From langconf at bu.edu Mon Sep 4 17:28:26 2006 From: langconf at bu.edu (bucld) Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:28:26 -0400 Subject: BUCLD 31 Pre-Rgistration Announcement Message-ID: Dear Colleague, We are pleased to announce that pre-registration for BUCLD 31 is now available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/prereg.htm The 31st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development will be held at Boston University, November 3-5, 2006. Our invited speakers are: Roberta Golinkoff, University of Delaware Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University "Breaking the Language Barrier: The View from the Radical Middle." Keynote address, Friday, November 3 at 8:00 pm Jürgen M. Meisel, University of Hamburg & University of Calgary “Multiple First Language Acquisition: A Case for Autonomous Syntactic Development in the Simultaneous Acquisition of More Than One Language.” Plenary address, Saturday, November 4 at 5:45 pm Mabel Rice, University of Kansas Helen Tager-Flusberg, Boston University Simon Fisher, University of Oxford Discussant: Gary Marcus, New York University “Future Directions in Search of Genes that Influence Language: Phenotypes, Molecules, Brains, and Growth.” Lunchtime symposium, Saturday, November 4 at 12:00 pm The Society for Language Development (SLD) will be holding its third annual symposium on “Learning Verbs” on Thursday, November 2, in conjunction with the BUCLD meeting. BUCLD 31 is offering online pre- registration and on-site registration for this event. Speakers: Lila Gleitman, Cynthia Fisher,Adele Goldberg, and Dedre Gentner. More information on the SLD symposium can be found at: http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/sld/symposium.html BUCLD and SLD pre-registration information is available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/prereg.htm The full conference schedule is available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/schedule.htm More information about BUCLD is available at our website: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD We look forward to seeing you at BUCLD 31. Sincerely, Heather Caunt-Nulton, Samantha Kulatilake, I-hao Woo BUCLD 31 Co-organizers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cjh22 at psu.edu Thu Sep 7 14:50:51 2006 From: cjh22 at psu.edu (Carol Hammer) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 10:50:51 -0400 Subject: Position - Penn State University Message-ID: NOTICE OF POSITION VACANCY Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Health and Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University seeks candidates for a tenure track position of Assistant Professor to begin fall 2007. We are seeking a colleague who will develop a research program that will strengthen the links between research and practice in the areas of language and literacy development and disorders and/or neuroscience currently targeted by faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and in the interdisciplinary initiatives of Penn State's Children, Youth and Families Consortium (CYFC). Responsibilities: Commitment to graduate and undergraduate education through teaching graduate/undergraduate courses; supervising undergraduate/graduate (M.S., Ph.D.) research; and service to the Department, College and University. Qualifications: Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders, education, psychology, child development, applied linguistics, or a related field with an emphasis on children's language and literacy development and disorders and/or neuroscience. Candidates with diverse areas of expertise related to these areas are encouraged to apply. The Department is particularly interested in candidates with expertise in multilingual/multicultural contexts. A demonstrated record of scholarship and promise of external funding are important. CCC-SLP preferred. Deadline: Review of credentials will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. To receive full consideration, materials should be received prior to November 15, 2006. Application Procedure: Submit letter of application, current curriculum vitae, official transcripts, recent publications, and three letters of reference to: Carol Scheffner Hammer, Ph.D. Search Committee Chair Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders The Pennsylvania State University 110 Moore Building University Park, PA 16802 Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bernard.grela at uconn.edu Thu Sep 7 17:13:55 2006 From: bernard.grela at uconn.edu (Grela, Bernard) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 13:13:55 -0400 Subject: Faculty Position - University of Connecticut Message-ID: Assistant Professor Communications Sciences Department The University of Connecticut, Communications Sciences Department is seeking candidates for a tenure track Assistant Professor position. The selected candidate will teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, supervise doctoral student research, advise undergraduate and graduate students, establish and maintain an active research program. Duties begin 8/23/07. Qualifications: conferred Ph.D. by August 23, 2007 with major emphasis in one of the following areas: adult neurogenics, normal child language development and child language disorders, multi-lingual/multi-cultural issues or augmentative and alternative communication; demonstrated independent research. Previous academic and/or post doctoral experience preferred. CCC-SLP desirable. Salary will commensurate with qualifications and experience. Application Procedure: Send letter of application, with a curriculum vita, three letters of reference and copies of relevant publications to: Bernard Grela, Ph.D. Search Committee Chair University of Connecticut Department of Communication Sciences 850 Bolton Road Unit 1085 Storrs, CT 06269-1085 or via email (preferred) to: Bernard.grela at uconn.edu. Consideration of applications begins 11/25/06 and will continue until position is filled. Representatives of the program will be available at the ASHA Convention Employment Center in Miami, FL ________________________________________________________ Bernard Grela, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor Communication Sciences 850 Bolton Road, Unit 1085 Storrs, CT 06260-1085 Phone: (860) 486-3394 bernard.grela at uconn.edu http://speechlab.coms.uconn.edu/faculty/grela/index.html _________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From seyda at uchicago.edu Sat Sep 9 13:34:12 2006 From: seyda at uchicago.edu (seyda at uchicago.edu) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 08:34:12 -0500 Subject: question about similes in adult speech Message-ID: Dear all, Does anyone know of research that looked at the use of copular similes (x is like y) in spontaneous adult speech? I am particularly interested in instances of such similes in talk directed to children, but other adult speech will be of interest as well. Many thanks in advance. Regards, seyda SEYDA OZCALISKAN, Ph.D. University of Chicago Department of Psychology 5848 South University Avenue G-215 CHICAGO, IL 60637 http://home.uchicago.edu/~seyda From pss116 at bangor.ac.uk Sat Sep 9 14:43:14 2006 From: pss116 at bangor.ac.uk (Ginny Mueller Gathercole) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 15:43:14 +0100 Subject: Research positions in Bangor, Welsh speakers Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Sun Sep 10 20:03:01 2006 From: gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk (Gert Westermann) Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:03:01 +0100 Subject: Jobs: two postdocs in connectionist modelling Message-ID: University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Brookes University, Department of Psychology Two postdoctoral positions in connectionist modelling Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University are pleased to advertise two posts linked to the planned new Oxford Centre for Connectionist Modelling to investigate phenomena of linguistic and cognitive development and normal and impaired adult processing with computational models. Two three-year ESRC-funded post-doctoral research positions in connectionist modelling are now available to work with Dr. Gert Westermann and Prof. Kim Plunkett on models of word learning and inflection processing. Candidates for both positions should have a PhD in Psychology or a related subject, good programming skills, and experience with using connectionist neural network models in psychological modelling. Position 1: This position is mainly based in the Department of Psychology at Oxford Brookes University to work with Dr Gert Westermann on models of the development, normal and impaired adult processing of verb inflections in English and German. This project will involve developing neural network models to explore the link between brain development and cognitive development in verb inflection processing as well as adult functional brain organization. Salary is in the range of £24,886- £27,103. Ref: 265/15846/BC For informal enquiries about this position please contact Dr Gert Westermann, gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Further details are available at http://www.brookes.ac.uk/vacancy/ Position 2: This position is mainly based in the Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, to work with Prof. Kim Plunkett on models of word learning in infancy. This project will involve developing neural network models to explore the link between brain development and cognitive development in early word learning. An important part of the research will involve identifying network architectures that are particularly well-suited to the multi-modal aspects of lexical development. Grade 7: Salary is in the range £24,886-£30,607. For informal enquiries about this position please contact Prof Kim Plunkett, kim.plunkett at psy.ox.ac.uk Before submitting an application for this position, candidates should obtain further particulars from http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk or the Administrator (e-mail: applications at psy.ox.ac.uk or telephone 01865 271399) quoting reference CQ/06/016. The closing date for both positions is 6 October 2006. Interviews will be held in mid-October for a starting date as soon as possible thereafter. Interviews for both positions will be held together, and applicants should indicate whether they wish to be considered for one or both positions. -- ===================================================================== Dr. Gert Westermann gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP Tel +44 (0)1865 271 400 Fax: +44 (0)1865 48 38 87 http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/gert/ ===================================================================== From W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl Mon Sep 11 09:01:06 2006 From: W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl (Blom, W.B.T.) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:01:06 +0200 Subject: REMINDER registration EMLAR III Message-ID: Reminder: EMLAR III 7th-9th November 2006, Utrecht University The full program of EMLAR III (Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research) and details about registration can be found at: For further questions, contact us at: emlar at let.uu.nl Deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006 NB: The programme is similar, but not identical to EMLAR II! One extra day, more hands-on sessions (E-prime, web-based experiments, ...) and more about L2 methodology. Invited speakers: Hugo Quené (Utrecht University) - Statistics and methodology, SPSS, Statistics with R Irene Krämer (Radboud University Nijmegen) - Sentence comprehension Sonja Eisenbeiss (University of Essex) - Elicitation Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam) - PRAAT Nivja de Jong (University of Amsterdam) - E-Prime Iris Mulders (Utrecht University) - Eyetracking Judith Rispens (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) - ERP Elizabeth Johnson (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) - Infant testing Steven Gillis (University of Antwerp) - CHILDES I and II Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht University) - CHILDES I and II Huub van den Bergh (Utrecht University) - Advanced statistics Hans van de Velde (Utrecht University) - Web-based experiments Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh) - Grammaticality judgement task, Magnitude estimation Marianne Starren (Radboud University Nijmegen) - L2 corpora Christine Dimroth (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) - L2 corpora Theodore Marinis (University College London) - On-line sentence processing Johanne Paradis (University of Alberta, Canada) - Matching different populations Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS will hold its third workshop on the issue of Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR III). This workshop, which is part of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) graduate programme, aims to provide PhD and MA students with the opportunity to learn more about the different methods used in the field of (first and second) language acquisition research. The programme will consist of a series of lectures (each on a different method), and several more hands-on sessions on more practical aspects of language acquisition research. Each session addresses issues such as: subject selection, rationale behind a given method, practicalities involved in the actual execution of the experiment, advantages and disadvantages of a given method and do's and don't's. Organization: Sharon Unsworth Elma Blom Hannah De Mulder Natalie Boll Roberta Tedeschi Frans Adriaans -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 07:40:24 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:40:24 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html From M.Saxton at ioe.