CONTENTS // I Introduction // Page 1 // 2 Mechanisms for language acquisition 7 // 2.I Chomsky’s views on language acquisition 7 // 2.2 Competence and creativity 11 // 2.3 Primary linguistic data 15 // 2.4 Language in chimpanzees 17 // 2.5 Biological factors in language acquisition 23 // 2.6 Learning and learning theory 28 // 3 Language in the developing child // 3.1 Egocentric speech // 3.2 Piaget’s views on language // 3.2.1 Piaget as an epistemologist // 3.2.2 Child’s expressive language // 3.2.3 Child’s understanding of language // 3.2.4 Universals and language variation // 3.2.5 Development of the concept // 3.2.6 Summary // 3.3 The cognition hypothesis // 3.4 Functional origins of language // 37 // 39 // 66 // 47 // 48 // 50 // 51 // 57 // 4 Development of the child’s sound system 62 // 4.1 Vocal productions and discriminations in infancy 62 // 4.2 Early perception and production of phonemic distinctions 68 // 4.3 Awareness of phonological structure 75 // Naturalistic studies of language acquisition // HN // • • // L Ln // Comprehension and production in child language // 00 HI // 0 00 // The development of word meaning // 85 // Contents // 5.3 Holophrases page 90 // 5.4 Writing grammars for child language 93 // 5.5 Semantic relations in two-word utterances 99 // 5.6 Over the threshold 102 // 5.6.1 The development of negation 106 // 5.6.2 The development of questions 107 // 6 Experimental studies of linguistic development 110 // 6.I Active
and passive sentences 114 // 6.2 â€�John is easy to see’ 121 // 6.3 Word order in other constructions 124 // 6.4 Relational terms 128 // 6.4.1 Dimensional adjectives 129 // 6.4.2 ’More’and’less’ 131 // 6.4.3 ’Same’ and ’different" 135 // 6.4.4 Locative prepositions 138 // 6.5 Deixis and reference 140 // 7 The communicative context of language acquisition 149 // 7.1 Mothers’ speech to children 149 // 7.2 Language and social class 163 // 7.3 Contextual variation in child speech 168 // 7.4 Learning more than one language 173 // References 176 // Index