First Language Acquisition

by Eve V. Clark

• ISBN13: 9780521514132
• ISBN10: 0521514134
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Babies are not born talking, they learn language, starting immediately from birth. How does this process take place? When do children master the skills needed for using language successfully? What stages do they go through as they learn to understand and talk? Do the languages they learn affect the way they think? This new edition of Eve Clark's highly successful textbook focuses on children's acquisition of a first language, the stages of development they go through, and how they use language as they learn. It reports on recent findings in each area covered, includes a completely new chapter on the acquisition of two languages and shows how speech to children differs by social class. Skilfully integrating actual data with coverage of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying language acquisition for those working in linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

Author Biography

Eve V. Clark is Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University. Her books include Psychology Language (with H. H. Clark), The Ontogenesis of Meaning, The Acquisition of Romance, The Lexicon in Acquisition, and Constructions in Acquisition (with B. F. Kelly). She is an active researcher in the field who works on all aspects of meaning acquisition.

Table of Contents

List of tables, boxes, and figures	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. xii
Acquiring language: Issues and questions	p. 1
Getting started	p. 19
In conversation with children	p. 21
Starting on language: Perception	p. 51
Early words	p. 75
Sounds in words: Production	p. 94
Words and meanings	p. 122
Constructions and meanings	p. 149
First combinations, first constructions	p. 151
Modulating word meanings	p. 176
Adding complexity within clauses	p. 199
Combining clauses: More complex constructions	p. 229
Constructing words	p. 254
Using language	p. 279
Honing conversational skills	p. 281
Doing things with language	p. 306
Two languages at a time	p. 336
Process in acquistion	p. 355
Specialization for language	p. 357
Acquisition and change	p. 378
Glossary	p. 401
References	p. 406
Name index	p. 465
Subject index	p. 477
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