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 08:03:31 2006 From: M.Saxton at ioe.ac.uk (Matthew Saxton) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:03:31 +0100 Subject: Babbling / First word In-Reply-To: Message-ID: In response to Annette's query, I have heard the same story, but with "momma" (or some /m/-initial variant: "mom", "mummy") suggested as the child's first word. Ease of articulation was given as the reason in this case also. Having said that, my son's first word was "cheers," presumably because the champagne being handed round was more salient than either of his parents. The point here is that ease of articulation is probably only one factor dictating production of the child's first recognisable word form. Without some hard evidence, though, I think we may have another case of counting words for "snow" in Eskimo....... ********************************************************************* Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, 25 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA. U.K. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304 www.ioe.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: 12 September 2006 08:40 To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.ht ml From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 08:14:03 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:14:03 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: >Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >thanks >Annette K-S Several brief things to say in response: 1. Yes, [d] is used the most in babbling, at least in English-learning babies, but not by ALL babies learning English, just most; this is not the case for Welsh, for example, so it's safer not to generalise to all languages. 2. babies' first word is not by any means always or even often 'daddy', although a fond parent hearing 'dadada' may choose to interpret the baby that way. 3. Yes, 'daddy', 'papa', and 'mama' are definitely easier because of the use of only one C across the word. 4. John Locke has a JCL paper on the use of 'mama' and 'papa' as early words in many languages - following up on a much earlier paper by Jakobson. The Locke paper was in the mid-1990s, I think. -marilyn > > >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >sec: 0207 905 2334 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil�wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio � defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From jacqueline.vankampen at let.uu.nl Tue Sep 12 08:34:03 2006 From: jacqueline.vankampen at let.uu.nl (kampen) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:34:03 +0200 Subject: babbling Message-ID: >Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >thanks >Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 From zeisenberg at gc.cuny.edu Tue Sep 12 14:14:17 2006 From: zeisenberg at gc.cuny.edu (Zena Eisenberg) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:14:17 -0300 Subject: RES: Babbling / First word In-Reply-To: <9E14A75D6404DC4F9233140F10AC44AABBED95@M1.ioead> Message-ID: If I may pitch in, my Portuguese speaking 2 year old's first words were: "dá" (give me) , "nanã" (no) and "adê" (where is it?). As a language conscious mom, I awaited anxiously for the first "mamãe", as his first word, but that took a while to come up. As did "papai" (daddy). Anecdotal data aside, there is no reason to believe that mommy or daddy should be children's first words, but more likely the saliency of words in the parents' talk, their functionality and the phonetic complexity. In the example above, "give me" might be much more complicated for an English speaking child than "dá", for a Portuguese native. Zena Eisenberg PhD at CUNY - Graduate Center -----Mensagem original----- De: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] Em nome de Matthew Saxton Enviada em: terça-feira, 12 de setembro de 2006 05:04 Para: Annette Karmiloff-Smith; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Assunto: Babbling / First word In response to Annette's query, I have heard the same story, but with "momma" (or some /m/-initial variant: "mom", "mummy") suggested as the child's first word. Ease of articulation was given as the reason in this case also. Having said that, my son's first word was "cheers," presumably because the champagne being handed round was more salient than either of his parents. The point here is that ease of articulation is probably only one factor dictating production of the child's first recognisable word form. Without some hard evidence, though, I think we may have another case of counting words for "snow" in Eskimo....... ********************************************************************* Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, 25 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA. U.K. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304 www.ioe.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: 12 September 2006 08:40 To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.ht ml From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 12 14:23:42 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:23:42 -0600 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20060912103403.00a405c0@pop.let.uu.nl> Message-ID: Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: >> Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >> Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >> easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >> from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >> and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >> articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >> thanks >> Annette K-S > > > Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of > feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural > control > of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the > hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in > language > history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of > typological features. > > Jacqueline > > > http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ > > Postal address: > UiL OTS > Janskerkhof 13 > 3512 BL Utrecht > The Netherlands > phone: +31 30-2536054 > fax: +31 30-2536000 > > > > > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ikto.ness at gmail.com Tue Sep 12 14:51:54 2006 From: ikto.ness at gmail.com (Iktomi Ness) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:51:54 +0200 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <632914580609120730k79311296h5751f6d6dc35e42e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I think it may be also interesting to bear in mind that the first words parents have the opportunity may not be the first utterances the baby actually produced. My point is that, there may be words or small productions that we -as parents- miss before the utterances take a significance to us (the name of the dog, or daddy...etc) On 12/09/06, Gisela Szagun < gisela.szagun at googlemail.com> wrote: > > feeling encouraged after Zena' interersting story, here is mine: > > I don't study in the area of babbling, but my daughter's first word was > "baggie" - short for our cat's name "Mrs. Baggins". How is that for an > interpretation - either in terms of articulation or deep psychological? > Maybe she had some idea of a cat parent? (Only a joke) > > Gisela Szagun > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 14:53:45 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:53:45 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was 'Dvorak'? ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM To: kampen Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Re: babbling Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From KNelson at gc.cuny.edu Tue Sep 12 14:59:48 2006 From: KNelson at gc.cuny.edu (Nelson, Katherine) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:59:48 -0400 Subject: FW: babbling Message-ID: This already went to Annette (why not to info-childes, I don't know). But to add to the babble: ________________________________ From: Nelson, Katherine Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 7:30 AM To: Annette Karmiloff-Smith Subject: RE: babbling There's another reason that English-speaking infants may home in on dada for Daddy in addition to the ease of articulation noted by Jakobson: mothers often interpret the word as referring to Daddy and reinforce with phrases like "where's Dada?" "here comes Dada". Others interpret the babble as "doggie" or "duck" also early words for many kids. Katherine ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 3:40 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From P.Fletcher at ucc.ie Tue Sep 12 15:13:58 2006 From: P.Fletcher at ucc.ie (Fletcher , Paul) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:13:58 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: I think that was Michael Halliday,in 'Learning how to mean' -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: 12 September 2006 15:54 Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: babbling Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was 'Dvorak'? ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM To: kampen Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Re: babbling Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 15:53:02 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:53:02 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: thanks everyone for all the information. I see everyone has cc'd Childes so I won't collate the replies. Many thanks, Annette At 16:13 +0100 12/9/06, Fletcher , Paul wrote: >I think that was Michael Halliday,in 'Learning how to mean' > >-----Original Message----- >From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] >On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley >Sent: 12 September 2006 15:54 >Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >Subject: RE: babbling > >Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was >'Dvorak'? > > >............................................................................ >Dr Alison Crutchley >a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >............................................................................ > >________________________________ > >From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn >Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM >To: kampen >Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >Subject: Re: babbling > > >Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural >control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge >- so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. >Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the >babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources >other than ease of articulation. >Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations >about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers >can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on >how clear the context is. >Lise Menn > >On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: > > > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first >word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position >of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated >comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for >Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of >place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > > Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of > feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural >control > of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that >the > hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in >language > history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of > typological features. > > Jacqueline > > > http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ > > Postal address: > UiL OTS > Janskerkhof 13 > 3512 BL Utrecht > The Netherlands > phone: +31 30-2536054 > fax: +31 30-2536000 > > > > > > > >Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 >Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 >295 UCB Hellems 293 >University of Colorado >Boulder CO 80309-0295 > >Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan >Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] > >Lise Menn's home page >http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ > > >"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" > >http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf > > >Japanese version of "Shirley Says" >http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm > > >Academy of Aphasia > >http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ > > > > >This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you >receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it >from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the >business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and >will accept no liability. From ann.dowker at psy.ox.