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Easy Way to Language Acquisition: Diminutives in Lithuanian Child Language

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Dabašinskienė I.

Ad verba liberorum

2009

vol. 1

issue 1

11-22

Introduction In most languages diminutive formation is the first pattern of word formation to emerge. The main reason for this seems to be the pragmatic functions of endearment, empathy, and sympathy, which make diminutives particularly appropriate for child-centered communication. This is especially true for things belonging to the child's world, which the caretakers tend to refer to using diminutives. The frequency of diminutives in the input as well as in the output of children clearly depends on the pragmatic role of diminutives in the respective language. In addition, their greater degree of morphological productivity and transparency, as well as their phonological saliency, favors the use of diminutives (Savickienė & Dressler 2007). Research of the languages where an extensive use of diminutives was noted induced some scholars to advance the hypothesis to the effect that the use of diminutives simplifies the acquisition of nominal declension (Olmsted 1994; Savickienė 2001; Kempe et al. 2001).Aim of the study This paper explores the hypothesis that diminutives in child-directed speech provide multiple cues for language acquisition. Diminutives in Lithuanian present an interesting case not only in terms of pragmatics and semantics (a feature which is shared by Lithuanian as well as other languages), but also from a language-specific point of view.Materials and methods The following discussion is based on analysis of data from a longitudinal corpus of a Lithuanian girl. For the present study we have chosen to analyze the girl's speech covering the period from 1;7 to 2;6. The corpus consists of almost 35 hours of recordings. The choice of the period was influenced by the fact that the child's onset of morphological development can be dated approximately around the age of 1;7 and continues until the age of 2;6, which marks the phase of morphology proper (Savickienė 2003). The recorded speech was transcribed according to the requirements of CHILDES (MacWhinney 2000).Results and conclusions The study suggests that the early and frequent use of diminutives by the Lithuanian child is due to the fact that it not only decreases word-ending variance (restricting the number of paradigm patterns to 3 instead of 12 declension classes), regularize stress patterns, but also facilitates the acquisition of case inflections.

The Development of Dialogue Competence in Children (Russian Data Corpus)

100%

Kazakovskaja V.

Ad verba liberorum

2010

vol. 2

issue 1

21-36

The debate regarding linguistic or communicative competence has not subsided since the publication of N. Chomsky's keynote works (Chomsky 1965; 1968). The structure of competence, its aspects, levels and components, and their content and correlation (with regard to both native and foreign language acquisition) are actively discussed in many diverse scientific fields and schools (Pinker, Jackendoff, 2005; Lehmann, 2007). The study suggests that conversational competence, as well as the linguistic-system competence, constitutes a relatively independent component of communicative competence. It also plays an important role in the development of communicative competence, as long as participation in a dialogue serves as a trigger for other types of linguistic competence.This paper explores the following hypothesis. Although the language-system and dialogue components show traces of parallel development, their divergence may be observed at the early stages of speech ontogenesis. At this time the development of dialogue competence outstrips the development of other linguistic skills and is a catalyst for the formation of communicative competence generally. This study has two primary aims: to investigate some of the normal aspects of the acquisition of dialogue competence (based primarily on communicative failures), and to discover the conductive factors and basic prerequisites for the acquisition of dialogue skills.The observations are based on the Russian language corpora, including longitudinal audio and video recordings and diary notes (Child Language Database of the Chair of Child Language1). The longitudinal method is the principal method employed in this investigation. Dialogue acquisition is analyzed regarding the extent to which the process relates to the functions of dialogue units initiated by questions.Analysis of the dialogue skills of children at pre-verbal and early-verbal stages has shown that the communicative failures or breakdowns (just like the child's general mistakes) mark the development of communicative competence in a dialogue and the correlation of different components. Simultaneously developing specific strategies (those of partial understanding, participation and "the end of phrase") enable the child to participate or imitate participation in a dialogue whilst lacking cognitive and linguistic-system skills. The language behavior tactics of the mother are the leading factor in the development of the child's dialogue competence and these tactics, in many respects, are characterized by a specific use of questions2.

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2 Ad verba liberorum

1 2010

1 2009

1 Dabašinskienė I.

1 Kazakovskaja V.

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Easy Way to Language Acquisition: Diminutives in Lithuanian Child Language

The Development of Dialogue Competence in Children (Russian Data Corpus)