Grammatical Development 1 Recap of grammatical terms Syntax

Grammatical Development 1

Recap of grammatical terms … • Syntax • Adverbial • • Possessive Inflections Auxiliary verbs Determiners

Syntactic development… • This lecture on grammatical development is primarily concerned with syntax. • Syntactic development = development of a child’s ability to create grammatical constructions by arranging words in an appropriate order.

One-word stage … • 12 -18 months: child speaks in single word utterances. • ‘milk’ • ‘mummy’ • Groups of words may be used as a single unit. • ‘allgone’

One-word stage … • In many situations, the words simply serve a naming function. • Holophrases: single words which convey more complex messages:

Holophrases … • • ‘juice’ ‘I want some juice’ ‘I’ve spilt some juice’ Context, gesture and intonation: enable parent/carer to understand what child means.

Understanding … • Although the child’s utterances are limited, their understanding of syntax is (predictably) more advanced. • Evidence: children at the one-word stage can respond to two-word instructions: ‘kiss mummy’.

Two-word stage … • 18 months: two-word utterances begin to appear. • Usually: grammatically correct sequence.

Two-word stage … • Common constructions: • S+V ‘Daddy sleep’ • V+O ‘Draw birdie’ • S+O ‘Suzy juice’ • S+C ‘Daddy busy’

Two-word stage … • When repeating an adult, children at this stage commonly omit elements, but retain the correct order: • Look, Ben’s playing in the garden. • Play garden.

Two-word stage … • Utterances focus on key words. • Grammatical function words: commonly omitted (as they carry less information).

Meanings of two-word utterances … • Range of complex meanings can be expressed. • Possession: ‘Mummy car’ • Action: ‘Paul eat’ • Location: ‘Teddy bed’

Ambiguity … • The scope for ambiguity at this stage arises because of the omission of inflectional affixes. • Commonly possessive and plural ‘s’ and past tense ‘ed’ are absent.

Telegraphic stage … • Age 2: 3 and 4 -word utterances begin to be produced. • Some will be grammatically complete:

Telegraphic stage … • • • S+V+O ‘Lucy likes tea’ S+V+C ‘Teddy is tired’ S+V+A ‘Mummy sleeps upstairs’

Telegraphic stage … • Other utterances will have grammatical elements missing: • ‘Daddy home now’ • ‘Where Josh going? ’

Telegraphic stage … • Hence the name ‘telegraphic’. • Like a telegram, they include key words, but omit elements such as: • Determiners • Auxiliary verbs • Prepositions

Telegraphic stage … • Wider range of structures will be used: • Questions (interrogatives) • Commands (imperatives) • Simple statements

Rapid progress … • 3 years: items such as determiners begin to be used regularly. • More than one clause appears • Coordinating conjunctions • Inflectional affixes (see next lecture) • 5 years: many of most basic grammatical rules have been learned, though some (e. g. the passive) have yet to be mastered.

Vocabulary test … • • • HOLOPHRASE TELEGRAPHIC COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES PASSIVE

Tasks! • Each team must make notes on their stage AND • Each team must reduce their stage one (or more) of the following: • Less than 15 words • A cartoon • A mime • A song or a poem • Teams will present their work to the class!