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 16:09:36 2006 From: ann.dowker at psy.ox.ac.uk (Ann Dowker) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:09:36 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available URL: From dps at purdue.edu Tue Sep 12 18:01:27 2006 From: dps at purdue.edu (David Snow) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:01:27 -0400 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Hello all, In response to Ann Dowker's cogent question, I think Marilyn Vihman's work is relevant indeed to the issues about babbling and early meaningful speech that are at the center of this current group discussion (the work of Marilyn Vihman and other child phonologists who have, in recent years, contributed so much to the study of babbling and early speech development). In his crosslinguistic review of early vocal development, John Locke pointed out that [d] was the most frequent consonant in late babbling. Linguistic evidence (including phonetic surveys of world's languages) also suggests that [d] is the most basic and universal of consonants. However, it can be argued that labials (especially stops) are the simplest of consonants for most children. De Boysson-Bardies, Vihman, Roug-Hellichius et al., in their landmark 1992 study, showed that labials are remarkably common in early phonology, and, most importantly, that the frequency of labials actually increases universally as children advance from babbling to meaningful speech (suggesting a nonlinear pattern of the type that has been increasingly observed in recent studies of children's phonological development). Marilyn Vihman and colleagues have also shown that precocious word learners in English take advantage of "labial simplicity" as a powerful phonetic basis for early word production. The simplicity of labials, at least in part, is probably owing to the visual aspect. Children can use the strong visual cues of labials in the input to strengthen what Vihman has described as children's early "vocal motor schemes." All this, in addition, helps to explain why young children with hearing impairments may have labials in their inventory but few if any coronals (e.g., studies by Stoel-Gammon and colleagues), and children with severe visual impairments do not seem to demonstrate the advantage of labials over coronals in early word production that was described above for infants and toddlers with normal or impaired hearing but without impairments of vision. David Snow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Dowker" To: "Annette Karmiloff-Smith" Cc: ; "Fletcher , Paul" ; "'Alison Crutchley'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:09 PM Subject: RE: babbling > Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? > > Ann > > From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 12 18:03:38 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:03:38 -0600 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <20060912160936.8AE2A12002@webmail217.herald.ox.ac.uk> Message-ID: It's not only relevant, it's central! Lise On Sep 12, 2006, at 10:09 AM, Ann Dowker wrote: > Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? > > Ann > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ann at hawaii.edu Tue Sep 12 19:44:39 2006 From: ann at hawaii.edu (Ann Peters) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:44:39 -1000 Subject: first word Message-ID: One last comment from the last time zone in the world. My son's first recognized word (at 10 or 11 months) was "Hi!". It was so clear, and yet I doubted it was more than a fluke because it didn't fit my stereotype of what a "first word" should sound like. He said it when I came into his room for the first time one morning. The next morning as I went into his room I heard myself saying "Hi!" I was convinced. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ From ablackwe at mtsu.edu Tue Sep 12 20:14:02 2006 From: ablackwe at mtsu.edu (Aleka A. Blackwell) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:14:02 -0400 Subject: first word In-Reply-To: Message-ID: My child's first word was [dajdaj] at just about 12 months and it clearly meant 'bye bye' and not 'daddy.' My son's "daddy" (note: I speak Greek to him, his dad speaks English to him, and my son has chosen the Greek "baba" for daddy) surfaced at 17 months. **************************** Aleka A. Blackwell Associate Professor of Linguistics English Department Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, TN 37132 615-898-5960 From tina.bennett at wichita.edu Tue Sep 12 21:17:20 2006 From: tina.bennett at wichita.edu (tina.bennett) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:17:20 -0500 Subject: No subject Message-ID: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor From csg at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 12 21:41:59 2006 From: csg at u.washington.edu (Carol Stoel-Gammon) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:41:59 -0700 Subject: babbling/first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nratner at hesp.umd.edu Wed Sep 13 00:12:01 2006 From: nratner at hesp.umd.edu (Nan Ratner) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:12:01 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: And then there are the atypical kids. My son, Adami, couldn't say Mama for years, he said Nana instead, but managed "trash truck" much better, as one of his first 10 words, although it came out without the /r/ and /k/; however, the affricates and fricative came out just fine. Go figure. He had SLI and some of the kids we followed in Rescorla and Ratner (1996) also had weird initial phonemic inventories. Nan Nan Bernstein Ratner, Professor and Chairman Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences 0100 Lefrak Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 nratner at hesp.umd.edu http://www.bsos.umd.edu/hesp/facultyStaff/ratnern.htm 301-405-4213 301-314-2023 (fax) >>> Carol Stoel-Gammon 09/12/06 5:41 PM >>> As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 07:37:57 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:37:57 +0100 Subject: more on babbling Message-ID: In view of the various responses to Annette's question, which looked as if they had missed mine, I'm sending mine out again - sorry! It's based on recordings of nearly 200 babies exposed to UK English and 100-150 exposed to Welsh in North Wales. At 9:14 am +0100 12/9/06, Marilyn Vihman wrote: >Several brief things to say in response: > >1. Yes, [d] is used the most in babbling, at least in >English-learning babies, but not by ALL babies learning English, >just most; this is not the case for Welsh, for example, so it's >safer not to generalise to all languages. > >2. babies' first word is not by any means always or even often >'daddy', although a fond parent hearing 'dadada' may choose to >interpret the baby that way. > >3. Yes, 'daddy', 'papa', and 'mama' are definitely easier because of >the use of only one C across the word. > >4. John Locke has a JCL paper on the use of 'mama' and 'papa' as >early words in many languages - following up on a much earlier paper >by Jakobson. The Locke paper was in the mid-1990s, I think. > >-marilyn -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil�wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio � defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 07:38:11 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:38:11 +0100 Subject: first words Message-ID: Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 10:32:19 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:32:19 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <000601c6d695$782241e0$4c52d280@SnowOffice> Message-ID: that is so helpful. thank you. Annette At 14:01 -0400 12/9/06, David Snow wrote: >Hello all, > > In response to Ann Dowker's cogent question, I think Marilyn >Vihman's work is relevant indeed to the issues about babbling and >early meaningful speech that are at the center of this current group >discussion (the work of Marilyn Vihman and other child phonologists >who have, in recent years, contributed so much to the study of >babbling and early speech development). > > In his crosslinguistic review of early vocal development, John >Locke pointed out that [d] was the most frequent consonant in late >babbling. Linguistic evidence (including phonetic surveys of world's >languages) also suggests that [d] is the most basic and universal of >consonants. However, it can be argued that labials (especially >stops) are the simplest of consonants for most children. De >Boysson-Bardies, Vihman, Roug-Hellichius et al., in their landmark >1992 study, showed that labials are remarkably common in early >phonology, and, most importantly, that the frequency of labials >actually increases universally as children advance from babbling to >meaningful speech (suggesting a nonlinear pattern of the type that >has been increasingly observed in recent studies of children's >phonological development). Marilyn Vihman and colleagues have also >shown that precocious word learners in English take advantage of >"labial simplicity" as a powerful phonetic basis for early word >production. The simplicity of labials, at least in part, is probably >owing to the visual aspect. Children can use the strong visual cues >of labials in the input to strengthen what Vihman has described as >children's early "vocal motor schemes." All this, in addition, helps >to explain why young children with hearing impairments may have >labials in their inventory but few if any coronals (e.g., studies by >Stoel-Gammon and colleagues), and children with severe visual >impairments do not seem to demonstrate the advantage of labials over >coronals in early word production that was described above for >infants and toddlers with normal or impaired hearing but without >impairments of vision. > >David Snow > >----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Dowker" >To: "Annette Karmiloff-Smith" >Cc: ; "Fletcher , Paul" >; "'Alison Crutchley'" >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:09 PM >Subject: RE: babbling > >>Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? >> >>Ann From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 11:31:04 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:31:04 +0100 Subject: two questions please Message-ID: First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I may, two more questions. 1. Can anyone point me to research testing whether young children learn information better when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather than purely in spoken language? 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish something that actually happened from something they are repeatedly told by an adult had happened? Relevant research pointers? Many thanks, as always, Annette §-- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html From ikto.ness at gmail.com Wed Sep 13 11:41:35 2006 From: ikto.ness at gmail.com (Iktomi Ness) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:41:35 +0200 Subject: two questions please In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This has got to do with the relationship between musical training and pitch processing This has got to do with pitch processing http://incm.cnrs-mrs.fr/pperso/pdf/Magne_Schon_JOCN_06.pdf On 13/09/06, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > > First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and > dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. > These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I > may, two more questions. > > 1. Can anyone point me to research testing > whether young children learn information better > when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather > than purely in spoken language? > > 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish > something that actually happened from something > they are repeatedly told by an adult had > happened? Relevant research pointers? > > Many thanks, as always, > Annette > > > §-- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ahousen at vub.ac.be Wed Sep 13 11:44:50 2006 From: ahousen at vub.ac.be (Alex Housen) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:44:50 +0200 Subject: No subject Message-ID: I am out of office until September 19th. Your mail will be read when I return. Alex Housen From pgordon at exchange.tc.columbia.edu Wed Sep 13 12:25:07 2006 From: pgordon at exchange.tc.columbia.edu (Gordon, Peter) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:25:07 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: OK here's my anecdote: My god-daughter, at 10 months, regularly used 2 words referentially: "Juice" and "Shoes". Although these were similar -- both being produced with a very forceful burst -- the former clearly began with an affricate and the latter a fricative. The more remarkable fact was that these words were only said in the presence of appropriate referents and could be elicited by pointing to each thing in the same session. By 12 months, these words had dropped out of her repertoire completely as she began to work on the usual daddy/mommy business. They did eventually re-emerge, but now were assimilated to the same: /du/ for both words, just like any other 16 month old. Peter Gordon, 525 W 120th St. Box 180 Biobehavioral Sciences Department Teachers College, Columbia University New York, NY 10027 (212) 678-8162 ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Nan Ratner Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 8:12 PM To: Annette Karmiloff-Smith; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; Carol Stoel-Gammon Subject: Re: babbling/first words And then there are the atypical kids. My son, Adami, couldn't say Mama for years, he said Nana instead, but managed "trash truck" much better, as one of his first 10 words, although it came out without the /r/ and /k/; however, the affricates and fricative came out just fine. Go figure. He had SLI and some of the kids we followed in Rescorla and Ratner (1996) also had weird initial phonemic inventories. Nan Nan Bernstein Ratner, Professor and Chairman Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences 0100 Lefrak Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 nratner at hesp.umd.edu http://www.bsos.umd.edu/hesp/facultyStaff/ratnern.htm 301-405-4213 301-314-2023 (fax) >>> Carol Stoel-Gammon 09/12/06 5:41 PM >>> As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shariellen at nyc.rr.com Wed Sep 13 12:39:05 2006 From: shariellen at nyc.rr.com (Shari Berkowitz) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:39:05 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: OK, I'll play. My son's first words were mommy, daddy and book. My daughter's first word, as the second child, was "don't touch it, it's mine," as her big brother said to her all day long. Obviously, this was all one word, with reduced consonants, but the intonation and intent were spot-on. Best, Shari Berkowitz ____________________________________ Shari Berkowitz, MS, CCC-SLP Speech-Language Pathologist Feeding Interventionist Doctoral Student, CUNY Graduate Center -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ehoff at fau.edu Wed Sep 13 12:48:59 2006 From: ehoff at fau.edu (Erika Hoff) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:48:59 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFB4@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From macw at cmu.edu Wed Sep 13 16:29:35 2006 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:29:35 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFB4@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: Dear Alison et al., Your observations suggest an interesting new method of computing