{"id":1279,"date":"2017-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/childrens-language-learning-in-five-words\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T17:44:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T22:44:03","slug":"childrens-language-learning-in-five-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/childrens-language-learning-in-five-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Children’s Language Learning in Five Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Language is a complex system that children learn early. Within hours of birth, bilingual babies prefer rhythms in their parents\u2019 languages<\/a>. Babies start babbling<\/a> around 6 months. They can detect words in fluent speech<\/a> around 7 months, and they produce first words<\/a> around 12 months. (I\u2019m writing produce<\/em> instead of say<\/em> on purpose. Deaf infants learning a sign language follow the same milestones<\/a> in visual and manual modalities.) Scholars estimate that 6-year-olds understand about 14,000 words, suggesting that they learn one word per waking hour. This feat is amazing, partly because each word packages information related to sounds (or signs), meaning, grammar, and social usage. And, each word links to others in a large and intricate network.<\/p>\n

The five words below are among the first that young English-learners say. At this early stage of language development, children use one-word utterances most of the time. Together, these five words show the sophistication of children\u2019s language development.<\/p>\n

1. Choo-choo<\/h2>\n

A child uses this word to mean train<\/em>. It\u2019s an example of onomatopoeia, where the word imitates the sound of a train. Because this onomatopoeic word\u2019s meaning relates to its form, it is easy to guess what it means. Try to guess what this pair of Korean words mean: chik chik pok pok<\/em> and gicha<\/em>. (Hint: An American toddler might say \u201cChoo-choo!\u201d when pointing to a gicha<\/em>.) Onomatopoeic words like choo-choo<\/em> are rare, both in any one language and across the world\u2019s languages. In most words in all languages, word meanings and word forms aren\u2019t related. Another interesting detail about choo-choo<\/em> is that it sounds like babbling. Around 6 months, when babbling typically starts, it is one simple syllable repeated twice. A simple syllable might have one consonant sound (like \u201cch\u201d in choo-choo<\/em>) and one vowel sound (like \u201coo\u201d in choo-choo<\/em>). Toddlers say their first words around 12 months, when they are usually also still babbling. So, choo-choo<\/em> illustrates both meaning and sound in children\u2019s first words.<\/p>\n

2. Mommy<\/h2>\n

This word can<\/em> be used generically: “That mommy is riding a bicycle.” Indeed, we find it charming when a child calls any woman Mommy. Such usage reveals that the child has learned that the word refers to a female adult. But, in a child\u2019s earliest use of Mommy<\/em>, this word names one special female adult. To share the lexicon with the larger community of English speakers, the child must learn both the name use and the generic use of this word.<\/p>\n

3. Look<\/h2>\n

This word can be used in several different ways (examples below). A child learning look<\/em> needs to master its meaning but also how it restricts the other words sharing its sentence. This word is an example of how words package grammatical information. Because look<\/em> and see<\/em> have similar meanings, let\u2019s compare these verbs in the same sentence to see what that means. The sentence \u201cI see<\/em> a banana” sounds fine because see<\/em> can be transitive. In other words, see<\/em> takes a direct object. But, the sentence \u201cI look<\/em> a banana\u201d sounds weird. This is because look is in<\/em>transitive. In this way, look<\/em> restricts the other words in its sentence. A toddler might say \u201clook!\u201d in the one-word stage, but not \u201cwe\u2019re looking to move to Tucson.\u201d<\/p>\n