquiring word meaning:
• The whole object assumption: a new word refers to
a whole object.
– E.g., When the child is shown a sheep (or a picture
of a sheep) and told that it is a sheep, the child
infers that the word ‘sheep’ refers to the animal
itself, not to its parts, not to whiteness, not to
wooliness.

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 Vocabulary development:
Strategies for acquiring word meaning:
• The type assumption: a new word refers to a type of
thing, not just to a particular thing.

– This strategy allows the child to infer that the

word sheep refers to a type of animal, not to just
one particular sheep.

kamerun
merinos dorper 38
 Vocabulary development:
Strategies for acquiring word meaning
The basic level assumption: a new word refers to
types of objects that are alike in basic ways.

– This strategy leads the child to guess that sheep is

used just to white, four-legged, woolly animals,
not animals in general.

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 Vocabulary development:
• Contextual clues in vocabulary acquisition:
– The presence or absence of the determiners
enables the child to distinguish between names
and ordinary nouns
• (e.g., This is a dax versus This is Dax)

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 Meaning errors observed in vocabulary
acquisition
• Overextension: The meaning of the child’s word is
more general or inclusive than that of the
corresponding adult form.
– E.g. The word dog is overextended to horses, cows
or the word money is used for a set of objects
such as pennies, buttons and beads.
– E.g., Turkish children may use bu not only for su
but also for other drinks. They may also use baba
for all men not only for their father.

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 Meaning errors observed in vocabulary
acquisition
Overextension
• There is a reason to believe that overextension might be used
to compensate for vocabulary limitation.

HOW CAN WE JUSTIFY THIS?

– As soon as children learn the right word for the objects
that they have been mislabelling, overextensions
disappear.
– Children overextend more in their production than in
comprehension.

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 Meaning errors observed in vocabulary
acquisition
• Underextension: the use of lexical items in an
overly restrictive fashion.
– E.g., the word ‘kitty’ might be used to refer to the
family pet only.
– E.g., Shoes refer to mother’s shoes only.

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 Morphological development
• English has many examples of
Irregular inflection:
Plural Past tense
Mouse-mice Fly-flew
Foot-feet Go-went

Regular inflection:
• Car-cars Wash-washed

 How do children master the distinctions between

regular and irregular morphology? 44
 Morphological development
Stages in the acquisition of irregular morphemes:

1. Case-by-case learning: children first memorize

inflected words on a case-by-case basis. Therefore,
initially produce correct irregular forms.
2. Overuse of general rule (overgeneralization errors):
Then they observe the generality of –s as a plural
marker and –ed as a past tense marker (usually around
the age of 2 and a half). (E.g. : mans; runned)
3. Mastery of exceptions to the general rule.

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 Morphological development
• What is a WUG test? • This is a wug.
Why is it developed?
– To find out whether
children have mastered
an inflectional rule.
• These are wugs.
• Why are non-words
used?

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 Developmental sequence of morpheme
acquisition
• Brown (1973) collected data from three English
kids between the ages 20-36 months. His study
revealed some consistent results in the order of
morpheme acquisition in English:
1. –ing
2. Plural –s
3. Possessive –s
4. The, a
5. Past tense –ed
6. Third person singular –s
7. Auxiliary ‘be’

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 Some factors determining the order of
acquisition of morphemes:
• Frequent occurrence in utterance-final position (recency effect)
• Syllabicity
– Progressive suffix (-ing /ıŋ/) can make up a syllable on its own but the
plural suffix or possessive suffix –s (its allomorphs /s/, /z/) does not.
• Absence of homophony
– The suffix –s can be used to mark plural number in nouns, third person
singular in verbs, or possession (homophonous forms). Whereas the
word THE functions only as a determiner in English.
• Few or no exceptions in the way it is used
– Whereas all singular nouns form the possessive with –s; not all verbs
use –ed to mark the past tense (saw, read, drove). Such exceptions
hinder the language acquisition process.
• Allomorphic invariance
– The suffix –ing has the same form for all verbs, the past tense suffix –
ed has three allomorphs /t/ , /d/ and /-əd/
• Clearly discernible semantic function
– Plural –s makes identifiable contribution to the meaning but the third
person agreement –s does not.
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 Syntactic development
1) The one-word stage (age between 12 and 18
months) (1-1.5 yrs)