time in child language acquisition. When you use the phrase "in the first few months," I believe you mean something like "in the first few months after the onset of language" or "in the first few months after the first word." Then, later, when you refer to your sons use of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean his use of this word at "four months after the onset of language." It makes good sense for child language people to think in these terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? --Brian MacWhinney On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a > 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our > son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' > that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no > reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in > Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the > road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). > > So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence > of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... > > Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only > said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. > > Alison > > > ...................................................................... > ...... > Dr Alison Crutchley > Course Leader, English Language > School of Music, Humanities and Media > University of Huddersfield > Queensgate > Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH > > a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk > http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm > ...................................................................... > ...... > > ________________________________ > > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett > Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: > > > > One of my daughters used, as her first word (at > about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, > accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. > > She also produced a very credible "hi" when just > two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor > of a football game on television. Even my father, > a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. > It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we > initiated interactions. But of course > it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. > > -Tina Bennett-Kastor > > > > > > > This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If > you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and > remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not > relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we > do not endorse it and will accept no liability. > > > > From twila at umich.edu Wed Sep 13 16:53:38 2006 From: twila at umich.edu (Tardif, Twila) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:53:38 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <012d01c6d733$00dec060$eb2a5b83@irm.ad.fau.edu> Message-ID: And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. Twila Tardif -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Erika Hoff Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:49 AM To: 'Alison Crutchley' Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ........................................................................ .... Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ........................................................................ .... ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From babs at mail.utexas.edu Wed Sep 13 16:59:36 2006 From: babs at mail.utexas.edu (Barbara Davis) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:59:36 -0500 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <012d01c6d733$00dec060$eb2a5b83@irm.ad.fau.edu> Message-ID: On the deeper origins of 'daddy' and 'mommy' as first words: Dean Falk's 2004 BBS commentary "Prelinguistic evolution in early hominids: Whence motherese?" considers the importance of increasing necessity for early hominid mothers to be separated from their babies while foraging as creating selection pressures for an elaboration of the dyadic vocal communication pattern. She suggests an early linkage between nasal demand sounds and the word for female parent. For contrast, the label for male parent would be oral. This potential hypothesis for early contrastive use of 'daddy' and 'mommy' in first vocabularies is emphasized in a study of kinship terms in 474 contemporary languages, where Murdock found that 78% of words for mother began with a nasal consonant while 66% of words for father began with an oral consonant. Early sounds available to the infant production system include both [b] and [d], so the concept of ease is not easy to establish. Babs Davis On 9/13/06, Erika Hoff wrote: > > I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. > My > son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word > was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. > Both > babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute > meaning. > > Erika Hoff > > -----Original Message----- > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto: > info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] > On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley > Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: RE: first words > > Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' > is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, > igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly > regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these > 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was > carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted > 'Bears!'). > > So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of > linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... > > Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said > when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. > > Alison > > > > ............................................................................ > Dr Alison Crutchley > Course Leader, English Language > School of Music, Humanities and Media > University of Huddersfield > Queensgate > Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH > > a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk > http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm > > ............................................................................ > > ________________________________ > > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett > Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: > > > > One of my daughters used, as her first word (at > about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, > accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. > > She also produced a very credible "hi" when just > two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor > of a football game on television. Even my father, > a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. > It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we > initiated interactions. But of course > it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. > > -Tina Bennett-Kastor > > > > > > > This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you > receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it > from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the > business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and > will accept no liability. > > > > > -- Barbara L. Davis, Ph.D. Professor and Graduate Advisor Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders 1 University Station, A1100 The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712-1089 (512) 471-1929 office phone (512) 471-2957 office fax babs at mail.utexas.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From velleman at comdis.umass.edu Wed Sep 13 17:05:02 2006 From: velleman at comdis.umass.edu (Shelley Velleman) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:05:02 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <7696E99B-DF61-4FDD-964F-A274AB3F0A89@cmu.edu> Message-ID: Marilyn Vihman's system of referring to the "4-word point" (when the child has 4 words in a 1/2 hour recording session, 8-10 words reported by parents) and "25-word point" (child has 40-60 words reported by parents) is a good system, too. Shelley Velleman On Sep 13, 2006, at 12:29 PM, Brian MacWhinney wrote: > Dear Alison et al., > Your observations suggest an interesting new method of > computing time in child language acquisition. When you use the > phrase "in the first few months," I believe you mean something like > "in the first few months after the onset of language" or "in the > first few months after the first word." Then, later, when you > refer to your sons use of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean > his use of this word at "four months after the onset of language." > It makes good sense for child language people to think in these > terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the > first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment > to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist > calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? > > --Brian MacWhinney > > On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > >> Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a >> 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for >> our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all >> 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course >> there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not >> many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying >> him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted >> 'Bears!'). >> >> So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence >> of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... >> >> Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - >> only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. >> >> Alison >> >> >> ..................................................................... >> ....... >> Dr Alison Crutchley >> Course Leader, English Language >> School of Music, Humanities and Media >> University of Huddersfield >> Queensgate >> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >> >> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >> ..................................................................... >> ....... >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett >> Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM >> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >> Subject: >> >> >> >> One of my daughters used, as her first word (at >> about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, >> accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. >> >> She also produced a very credible "hi" when just >> two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor >> of a football game on television. Even my father, >> a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. >> It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we >> initiated interactions. But of course >> it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. >> >> -Tina Bennett-Kastor >> >> >> >> >> >> >> This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. >> If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail >> and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does >> not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then >> we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. >> >> >> >> > > From jlm at psych.stanford.edu Wed Sep 13 17:17:25 2006 From: jlm at psych.stanford.edu (Jay McClelland) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:17:25 -0700 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <5C49626685F3B248BA61C4F05767E2A812891A@ECLUST2-VS4.adsroot.itcs.umich.edu> Message-ID: Tardif, Twila wrote: > And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the > name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada > was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. > What an enjoyable conversation this is turning out to be! I hope others are learning as much as I am from it. I have recently moved from Carnegie Mellon to Stanford and my Stanford address was not recognized by the list, so (now that I've been rehabilitated) I am including here the message that I attempted to send to the list yesterday. Twila's anecdote seems to support the greater power of 'No Coda' relative to 'Onset' discussed in my message, which follows here: Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and "No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively (that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English (do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for 'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' (excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. -- Jay McClelland --------------- http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm / Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent confidence of the child (Vine’s). ----------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba *Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father " in most Semitic languages . The Syriac or Chaldee version of the word is found three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), and in each case is followed by its Greek equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament . Most modern Israelis (along with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as one would use "Dad " or "Daddy " in English. Unfortunately this translation also falls far short of the original meaning. