The transition from slow to rapid word-learning was examined in a longitudinal study of 18 children. Results revealed that most children evidenced a prolonged period during which rate of acquisition increased, with most of the acquired words being nouns, while those who demonstrated gradual word-learning acquired a balance of nouns and other word…

Results of four experiments suggest that two-year-olds may be capable of forming inclusion relations when they hear a novel word for an object that already has a familiar name. (PCB)

Investigates the role of performance limitations in children's early acquisition of verb-argument structure. Tested Valian's (1991) claims that intransitive frames are easier for children to produce early in development than transitive frames, because they do not require a direct object argument. (Author/VWL)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of a collection of prelinguistic skills measured longitudinally in the 2nd year of life to language outcome in the 3rd year in children with typical language development. Method: A collection of prelinguistic skills was assessed in 160 children early (M = 14.31 months; SD =…

Children ages 1 1/2 to 3 years were tested to determine their comprehension of the terms "in,""on," and "under." It was found that children who listened to a pretest story involving the objects to be used in the study showed markedly better comprehension of the terms than children not exposed to the pretest activity.…

Investigates language-normal one-year-olds' (N=14) and language-impaired two- and three-year-olds' (N=10) acquisition of words referring to three types of action. Findings revealed that, although both groups produced few of the words, the language-normal subjects comprehended the different types of action, whereas the impaired subjects did not.…

In this study, maternal speech was analyzed acoustically to see whether mothers spoke with the same simplitude in both real and play situations. Results showed that mothers use both pitch height and pitch range to introduce the preverbal infant to the difference between play and nonplay situations. (Author/JL)

Investigates the acquisition of elements that instantiate the grammatical category of "inflection"--copula "be," auxiliary "be" and 3sg present agreement--in longitudinal transcripts from five children, aged from 1 year and 6 months to 3 years and 5 months in the corpora examined. Aimed to determine whether inflection emerges as a unitary…

The focus of this paper is the acquisition of the verb "eat." The transcripts of 40 children who were audiotaped monthly from 1;0 to 3;0, showed that "eat" was the first member of this verb class to be acquired. (16 references) (JL)

Aims to give a thorough analysis of the morphosyntax produced at the outset of multi-word speech, with a classification of free language produced at 2 years by 27 French-speaking children. A classification performed with word sequences reveals surprisingly adult-like sequences of syntactic categories of words. (Author/VWL)

Notes that regardless of the language, children acquire language on the same general schedule and the same cognitive path. Explores the process of child language acquisition, from sounds, through word meanings, to syntax and grammar. (HTH)

Examines whether bilingual children can differentiate their languages with respect to the ability to form compound nouns and to test the validity of previous explanations of the acquisition of compounds. Focused on whether a bilingual French-English child could differentiate between two compounding rules for nouns in the two languages. (Author/VWL)

This is a study of the lexical and grammatical abilities of 16 lexically precocious talkers. These children, aged 2;0 were compared to their age-matched peers, 22 typical talkers aged 2;0, and their expressive vocabulary-matched peers, 22 typical talkers aged 2;6. Individual differences in children's lexical knowledge at 2;0 were stable -- evident…

A case study of a 2-year-old progressing normally in speech development provides evidence of suprasegmental marking of the plural, thought to be adopted only in language-impaired children. Acoustic analyses of the durations and intensity of elicited words indicate that the child had adopted a suprasegmental strategy for marking the singular/plural…

A study of the late acquisition of the passive in Zulu used data from transcripts of naturalistic speech gathered in a longitudinal study of several children's speech development between 1.10 and 3.6 years of age. It was hypothesized that the productivity of the passive construction in Zulu is a factor facilitating acquisition. A range of…