• Daddy might mean ‘I see daddy’

• Candy might mean ‘I want more candy’
• Door might mean ‘Daddy closes the door’

These are called ‘holophrases’

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 Syntactic development
2) The two-word stage (1.5-2 yrs) (within a few
months of their first one-word utterances) children
begin to produce two-word ‘mini-sentences’

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 Syntactic development
The two-word stage:
 No inflection
 It is not clear whether children have acquired syntactic categories
(e.g. Noun, Verb, and Adjective) because inflection (e.g. past tense
suffix, determiners, auxiliary verbs are missing at this stage.
 Word order is OK but initially all word order forms seem to be
allowed.
– Children may not initially have a general word order rule.
– They may simply have a rule for each verb:
• Put the subject in front of push, put the subject in front of
read.
– Mommy push
– Mommy read 51
 Syntactic development
3) The telegraphic stage (2-2.5 yrs):
• Children begin to produce longer and more complex
structures:
– Chair broken
– Daddy like book
– Car make noise
– What her name?

• At first, these utterances lack bound morphemes and most

non-lexical categories (hence the term: TELEGRAPHIC
SPEECH).

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 Syntactic development
The telegraphic stage:

• This stage is characterized by the emergence of phrase

structure:
– Merge operation can form phrases consisting of:
• a head and a complement:
– Like book
– Ride bus
• And phrases that include a modifier (such as today and good):
• Man ride bus today
• I good boy

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 Syntactic development
Later development:
• Question formation

Stage 1: Single words or formulae: Two or three word

utterances to signal YES-NO questions with rising intonation
alone.
• Ball go?
• Four children?
Stage 2: Declarative word order: no inversion, no fronting
• You like this?
• Why you catch it?
• The boys throw shoes?

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 Syntactic development
• Question formation
Stage 3: Fronting
• Do-fronting:
– Do you have a shoes on your picture?
– Does in this picture there is four astronauts?
• Wh-fronting, no inversion:
– Where the little children are?
– What’s the dog are playing?
• Other fronting:
– Is the picture has two planets on top?

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 Syntactic development
• Question formation
Stage 4:
• Inversion in Yes/no questions:
– Will you help me?
– Is Mommy talking to Robin’s grandmother?
• Wh-questions without inversion:
– Where I should sleep?
– Why you are smiling?

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 Syntactic development
• Question formation
Stage 5: Inversion in wh-questions

• Inverted wh-questions with ‘do’

– Where do you go?

• Inverted wh-questions with auxiliaries other than ‘do’

– What’s the boy doing?

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 Syntactic development
• Question formation
Stage 6: Complex questions

• Question tag: it’s better, isn’t?

• Negative question: why can’t you go?
• Embedded question: can you tell me what the date is
today?
• Wh-questions
– Wh questions emerge gradually between the ages
of 2 and 4.
– The first wh words to be acquired are:
What-Where-Who-How-Why-When-Which-
Whose
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 Syntactic development
The interpretation of sentence structure
• Passives
– Children (at the two-word stage) know agent-theme.
– Age around 3; they can produce passive sentences, but
they still have difficulty in interpreting passives in
comprehension tasks.
– Maybe this is because of the canonical sentence strategy:
NP (agent) + V (action) + NP (theme):
• The truck bumped the car
• The car was pumped by the truck (reversible passives)

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What makes language acquisition
possible?
• The role of adult speech
• The role of feedback
– Different types of feedback
• The role of cognitive development
– The relation between cognitive and language
development.
• Universal Grammar (UG)
– An innate domain-specific mechanism is needed?

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 Further videos
• Language Acquisition: Crash Course Linguistics #12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccsf0yX7ECg
• Acquiring Language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KlekPZZ6k (55 min)
• Let's talk: 12 to 18 Months:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbbmccRO1o (13:37 min)
• Let's talk: 18 to 24 Months:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3nuWBL0k4 (12:40 min)
• Steven Pinker on How Children Learn Language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7arILiqxg (3:17 min)
• Noam Chomsky on Language Aquisition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cgpfw4z8cw
• The linguistic genius of babies by Patricia Kuhl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XBIkHW954 (13:24 min)

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