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 17:38:07 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:38:07 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <45083D25.9090500@psych.stanford.edu> Message-ID: I'm certainly learning a lot, having started this! A. At 10:17 -0700 13/9/06, Jay McClelland wrote: >Tardif, Twila wrote: >>And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the >>name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada >>was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. >> >What an enjoyable conversation this is turning out to be! I hope >others are learning as much as I am from it. > >I have recently moved from Carnegie Mellon to Stanford and my >Stanford address was not recognized by the list, so (now that I've >been rehabilitated) I am including here the message that I attempted >to send to the list yesterday. Twila's anecdote seems to support the >greater power of 'No Coda' relative to 'Onset' discussed in my >message, which follows here: > >Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are >essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in >the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and >"No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by >cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). > >Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic >English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most >frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively >(that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar >nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English >(do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs >papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for >'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' >(excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). > >More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children >have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may >require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was >part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in >onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. >-- Jay McClelland > >--------------- >http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm > >/ Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. >4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the >traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were >forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It >approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which >it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact >that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking >Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they >used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens >unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of >the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent >confidence of the child (Vine's). > >----------------- > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba > >*Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father >" in most Semitic languages >. The Syriac > or Chaldee version of the word >is found three times in the New Testament > (Mark > 14:36; Romans > 8:15; Galatians > 4:6), and in each case is >followed by its Greek >equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing >warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent >in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an >ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament >. >Most modern Israelis (along >with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as >one would use "Dad " or "Daddy >" in English. Unfortunately this >translation also falls far short of the original meaning. From gelman at umich.edu Wed Sep 13 18:55:50 2006 From: gelman at umich.edu (Gelman, Susan) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:55:50 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <5C49626685F3B248BA61C4F05767E2A812891A@ECLUST2-VS4.adsroot.itcs.umich.edu> Message-ID: My daughter's first word was also the name of our cat (Rudy, which she pronounced as "Doo-dee"). My 2 sons' first words were "hi" and "uh-oh", respectively. Not sure what to conclude from this, but it was interesting for me to see the overlap with what others reported. --Susan Gelman -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Tardif, Twila Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:54 PM To: Erika Hoff; Alison Crutchley Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. Twila Tardif -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Erika Hoff Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:49 AM To: 'Alison Crutchley' Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ........................................................................ .... Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ........................................................................ .... ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 21:06:34 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:06:34 +0100 Subject: FW: first words Message-ID: Brian MacWhinney has encouraged me to post our recent exchange to the list... see below. Best wishes Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 9:58 PM To: Alison Crutchley Subject: Re: first words Dear Alison, OK. This helps a lot. Would you be willing to post your really helpful further commentary to info-childes? Many thanks. And please include a statement that you really meant four months and NOT four months after the beginning of language. Personally, I am not convinced that children are not actually echoing words at this early age. You know that quote from Hamlet. Something like "there is more in heaven and earth Horatio than in all your scholarly readings." --Brian On Sep 13, 2006, at 4:53 PM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > Dear Brian > > I think my use of the word 'word' was misleading. Before 6 months > of age our son produced word-like strings - which sounded to us > like 'elk', 'igloo' and 'bears' - but were clearly (to us at least) > not used in any context that would support their interpretation as > having actual reference or 'meaning' for him. We like a joke, so we > pretended that he was talking to us about igloos etc. > > However, imagine that we lived in North Dakota (e.g. http:// > www.wapiti.net/), and an elk strolled by just as Tilden shouted > 'Elk' (or indeed a bear as he - coincidentally - shouted something > that sounded like 'Bears'). We might well be tempted to interpret > this as 'real' word use, especially if he did it more that once > (which could still be coincidence, given the frequency with which > he produced these strings over a shortish period). > > Incidentally Tilden gave up producing these strings and started > babbling a few months later. He hasn't mentioned an elk since. > > Friends of mine visited with their son recently who seemed to me > clearly to be saying 'cherry' when given one. His mother insisted > that he wasn't. It all goes to show (for me, anyway) that the > science of establishing what exactly a first word is, and how we > can be sure it is that for the child as well as for us, is still > far from exact. > > With very best wishes Alison > > > ________________________________ > > From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] > Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 9:29 PM > To: Alison Crutchley > Subject: Re: first words > > > > Alison, > This would be the earliest reported use of a word by several > months. The previous earliest reported use was from Ponori (1897) > who reports the first word at seven months. > If you think your observation was solid, I think it quite important > to get this out more clearly in public. > Many thanks. > > --Brian MacWhinney > > On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:59 PM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > >> Actually I did mean four months from birth... But I think your >> point is well made. Given that lang acq is so individually >> variable, knowing that a child produced a word or structure at a >> certain age doesn't mean much. But if we know the 'starting point' >> - when the first word appeared for each child - this might mean >> that individuals could be more easily compared with one another...? >> >> best wishes Alison >> >> >> ..................................................................... >> . >> ...... >> Dr Alison Crutchley >> Course Leader, English Language >> School of Music, Humanities and Media >> University of Huddersfield >> Queensgate >> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >> >> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >> ..................................................................... >> . >> ...... >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] >> Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 5:29 PM >> To: Alison Crutchley >> Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >> Subject: Re: first words >> >> >> >> Dear Alison et al., >> Your observations suggest an interesting new method of computing >> time in child language acquisition. When you use the phrase "in the >> first few months," I believe you mean something like "in the first >> few months after the onset of language" or "in the first few months >> after the first word." Then, later, when you refer to your sons use >> of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean his use of this word at >> "four months after the onset of language." >> It makes good sense for child language people to think in these >> terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the >> first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment >> to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist >> calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? >> >> --Brian MacWhinney >> >> On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: >> >>> Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a >>> 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our >>> son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' >>> that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no >>> reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in >>> Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the >>> road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). >>> >>> So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence >>> of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... >>> >>> Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only >>> said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. >>> >>> Alison >>> >>> >>> .................................................................... >>> . >>> . >>> ...... >>> Dr Alison Crutchley >>> Course Leader, English Language >>> School of Music, Humanities and Media >>> University of Huddersfield >>> Queensgate >>> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >>> >>> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >>> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >>> .................................................................... >>> . >>> . >>> ...... >>> >>> ________________________________ >>> >>> From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett >>> Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM >>> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>> Subject: >>> >>> >>> >>> One of my daughters used, as her first word (at >>> about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, >>> accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. >>> >>> She also produced a very credible "hi" when just >>> two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor >>> of a football game on television. Even my father, >>> a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. >>> It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we >>> initiated interactions. But of course >>> it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. >>> >>> -Tina Bennett-Kastor >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If >>> you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and >>> remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not >>> relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we >>> do not endorse it and will accept no liability. >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > From masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl Wed Sep 13 21:10:55 2006 From: masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl (masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:10:55 +0200 Subject: first words Message-ID: I am afraid I forgot what the first words of my sons were, but I have recently noted the two first (Polish) words of my granddaughter Helenka. They were exact homophones and sounded [ko]. One meant "oko" (eye), the other "kot" (cat). Her subsequent "first" words seemed to be picked up according to her preference for velar consonants. I found it VERY anti-Jakobsonian. Magdalena Smoczynska -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debgibson at telus.net Wed Sep 13 21:35:28 2006 From: debgibson at telus.net (Deborah Gibson) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:35:28 -0700 Subject: first words Message-ID: I’m interested in the definition of ‘word’ in a child’s first word, as I’m researching my autistic son’s delayed language acquisition. He had many unconventional early ‘words’; for example, intentional vocalisations, such as squeaks and growls, and lexical signs (taught and invented), that were consistent in form and meaning but which did not contain speech sounds. His first word (at 3.1.25) with speech sounds was “Daddy’ [d«d«d«d«], which was whispered as were all his early words that contained speech sounds. I am unsure of the criteria for determining word status in both his signs and his early productions, and in differentiating ‘real’ words from what are variously termed as phonetically under-specified sound patterns, phonetically consistent forms, protowords, non-words, marginal words, performatives, pre-lexical terms, situational words, indices of meaning etc! I have a few questions that will help me to establish which of his early words qualify as real words, in order to compare his lexical development in terms of rate, vocabulary count, compilations of early semantic categories, and the timing of his word spurt to those of studies of typical children. My questions are: Is the definition of a ‘word’ in child language acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a word? Can a ‘word’ include an unconventional non-speech vocalization, like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or must it fall within the speech sounds of the native language and be a recognizable approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the motor articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the child? To be a ‘word’, can it be comprehensible to the only the child’s intimates, or understandable to more than the child’s immediate circle? If being a ‘word’ depends on having a regular extension of the word’s meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child’s intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the ‘word’ have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered a ‘real word’? