Assignment: 2

Child Language Acquisition and Development

Submitted by: Tanveer Waqas (Roll No. 19L2074)

Submitted to: DR. Zahida Mansoor

Date: 03/11/2019

National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences

 Child Language Acquisition and Development

The way of communication to convey meaning in the form of symbol signs and words a method

that all humans used called language. On the basis of language acquisition so many researches

have been conducted because children born with a blank slate, therefore most of theories focus on

language development and their utterances. Language acquisition is the method whereby children

learn their first language. All humans have an innate ability to learn language. Children may

acquire more than one language. For example, children who grow up in a region where only one

language is spoken and heard he learns one language as compared to the region where more than

one language are spoken or heard.

According to the babbling theory around six months children start babbling and eventually

imitating the linguistic sounds that they hear in the immediate environment. At the age of 12

months the first true words emerge (baba, dada, mama etc.). With the passage of time these single

words embodied the communicative functions of entire phrases, for example the child word baba

means Father or where is Father? And according to the situation Psycholinguist called them

holophrastic, or one word utterances Nordiquist. In normal education situations, the holophrases

reveal that a great deal of neurophysiological and conceptual development has taken place in the

child at the end of the 12th month.

In the age of holophrastic stage children can name objects, express actions or the desire to carry

out actions and convey emotional states effectively. Early holophrases children’s relatively

idiosyncratic and their uses can change and evolve over time in stable manner.
Table 1: Examples of Idiosyncratic Words

Age Idiosyncratic Words (Sounds) Transcription (situation)

Ello While repeating Hello

18 to 24 lishen while repeating (are you Listen)

Months Baow (Sound) when he is frightened

Haw (Sound) When annoyed

In this figure the given examples are collected from those children who specifically lying in the

age group of 18 to 24 months old. Research was conducted in the Houses where the child was

asked to speak and repeat the words. For Example, when he asked to say hello he replied Ello.

After this he asked to speak a phrase “are you listen” he replied only a word listen. This research

shows that the child is picking the word but without knowing its meaning.

Table 2: Using Some of Idiosyncratic Phrases

Age Phrases or Broken Sentences Transcription

Mudy ushny mala hy Mujy ucny mara hy

3-4 years Men atha batta hoon Men acha bacha hon

Ne malti mama mujy Nhi marti mama mujy

Je dogi hy Ye dogi hy
In figure 2 given examples are collected from a boy who is a school going and lies in the age of

3.5 year. He is able to understand the words and also answered the question but one thing is that

even in the age of 3.5 years he didn’t pronounce the complete word therefore it is a good example

of idiosyncratic phrases. In figure 1.2 phrases “mudy ushny mala hy” it is a urdu phrase and sample

is a urdu speaking boy Actually he said (Mujy ucny mara hy )in the given examples word

“mudy,ushny,atha,batta,and je” are the words that are idiosyncratic. Additionally we can say that

his both abilities thinking and understanding are grown with the age but the problem is that he is

still change the voice of words.

Table 3 Example of Peer Group

Age Group Peer Group Examples Situations

3.5 Ice talem, ice talem Making Noise for “ Ice Cream”

to Baba mama aul men Replied to who eat?

4 years Aik do teen chaal Other child also replied but in another way

Hum football thail lahy thy While grabbing the hand

Issh men fish bhi ha What is in the game

In the figure 3 is an example of two boys, one of them showing his eagerness and involvement in

conversation with their friends A is a boy and B is a girl. “A” shows his excitement about the

previous day and making noise to tell about. While describing he used the phrases that are made
of idiosyncratic words. He tells the group of his fellows all about the all visit where they go and

what he has done and one thing that is interesting is that where he feels his fellows are getting

bored in that moment he tells about the eating stuff and about the games and then also say him we

go to play those games.

These tables are all about the idiosyncratic language that how a child produced his word in its

childhood means in age of 2 to 6 years. If we think about the babbling theory a 9 month child

produce word mama and baba or dada with the passage of time he learn more words from his

family. According to the Pakistani context there are joint family systems where a child learns very

quickly because of his environment as compared to the small families.

In Figure 1 we judged the idiosyncratic words like “ellow” with the passage of time this word

becomes “Hello” but after it child get more words than that if we see in the table 2 at phrase level

child are able to speak the words but new words that he speaks are not pronounced clearly in the

figure 3 at the age of 4 years the same mistakes but less than the figure 2 we can say that child

learn language but according to its Device and surroundings.

After the analysis and discussion we are up to results that children usually speak those words that

they heard or learn from their environment and surroundings. According to the researchers and

philosophers the child learns language with time and participation in the social interaction where

he learns communicative competence. Vygotsky said that learning is affected by social influence.

McCarthy D 1993 is concerned about child language and speech there is a discussion on language

about development processes and environments that effect on it. From this the focus shifts towards

the bilingualism, style of communication and roles of language in cognition.

References

Aitchison, J. (1997). The Power and Problem of Words. Retrieved from thelanguageweb.com
McCarthy,D. (1993). Language Development. A handbook of Child psychology.

McNeil, D. (1970). The Acquisition of Language. The Study Of Developmental Psycholingustics.

Nordquist, R. (n.d.). Holophrase in Language Acquisition.

Volden.J & Lord, c. (1991). Neologism and idiosyncratic language in austic speakers. Journsl of

Autism and Developmental Disorders.