First Language Acquisition

by Eve V. Clark

• ISBN13: 9780521732932
• ISBN10: 052173293X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• 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.

Table of Contents

Acquiring language: issues and questions

Getting Started

In conversation with children

Starting on language: perception

Early words

Sounds in words: production

Words and meanings

Constructions and Meanings

First combinations, first constructions

Modulating word meanings

Adding complexity within clauses

Combining clauses: more complex constructions

Constructing words

Using Language

Honing conversational skills

Doing things with language

Two languages at once

Process in Acquisition

Specialization for language

Acquisition and change

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