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils down to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on the continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish vocalization from word? I’m sorry this is such a long post, and I hope it doesn’t go beyond the limits of this board! Deborah Gibson Ph.D student Dept of Language and Literacy Faculty of Education UBC debgibson at telus.net From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu Wed Sep 13 23:17:26 2006 From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:17:26 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <34349CCA-5EC3-433C-91EF-7D1785E3FB1F@telus.net> Message-ID: Dear All, I wanted to get in on the fun, too! My daughter's first word (at about 7 1/2 months, i.e. after her birth, Brian) was a very elaborate and unmistakable sign for "all gone" which could be done with two hands, or one, if for example I was holding her so that one arm was not available for the sign. We could put together a number of guidelines for deciding on first words, but they probably don't take into consideration the many variations on reference and intention that an autistic child would show. Wrt to word form. I believe "M," Deuchar's daughter, whose lexicon is in her book with Quay, had among her first words "mm-mm"--which doesn't have a real vowel, but which she used consistently for referring to a specific object. I don't think one would consider faithfulness to the adult target as a criterion for quite some time. Cheers, Barbara On Sep 13, 2006, at 5:35 PM, Deborah Gibson wrote: > I’m interested in the definition of ‘word’ in a child’s first word, as > I’m researching my autistic son’s delayed language acquisition. He > had many unconventional early ‘words’; for example, intentional > vocalisations, such as squeaks and growls, and lexical signs (taught > and invented), that were consistent in form and meaning but which did > not contain speech sounds. His first word (at 3.1.25) with speech > sounds was “Daddy’ [d«d«d«d«], which was whispered as were all his > early words that contained speech sounds. I am unsure of the criteria > for determining word status in both his signs and his early > productions, and in differentiating ‘real’ words from what are > variously termed as phonetically under-specified sound patterns, > phonetically consistent forms, protowords, non-words, marginal words, > performatives, pre-lexical terms, situational words, indices of > meaning etc! I have a few questions that will help me to establish > which of his early words qualify as real words, in order to compare > his lexical development in terms of rate, vocabulary count, > compilations of early semantic categories, and the timing of his word > spurt to those of studies of typical children. > > My questions are: Is the definition of a ‘word’ in child language > acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by > form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a > word? Can a ‘word’ include an unconventional non-speech vocalization, > like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or must it fall > within the speech sounds of the native language and be a recognizable > approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the motor > articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the child? To > be a ‘word’, can it be comprehensible to the only the child’s > intimates, or understandable to more than the child’s immediate > circle? > > If being a ‘word’ depends on having a regular extension of the word’s > meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with > consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child’s > intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the > ‘word’ have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered > a ‘real word’? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, > even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils down > to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on the > continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional > vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish > vocalization from word? > > I’m sorry this is such a long post, and I hope it doesn’t go beyond > the limits of this board! > > Deborah Gibson > Ph.D student > Dept of Language and Literacy > Faculty of Education > UBC > debgibson at telus.net > ***************************************** Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D Research Associate, Project Manager University of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 Tel: 413.545.5023 bpearson at research.umass.edu http://www.umass.edu/aae/ From macw at cmu.edu Thu Sep 14 01:18:06 2006 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:18:06 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFCE@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, Thanks to Alison for posting the clarification regarding her son Tilden's production of "bears" at 4 months and "elk" and "igloo" shortly thereafter. These are indeed real months, not months after the beginning of speech as I (perhaps facetiously) had suggested. What happens to early word learning theory if we take observations of this type seriously (as I think we should)? I see some possibilities: 1. The observations are correct, but the actual productions were so sporadic and rare that they can be dismissed as chance combinations. 2. Tilden actually heard the words in the adult speech and they managed to creep into his babbling repertoire as "amalgams" or "frozen forms" copied in their entirety. 3. There was some subliminal shaping going on through which Tilden said something like "bears" or "elk" and Alison and her husband then latched onto this and shaped up production of the sound. Until this possible phenomenon is more fully documented, it would be premature to even attempt to decide between such possibilities. But, in principle, one can easily imagine words being learned as sound forms long before they are learned as meaningful sound-meaning associations. It seems to me that this is exactly what the recent burst of interest in statistical learning would predict. If children are doing such great segmentation, shouldn't they be storing the results of the segmentation as raw sound forms? And if a particular child, such as Tilden perhaps, is rather good at auditory- articulatory matching or mapping, then that child could indeed produce such "words" long before the onset of the first real word. I think I observed something like this in my older boy Ross, but it is the type of thing that, if you see it, you tell yourself you must be dreaming. I wonder if anyone else besides Alison has spotted this? Brian MacWhinney From ann at hawaii.edu Thu Sep 14 02:00:49 2006 From: ann at hawaii.edu (Ann Peters) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:00:49 -1000 Subject: first words Message-ID: Hello Deb, First of all, a lot of people have addressed the question of how one recognizes a child's first "words" (3 names that pop into my mind: Charles Feguson, Lise Menn, Marilyn Vihman). And lots of terms have been proposed such as phenetically consistent forms. And criteria such as some sort ofphenotic consistency plus some sort of environmental consistency. The angle I have been thinking about concerns the social nature of "language" and the negotiability of meanings (cf. Vygotsky). I have been studying the emergence of language in a young visually impaired child (Seth) who had, in his father (Dad), an extremely empathetic primary-caregiver. At around 18 months Seth had quite a number of "idiosyncratic words". These were phonologically consistent forms that were reinforced and perpetuated by Dad's recognition of them. E.g. Seth would say /ihi/ as he patted his father's head, /baba:/ when he wanted to eat, /ntu/ when he wanted to be put down, /nu:/ when he threw something. Some forms had histories that reflect their phonological origin, e.g. /i-i:t/ when he wanted to eat, /shisha:/ when he was thirsty, /gaga:/ when he wanted a cookie, /kokowk/ when he touched something cold, /chI/ when he wanted to be picked up (derived from Dad saying "come up on Daddy's chest"). Some of these forms were ephemeral, some persisted for months. In every case I am sure they would NOT have persisted had Dad not somehow validated them for Seth. On the other hand, Dad never seems to have forced such forms to persist by "freezing" them into Seth's vocabulary. Therefore they were "free" to be replaced by more adult forms when Seth was ready. I suspect that it is hard for a child to invent a "word" out of whole cloth. It is certainly much easier with the cooperation of someone else. "It takes two to talk" - at least at first. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ From preshusteph at yahoo.com Thu Sep 14 02:51:17 2006 From: preshusteph at yahoo.com (stephanie nguyen) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:51:17 -0700 Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list Message-ID: thanks -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu Thu Sep 14 02:53:34 2006 From: karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu (Karin Stromswold) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:53:34 -0400 Subject: Psycholinguist Faculty Position at Rutgers - New Brunswick Message-ID: Rutgers University - New Brunswick's Center for Cognitive Science & Psychology Department has a faculty position for a psycholinguist. If you know any strong candidates, please pass this information along ... Karin Stromswold Here's the text of the advertisement Psycholinguist.* Subject to funding, the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) together with the Psychology Department at Rutgers, New Brunswick, seeks a psycholinguist whose work compliments those of the Psychology Department and the other disciplines represented in the Center, for a tenure-track appointment at either the advanced Assistant or beginning Associate Professor level. The Center's members also include faculty in Computer Science, Linguistics and Philosophy. The Center sponsors a regular colloquium series that is attended by students, faculty, and postdoctoral fellows of the Center as well as individuals from many of the surrounding Universities and Colleges. It is common for faculty from different disciplines to teach together. A successful applicant should have an outstanding research program, a serious commitment to teaching both undergraduate and graduate students, grant procurement potential, and a strong commitment to interdisciplinary research and scholarship in a rich and supportive cognitive science environment. Please send a vita and a personal statement outlining your research agenda and teaching philosophy, and three letters of recommendation to: Jo'Ann Meli, Chair of the Language Search Committee, Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, 088540 or langsearch at ruccs.rutgers.edu. Applications will be read as they are completed. Rutgers is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and has a strong institutional commitment to diversity."  Karin Stromswold, MD PhD Department of Psychology & Center for Cognitive Science Rutgers - New Brunswick karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~karin/stromswold.html tel: 732-445-2448 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2461 bytes Desc: not available URL: From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Thu Sep 14 07:24:22 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:24:22 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <45083D25.9090500@psych.stanford.edu> Message-ID: >Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are >essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in >the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and >"No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by >cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). > >Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic >English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most >frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively >(that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar >nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English >(do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs >papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for >'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' >(excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). Just in answer to this bit, Jay - children do NOT contrastively control voiceless/voiced (or voice onset time, more specifically) in the usual first word period: See Macken, 1980, in Yeni-komshian et al., Child Phonology, who discusses the work on stop production, esp. in English and Spanish - but I havne't seen any studies giving evidence of such a distinction at 12-18 mos. As for 'onset', you're right: In many languages VCV is an extremely common early word pattern, with even stops being omitted word-initially. I think this is a reflection of the accentual pattern: if stress is not word initial (as in most English words), or there are geminate consonants, the first syllable is less salient and the onset C is too. Finally, in reposne to the long question from Deborah Gibson - and also Brian's speculative comments on first words - Lorraine McCune and I have a 1994 JChLg paper that provides criteria for identifying first words, using both form and meaning and also parental id and frequency of occurrence in a recording session and range of use. For identifying early words we do not expect a close relationship with the adult form OR meaning, but there are criteria that can be used - and we like to think of it as a dialogue between two