scholarly journals Developmental perspectives on the expression of motion in speech and gesture

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Hickmann ◽  
Henriette Hendriks ◽  
Marianne Gullberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Complementary Information ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
French And English ◽  
Gesture Studies ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Do So

Recent research shows that adult speakers of verb- vs. satellite-framed languages (Talmy, 2000) express motion events in language-specific ways in speech (Slobin 1996, 2004) and co-verbal gestures (Duncan 2005; Kita & Özyurek 2003; McNeill 1992). Although such findings suggest cross-linguistic differences in the expression of events, little is still known about their implications for first language acquisition. This paper examines how French and English adults and children (ages four and six) express Path and Manner in speech and gesture when describing voluntary motion presented in animated cartoons. The results show that English adults conflate Manner+Path in speech more often than French adults who frequently talk about Path only. Both groups gesture mainly about Path only, but English adults also conflate Manner+Path into single gestures, whereas French adults never do so. Children in both languages are predominantly adult-like in speech and gesture from age four on, but also display developmental progressions with increasing age. Finally, speech and gestures are predominantly co-expressive in both language groups and at all ages. When modalities differ, English adults typically provide less information in gesture (Path) than in speech (Manner+Path; ‘Manner modulation’ phenomenon), whereas French adults express complementary information in speech (Manner) and gesture (Path). The discussion highlights theoretical implications of such bi-modal analyses for acquisition and gesture studies

Motion in first language acquisition: Manner and Path in French and English child language*

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAYA HICKMANN ◽  
PIERRE TARANNE ◽  
PHILIPPE BONNET
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
English Child ◽  
French And English ◽  
Adults And Children

ABSTRACTTwo experiments compared how French vs. English adults and children (three to seven years) described motion events. Given typological properties (Talmy, 2000) and previous results (Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Hickmann, 2003; Slobin, 2003), the main prediction was that Manner should be more salient and therefore more frequently combined with Path (MP) in English than in French, particularly with four types of ‘target’ events, as compared to manner-oriented ‘controls’: motion up/down (Experiment I, N=200) and across (Experiment II, N=120), arrivals and departures (both experiments). Results showed that MP-responses (a) varied with events and increased with age in both languages, but (b) were more frequent in English at all ages with all events, and (c) were age- and event-specific among French speakers, who also frequently expressed Path or Manner alone. The discussion highlights several factors accounting for responses, with particular attention to the interplay between cognitive factors that drive language acquisition and typological properties that constrain this process from early on.

scholarly journals FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF A THREE YEARS OLD CHILD: AN ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT (A CASE STUDY)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-154
Author(s):  
Hilma Safitri ◽  
M. Nur Hakim
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Biological Development ◽  
Consonant Sounds ◽  
Do So

The process of language acquisition undergone by each child in the world is more and less similar. This is because language is universal in which it is acquired through all language components namely phonology, semantics, and pragmatics. The component of phonology is more related to human neuro-biology. The process of sound produced is genetic and human biological development is not similar. Hence, the language development of human beings is not exactly the same. This paper explores first language acquisition particularly on the phonological component of a three years old child named Andi. The data is the transcripts of dialog taken from causal chit chats with the participant. A qualitative method is used to analyze the data. The findings reveal that the participant acquired vocal sounds of /a/, /i/, /u/, /o/, /e/ and consonant sounds of /p/, /b/, /m/, /t/ more dominant compared to others. He never produced /k/ consonant, fricative [s] and [j]. However, he produced nasal consonants of [m], [n], and [ɳ]. The participant also substituted omitted a few sounds. This might happen because his speech articulation has not developed well yet or genetic factor does not allow him to do so.

scholarly journals First Language Acquisition, Developmental Errors in Vocabulary: A Case Study of a Four -Year- Old Iranian Child

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nastaran Sadeghi ◽  
Mohammad Hashamdar
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Iranian Child ◽  
Interval Recording ◽  
Do So

This case study aims to discover the process of first language acquisition of a 4–year-old Iranian child. The focus of the research is on developmental errors the child has created in his language development, i.e. the words which are not correct. To do so, the researcher, during four months, observed and recorded the subject's produced strange words. The recording was done by two ways, Interval recording strategy and event sampling.Developmental errors or strange words are part of the learning process. These words are created due to different reasons. The research shows that during four months and in thirty three records, eleven strange words and expressions were produced. These eleven errors were investigated in this study in details. A table was presented by the researcher in which these errors were thoroughly described.

The impact of typological factors in monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Katharina Ochsenbauer ◽  
Helen Engemann
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Impact

The present study compares (1) monolingual English vs. French adults and children and (2) simultaneous French-English bilingual children who describe caused motion events. The results concerning L1 speakers showed developmental progressions in both languages, e.g., utterance complexity increases with age. However, response patterns differed considerably across languages in that responses were denser and more compact in English than in French. The results concerning bilingual children showed unidirectional crosslinguistic interactions. Responses elicited in English paralleled monolingual developmental patterns, whereas bilinguals’ French productions differed from those of monolingual French peers. The findings suggest that bilingual children transfer lexicalisation patterns from one of their languages to the other when the former provides more transparent means of achieving high semantic density.

Infant-Directed Speech Effects in Adult Artificial Grammar Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Sára Lukics ◽  
Ágnes Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Learning Rates

First language acquisition is facilitated by several characteristics of infant-directed speech, but we know little about their relative contribution to learning different aspects of language. We investigated infant-directed speech effects on the acquisition of a linear artificial grammar in two experiments. We examined the effect of incremental presentation of strings (starting small) and prosody (comparing monotonous, arbitrary and phrase prosody). Presenting shorter strings before longer ones led to higher learning rates compared to random presentation. Prosody marking phrases had a similar effect, yet, prosody without marking syntactic units did not facilitate learning. These studies were the first to test the starting small effect with a linear artificial grammar, and also the first to investigate the combined effect of starting small and prosody. Our results suggest that starting small and prosody facilitate the extraction of regularities from artificial linguistic stimuli, indicating they may play an important role in natural language acquisition.

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