THE ADULT ROLE IN EARLY CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION A STUDY OF THE DIALOGUE OF TWO MOTHER-CHILD PAIRS Lo is Joseph i ne Baker B.Ed., University of Alberta, 1954 M.Ed., University of British Columbia, 1964 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Spec i a I Arrangements 0~ois Josephine Baker 1980 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY November 1 980 At l rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name : iois Josephine Baker Degree : Doctor of Phi 1osophy Title of Dissertation: The Adult Role in Early Child Language Acquisitiw: A Study of the Dialogue of Two Mother-Chi ld Pairs Examining Committee: Chairman : Jared R. Curtis - Charles P. Bouton - - - T - El inor W. Ames M. Sheila 0' Connell -, fl/ E. Wyn Roberts - -v vw-- Wal burga Von Raffler-Engel--- External Examiner Professor Vanderbil t llniversi ty Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. Date approved: November 21 , 1980 i i PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE , I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for 'such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its 'own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/~issertation: Author : (signature ) (name ) (date) ABSTRACT , In this descriptive study of the language growth and development of two boys between the ages of 2 and 3 years, the focus is on the mothers1 roles as they provide language input through mother-chi l d dialogue. From data provided by the transcriptions of monthly video- tapes of natural play sessions in each home setting, three aspects of the conversations of the two dyads are considered: to what degree the range of speech strategy and style exhibited by one mother is different from that of the other mother; whether each mother's differences are refl ected in recogn izable ways in the speech performance of her own . child; and, in spite of mother differences, what similarities there are between the two children in speech development at this stage. Unlike the children in many language studies, the subjects ccme from non- professional , non-academic fm i ly backgrounds. An abductive anal yt ical approach is used, the goal' being to throw more I ight on the process of rapid language acquisition that takes place in the child's third year. Work in the field in the 1960's and early 1970's had suggested that the mother's role is one of I1simpl ic ity and redundancyt1, a supposition that i s chal l enged and then reoriented . The study findings are cast in a general linguistic framework uti- I izi ng the descr iptive analytical levels of phonetics, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. There is a clear presentation and exegesis of the d is- tinction between what are particular and shared l ingui stic developments in the two children. Phonetically, an echo phenomenon is observed to be operat ing, seeming ly a rote rep1 ay mechanism re1atively independent of cogn itive and length restrictions. Salient prosodic qualities of each i i i mother's speech are mirrored in her own chi I dfs perfomance, particularly I as regards rate, elision, and pitch change factors. This repetitive type of speech appears to be we1 l established even in the initial tapes. During the course of the year, developments in the spontaneous speech of the two chi l dren are demonstrated to be simi l ar in that both boys are able to adapt familiar, stereotyped phrase and sentence forms by introducing syntagmatic and paradigmatic variations, a ski1 l that is characterized as an accumulative process. In this second type of speech production, length of utterance and extent of lexical choice increase over time. A third type of language use, in which there are elements of personal construction, makes an appearance occasionally but is little developed by either child. In the course of the analysis, C.S. Peircels general categories (his icon, index, and symbol ,cl assi f ication) are modi f ied to suit the particular form of the data in order to establ ish a d i stinct ion between l anguage that i s ma inl y ostensive and i nformaiive in form and intent and language that is more clear1 y symbol ic and pred ica- tive. The appl ication of this distinction results in a demonstration of re1ationshi p between pragmatic-s i tuationai factors and language develop- ment in the context of mother-chi l d language interplay. Within develop- mental l imitations of an epistemolq ical nature, the mother (adult) role in early child language acquisition is found to be definitive. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS , First of all recognition must be given to Simon Fraser Universityls unique Special Arrangements Program wh ich makes cross-di sc ipl inary studies such as this one possible. Many thanks are due individual pro- fessors, videotape technicians, and secretaries in various departments (Audio-visual, Education, Linguistics, and Psychology) for their aid at parti cu l ar stages of the project. I am deeply appreciative of the helpfulness and patience extended to me by the members of my interdisciplinary supervisory committee. To- gether, their talents and expertise covered a wide field. Acknowledge- ments go to Dr. Sheila OIConnell, of the Faculty of Education, Dr. Elinor Ames,. of the Department of Psychology, and Dr. E.W. Roberts, of the De- partment of Languages, Literatures, and Lingu i stics. As Senior Supervisor, Dr. Charles Bouton of the Languages, Litera- tures, and Lingu i stics Department acted as mentor and guide in the preparation of the dissertation, a task to which he freely appl ied the considerable breadth and depth of his knowl edge of language acquisition. His enthusiasm for scholarly investigation and unf l agg i ng attent ion to the progress of the work were of great personal encouragement, and his coordination of the supervisory committee enabled a cooperative and har- mon ous spirit to develop. Of prime importance was the contribution of the two mothers and the two children whose conversations formed the data base of the study. Their wi I ing and interested participation made the videotaping sessions feasible. For all concerned it has been a shared academic venture. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ..................................................... i i Abstract .......................................................... iii \ Acknowledgements .................................................. v Table of Contents ................................................. v i List of Tables .................................................... i x List of Figures ................................................... X INTRODUCTION Chapter One An Historical Preview .............................. The Baby Biographers The Norm-Seekers Lingu i sts and Psycho I i ngu i sts The Present PART ONE REV 1 EW OF THE L ITERATURE Chapter Two The Simplicity-Redundancy Hypothesis ............... Simplicity in Relation to Age Factors Simp1 icity as Grammatical Fine Tuning Redundancy as Salience Redundancy as Di scourse Cue i ng Chapter Three A Methodology Influenced by Peircean Pragmatism .... Study De 1 imitations An Abductive Way to Work The Evolution of the Study A Search for Pragmatic Categories PART TWO SOUND FACTORS I Chapter Four Repetitiveness and the Echo Phenxenon ............. 84 lmitat ion Di scussed Var iety and Frequency of Repetition Encountered Differences in the Two Subjects1 Repetitiveness The Echo Phenanenon- Chapter Five Sound Sa l i enci es in Mother l nput .. , . , 1 12 Rate and Elision Factors Dens i ty and Focus Di f ferences Pitch Var i ation Mother Teach ing Techn iques PART TtREE FUNCT l ONAL SYNTAX Chapter Six Syntactic Parallels in the Two Children's Speech ... 142 A Pragmatic-Syntactic Analysis of Tape I 142 ' Firstness, Secondness, and Th irdness Appl ied to Speech 148 Elaboration of the OIP Category System 154 Progress of Function in the Two Children's Speech 1 64 Chapter Seven Syntagmatic-Paradigmatic Pai-terning .............*.. 172 An Analysis of an Early Paradigm Ostensive, Informative, and Predicative Paradigms Di agrammat ic Evolution of SVO Structure Length of Utterance Related to Paradigm Complexity PART FOUR FUNCT l ONAL S EMANT l CS Chapter Eight Gaps in Understanding .............................. 198 A Specific Locative Difficulty A Difficulty with Causal Relations Difficulties with "Non and Polar Qualities Extra-Situational Reference Chapter Nine Mother-Child Dialogue Parameters ...,,...,,..,..,... 225 Focussing on Objects The Buildup Process Barriers to Predication Mother Emphasis and Encouragement CONCLUSION I Chapter Ten Environmental Access to Language ..................... 249 Different Mothers - Different Modes Pragmatic Shaping An Environmental Access Hypothesis Recommendations for Further Study Data Appendices .................................................... 271 Bibliography ..................................................... 436 viii LIST OF TABLES Table I . Child Repetition Frequencies ........................ 274 Table 2 . Mother Repetition Frequencies ....................... 275 Table 3 . Pitch