observers rather than hard science...These criteria are also reprinted in my book (1996, Blackwell). I wouldn't get too excited aobut accidental occurrences of sporadic adult-sounding vocalisations produced by pre-canonical infants! It's not that different from sound change: If Northern Pomo /ma:/ and Estonian /ma:/ both mean 'ground, land',do we jump to the conclusion that this N. Calif. language and that Finno-Ugric language must be related historically...? -marilyn > >More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children >have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may >require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was >part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in >onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. >-- Jay McClelland > >--------------- >http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm > >/ Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. >4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the >traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were >forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It >approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which >it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact >that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking >Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they >used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens >unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of >the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent >confidence of the child (Vine's). > >----------------- > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba > >*Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father >" in most Semitic languages >. The Syriac > or Chaldee version of the word >is found three times in the New Testament > (Mark > 14:36; Romans > 8:15; Galatians > 4:6), and in each case is >followed by its Greek >equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing >warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent >in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an >ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament >. >Most modern Israelis (along >with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as >one would use "Dad " or "Daddy >" in English. Unfortunately this >translation also falls far short of the original meaning. -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil�wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio � defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From G.Morgan at city.ac.uk Thu Sep 14 08:02:52 2006 From: G.Morgan at city.ac.uk (Morgan, Gary) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:02:52 +0100 Subject: first signs Message-ID: Dear info-childes, a great discussion and the last comment from Ann Peters about 'whole cloth' prompted me to respond about children exposed to a natural sign language (ASL, British Sign Language etc) and their first signs. First a growing body of cross linguistic research is showing that these children's first signs appear around 12 months and have common semantic characteristics (mum, dad, everyday objects, cat, dog, milk etc). They exhibit interesting 'child forms' e.g. the handshapes are usually unmarked ones even when the parent's input to the child was a more marked handshape. The handshape in the sign DAD in BSL is a fist with the index and middle finger extended out (like a two finger point). The hands come together and the extended fingers tap on each other twice (you will have to look at a BSL dictionary to really appreciate this). In child forms at 12 months the handshape is normally much less marked so the child might use two whole hands with outstreached fingers (like waving at someone) which touch each other several times. Repetition and inhibition of repetition is a common factor in children's first signs - Richard Meier has written about first signs in ASLL and I have done similar work for BSL. In the 1980s there was some noise in the language acquisition field about the 'sign advantage' - this claim was that 6 month olds were using sign language. Virginia Volterra was able to show that these first signs were gestures that excited deaf parents were interpreting as first signs. So the sign MILK in ASL and BSL often is made with a repetitive open and closing of a fist hand. This is a common gesture in hearing children with no exposure to sign language (Volterra and Erting 1990). The same criterion for deciding what are first words have to be used for first signs. Finally the 'whole cloth' comment. There is sometimes an assumption that 'homesigns' as in Susan Goldin-Meadow's work would be examples of children inventing signs themselves. I think Ann's comment would apply to these communication situations where the deaf child TOGETHER with the parent creates an idiosyncratic form that persist until something comes along to replace it. Best Gary Morgan http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/ http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/g.morgan ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Ann Peters Sent: Thu 14/09/2006 03:00 To: Deborah Gibson; info-childes Cc: Ann Peters Subject: first words Hello Deb, First of all, a lot of people have addressed the question of how one recognizes a child's first "words" (3 names that pop into my mind: Charles Feguson, Lise Menn, Marilyn Vihman). And lots of terms have been proposed such as phenetically consistent forms. And criteria such as some sort ofphenotic consistency plus some sort of environmental consistency. The angle I have been thinking about concerns the social nature of "language" and the negotiability of meanings (cf. Vygotsky). I have been studying the emergence of language in a young visually impaired child (Seth) who had, in his father (Dad), an extremely empathetic primary-caregiver. At around 18 months Seth had quite a number of "idiosyncratic words". These were phonologically consistent forms that were reinforced and perpetuated by Dad's recognition of them. E.g. Seth would say /ihi/ as he patted his father's head, /baba:/ when he wanted to eat, /ntu/ when he wanted to be put down, /nu:/ when he threw something. Some forms had histories that reflect their phonological origin, e.g. /i-i:t/ when he wanted to eat, /shisha:/ when he was thirsty, /gaga:/ when he wanted a cookie, /kokowk/ when he touched something cold, /chI/ when he wanted to be picked up (derived from Dad saying "come up on Daddy's chest"). Some of these forms were ephemeral, some persisted for months. In every case I am sure they would NOT have persisted had Dad not somehow validated them for Seth. On the other hand, Dad never seems to have forced such forms to persist by "freezing" them into Seth's vocabulary. Therefore they were "free" to be replaced by more adult forms when Seth was ready. I suspect that it is hard for a child to invent a "word" out of whole cloth. It is certainly much easier with the cooperation of someone else. "It takes two to talk" - at least at first. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk Thu Sep 14 09:00:58 2006 From: zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk (=?iso-8859-2?B?WnV6YW5hIE9uZHLh6GtvduE=?=) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:00:58 +0200 Subject: query Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, I would like to ask if "baby word" exists as a specifically defined linguistic term in English or American linguistics. In Slovak linguistics we work with such a term; it is clearly defined and divided into several categories. But I have not found a "definition" or classification of it (when compared to terms, for example, babytalk or child-directed speech) in English or American literature I have read so far. Thanks, Zuzana Dr. Zuzana Ondráčková University of Žilina Slovakia E-mail: zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk From mfleck at cs.uiuc.edu Thu Sep 14 13:57:06 2006 From: mfleck at cs.uiuc.edu (Margaret Fleck) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:57:06 -0500 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <007001c6d7dc$4b51d930$3d3bc19e@FPVKAJ1> Message-ID: A few quick anecdotes and comments to add to the mix. Recognizability of an early, mangled word depends not only on context and consonants, but sometimes also critically on the vowels, stress/intonation pattern and the word's position in the lexicon. For example, "thank you" (one of my third child's earlier words) is easily recognized in the form ['d ae_nasal d oo]. There simply isn't anything else that it could be. On the other hand, at 20 months he has a word [d ah p] whose identity I still can't pin down. It's a verb that means something like "stomp", but there's quite a lot of verbs with similar meanings and similar phonetics in the English lexicon. Or maybe he means to say different ones of these verbs at different times, and they are all coming out as [d ah p]. Who knows? His third word, after "mamamama" and "dadadada", by the way, was "kitty" ['ih y iy]. I had to hear it MANY times around the cat, and not in other contexts, before I was sure of what it was. Whether you pick up things like that depends on how much attention you are paying: my husband never noticed the word until I pointed it out to him. > So the sign MILK in ASL and BSL often is made with a repetitive open and closing of a fist hand. > This is a common gesture in hearing children with no exposure to sign language (Volterra and > Erting 1990). One small reason for caution here: US hearing babies (or babies thought to be hearing) are routinely TAUGHT the rather similar "byebye" gesture (open and close a fist with the fingers uppermost) by daycare teachers (probably also other caregivers). E.g. they sometimes actually hold the little hand and move it appropriately, as the parent leaves the room. That particular gesture is neither spontanteous, nor learned by merely observing others. Cheers, Margaret From KNelson at gc.cuny.edu Thu Sep 14 14:15:31 2006 From: KNelson at gc.cuny.edu (Nelson, Katherine) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:15:31 -0400 Subject: two questions please Message-ID: Annette, Your second question (in your more recent inquiry) is relevant to research from three areas - theory of mind, episodic and autobiographical memory, and source monitoring. The short answer is that 5 year-olds should be capable of distinguishing self experience from reported accounts. But 3- and 4-year-olds may have difficulties with that, and even adults do some of the time. Here are some relevant references: Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1993). Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 403-439. Nelson, K. (2001). Language and the Self: From the "Experiencing I" to the "Continuing Me". In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental Issues (pp. 15-34). Mahway NJ: Erlbaum. Nelson, K. (2005). Emerging levels of consciousness in early human development. In H. S. Terrace & J. Metcalfe (Eds.), The Missing Link in Cognition: Origins of Self-Reflective Consciousness (pp. 116-141). New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, K. (2005). Language pathways to the community of minds. In J. W. Astington & J. Baird (Eds.), Why language matters to theory of mind. New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory: A Social Cultural Developmental Theory. Psychological Review, 111, 486-511. Perner, J. (2001). Episodic Memory: Essential distinctions and developmental implications. In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental Perspectives (pp. 181-202). Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum. Roberts, K. P., & Blades, M. (Eds.). (2000). Children's Source Monitoring. Mahwah, NJ: ERlbaum Assoc. Best, Katherine ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: Wed 9/13/2006 7:31 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: two questions please First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I may, two more questions. 1. Can anyone point me to research testing whether young children learn information better when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather than purely in spoken language? 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish something that actually happened from something they are repeatedly told by an adult had happened? Relevant research pointers? Many thanks, as always, Annette §-- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From M.I.Rozendaal at uva.nl Fri Sep 15 14:53:10 2006 From: M.I.Rozendaal at uva.nl (Rozendaal, M.I.) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:53:10 +0200 Subject: determiners and pronoun in English and French Message-ID: Dear Childes-members, Could any one point me to literature on the acquisition of different types of determiners (definite, indefinite, demonstrative possessive) and pronouns referring to third person referents (personal , demonstrative, relative and reflexive pronouns, clitics) between 1;6 and 3;0 in English and French. What I am interested in, is when children generally start to use the different types of determiners and pronouns productively. Information about an apparent 'order of acquisition' (as far as it is possible to establish these) is also welcome. Best wishes, Margot Rozendaal Margot Rozendaal University of Amsterdam Department of Psycholinguistics and Language Pathology Spuistraat 210 1012 VT Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 - 525 3877 http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.i.rozendaal/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aananda at stanford.edu Fri Sep 15 18:07:07 2006 From: aananda at stanford.edu (Bruno Estigarribia) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:07:07 -0700 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <34349CCA-5EC3-433C-91EF-7D1785E3FB1F@telus.net> Message-ID: > > My questions are: Is the definition of a ‘word’ in child language > acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by > form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a > word? Can a ‘word’ include an unconventional non-speech > vocalization, like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or > must it fall within the speech sounds of the native language and be a > recognizable approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the > motor articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the > child? To be a ‘word’, can it be comprehensible to the only the > child’s intimates, or understandable to more than the child’s > immediate circle? > > If being a ‘word’ depends on having a regular extension of the word’s > meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with > consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child’s > intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the > ‘word’ have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered > a ‘real word’? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, > even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils > down to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on > the continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional > vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish > vocalization from word? > A great discussion with several threads now... My two cents: "word" is indeed a tricky term in linguistic theory, and it may not be a very useful one. Clearly there are at the very least three concurrent aspects to words: the form aspect, the context-appropriateness aspect (I dislike unnecessary coinages, but I hesitate to call it "meaning"), and the interpersonal aspect (somebody referred to Vygotsky earlier), that is, the recognition of the conventionality and social life of signs. These aspects can be grasped at different times, and they themselves are complex and acquired piecemeal (witness the numerous phonetic deviations in child language, and underextensions and overextensions). Of course one does not want to wait until children have full command of all these aspects to credit them for knowing some word, but at the same time, saying a child knows word X is impossibly vague. It is always better -if possible- to just describe exactly the extent of knowledge involved, especially for "first words". (Now comes the bit of self-publicity) When my son was 6 months old, every time we would go down the stairs he would look at the lamp above and blow air between his teeth. He's a learner of Argentinian Spanish and the corresponding word would have been "luz" [lus]. A couple of weeks later, he would (sometimes) turn and look at lamps or lights whenever we said "luz" (he looked at an unfamiliar lamp on command when we went to visit my family in Argentina a month later, to his grandma's and grand-aunt's delight). If I hadn't been a linguist, I would have certainly missed that. It was obvious to me that he had made SOME connection (btw, this production never left his vocabulary, it just got better articulated and extended). Was that a word? What would you know about my son's linguistic knowledge if I had just said that at 6 months he knew the word "light"? Each one of you would have come to different conclusions... Sorry I can't quote relevant literature making these points (which I'm sure exists). Just some musings... Keep it coming! Bruno Estigarribia Ph.D. candidate Stanford Linguistics From bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de Mon Sep 18 14:29:23 2006 From: bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de (bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:29:23 GMT Subject: Announcement and Programme - Session on Lexical Bootstrapping - GCLA conference Message-ID: Dear all, Please find below the announcement and programme of our special session on Lexical Bootstrapping in child language development, to be held at the 2nd GCLA International Conference. LEXICAL BOOTSTRAPPING IN CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND CHILD CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Theme session to be held at the SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE GERMAN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION, Munich, 5-7 October 2006 ORGANISATORS: Susanna Bartsch and Dagmar Bittner Center for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin **DESCRIPTION** Apart from some few exceptions (Brown 1958, Nelson 1973), the research on child lexical development did not receive much attention from students of child language in the 1960s and 1970s. In opposition to some statements found in the more recent literature (e.g., Rothweiler & Meibauer 1999), this fact is not really surprising when one considers the very influential role then played by formal linguistics with its primacy of syntactic structures and the view of lexicon and semantics as something rather epiphenomenal. From the 1980s on, this state of affairs has changed dramatically. A huge body of research, much of which has been done within functionalist-cognitivist frameworks and focussed on within- and cross-domain correlations in language development (Bates et al.'s 1988 correlational method), seems to allow for the formulation of a Lexical Bootstrapping Hypothesis (LBH) (some more recent examples: Dale et al. 2000; Dionne et al. 2003; Bassano et al. 2004). LBH is the assumption that early lexical development, as mapping of words to referents or their conceptualisations, and even to whole propositions, is not only prior to, but also pre-requisite for the emergence of morpho-syntactic constructions. Such assumption on the fundamental role of early lexical acquisition for later language development as a whole challenges the view about the primacy of syntax over lexicon and semantics that has been postulated in these 50 years of formal linguistics. In our theme session, we aim at an exploratory discussion about the role of Lexical Bootstrapping in children's linguistic and conceptual development. Bassano, D., Laaha, S., Maillochon, I., & Dressler, W. U. (2004). Early acquisition of verb grammar and lexical development: Evidence from periphrastic constructions in French and Austrian German. First Language, 24(1), pp. 33–70. Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. 1988. From First Words to Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Brown, R. 1958. Words and things. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Dale, P. S., Dionne, G., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. 2000. Lexical and grammatical development: A behavioural genetic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 27/3, 619-642. Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin R. 2003. Genetic evidence for bidirectional effects of early lexical and grammatical development. Child Development, 74, 394-412. Nelson, K. 1973. Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Chicago: Univ. Press. Rothweiler, M. & Meibauer, J. (eds.) 1999. Das Lexikon im Spracherwerb: Ein Überblick. In: Meibauer, J., & Rothweiler, M. (eds.). 1999. Das Lexikon im Spracherwerb. UTB für Wissenschaft; Mittlere Reihe, 2039. Tübingen: Francke. **PROGRAMME** THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 2006 11.15-11.45 Introducing the Lexical Bootstrapping Hypothesis (LBH) Susanna Bartsch (Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin) 11.45-12.15 The Interrelation Between Lexical and Grammatical Abilities in Early Language Acquisition Christina Kauschke (Universität Potsdam) 12.15-12.45 Implications of Noun/Verb Asynchrony for Children's Lexical and Cognitive Development: A Developmental Perspective from Turkisch Feyza Turkay (Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Lyon, France) 15.30-16.00 The Very Emergence of Words: Methodological and Theoretical Issues in its Description Alexandra Karousou, Demetra Katis, and Chrisoula Stambouliadou (University of Athens) 16.00-16.30 The "Lexical Bootstrapping" Hypothesis and Bilingual First Language Acquisition (Using Data from a Longitudinal Study of a German-Russian-Speaking Child) Elena Dieser (University of Tübingen) 16.30-17.00 Discussion Round FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 2006 10.15-10.45 Acquisition of Verbs and Development of Sentence Structure in German Impaired and Unimpaired Children Dagmar Bittner (Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin) Julia Siegmüller (Universität Potsdam) 10.45-11.15 Pre-Language Cognition, Motion Event Semantics, and the Transition from Single Words to First Sentences Lorraine McCune, Ellen Herr-Israel (Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ) 11.45-12.15 Syntactic Constructions and the Emergence of Event Types: A Computational Analysis of Verb Learning Alessandro Lenci (Università di Pisa) 12.15-12.45 Bootstrapping-Mechanismen: das Lexikon als Zentrum des Zusammenspiels sprachlicher Aufgabenbereiche - netzwerktheoretische Erklärungen zum kindlichen Erstspracherwerb Karin Schlipphak (München) 15.15-15.45 Does Number of Action Labels Predict an Early Acquisition of the Conventional Meaning of Verbs? Ping Chen (Peking University) Lauren Tonietto, Maria-Alice Parente (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre) Karine Duvignau, Bruno Gaume (Université Toulouse III) 15.45-16.15 Final Discussion For the abstracts, please point your browser to http://www.kognitive- sprachforschung.lmu.de/event/programme.html Also see the related event ELeGi 2006: International Conference "Exploring the Lexis-Grammar Interface", Hanover, October 5-7, 2006 (at the same time as our session). http://www.elegi-2006.com/ELeGI%20preliminary%20conference%20programme%20040 906.pdf Best regards, Susanna Susanna Bartsch Zentrum für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZaS) Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research Jägerstr. 10-11 10117 Berlin Germany From t.marinis at reading.ac.uk Mon Sep 18 18:43:31 2006 From: t.marinis at reading.ac.uk (t.marinis at reading.ac.uk) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:43:31 +0100 Subject: Research assistant position(s), Turkish/English speaker(s) Message-ID: University of Reading School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences Research Assistant: Grade RA1B, 1 full-time or 2 part-time, 3 years fixed term Reference Number: R0682 Payscale: £20,044 - £22,289 p.a., pro rata We are seeking one full-time or two part-time research assistants to work on the ESRC-funded project “Real-time processing of syntactic information in children with English as a Second Language & children with Specific Language Impairment” under the supervision of the Principal Investigator Dr Theo Marinis. You will be an enthusiastic graduate with an undergraduate or masters degree in Linguistics, Psychology, Speech & Language Therapy or related discipline and a strong interest in research. You will have good time management and organisational skills, good English language and IT skills, excellent communication skills and knowledge of language development and bilingualism. You will be a good team player, able to contribute to the team working on the project. A background in language impairment, sentence processing, English or Turkish linguistics is desirable. Full-time post-holders must be native speakers of Turkish. In the event of employing two part-time RAs, one of the two must be native speaker of Turkish. Part-time post-holders can pursue a PhD at the University of Reading on a topic related to the grant. Candidates interested in pursuing a PhD in language development or language processing of Turkish in Turkish-English bilingual children with/without language impairment or adults using off-line and/or on-line methodology are especially encouraged to apply. Contact Details: Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 217, Reading, RG6 6AH. Telephone (0118) 378 6771 (voicemail). Application forms and further particulars are also available in Word/RTF format from: http://www.info.rdg.ac.uk/newjobs/details.asp?RefernceNumber=R0682 Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Dr Theo Marinis, e-mail: t.marinis at reading.ac.uk, tel: +44-118-378 7465. Closing Date: 13/10/2006 Interview date 1 November 2006 v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ Dr Theodoros Marinis School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences University of Reading Reading RG6 6AL, UK Tel. +44-118-378 7465 Fax +44-118-378 4693 http://www.rdg.ac.uk/cls/marinis.html v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ From speakit02 at aol.com Mon Sep 18 23:37:46 2006 From: speakit02 at aol.com (speakit02 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:37:46 -0400 Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list In-Reply-To: <20060914025117.3508.qmail@web60023.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Wouldn't it be nice to get caught committing random acts of kindness. -----Original Message----- From: preshusteph at yahoo.com To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Sent: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:51 PM Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list thanks ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debgibson at telus.net Tue Sep 19 04:33:23 2006 From: debgibson at telus.net (Deborah Gibson) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:33:23 -0700 Subject: first words Message-ID: Thank you to everyone who responded, both to me directly and on this wonderful resource, to my question about the criteria for determining a child's 'real' words. Two ideas particularly helpful to me resulted from this discussion. The first was that I consider my autistic son’s ‘real’ words to be those that meet the criteria of being consistent, meaningful, appropriate, communicative, extended to multiple exemplars, and relatively permanent, as conventional symbolic adult words are. In my son’s case, few if any of his 87 earlier productions before his word spurt meet these criteria, especially in form. The second useful idea is to regard his earlier productions as having aspects of these criteria which are acquired at different times. I’ll try to devise a taxonomy to analyse the development of these aspects over the word’s history, looking at the changes in his acquisition of understanding, form and meaning as a continuum, which, in the case of autistic children, may not always result in a conventional word with appropriate usage. I agree with Bruno Estigarribia who wrote that if he hadn’t been a linguist he would have missed his son’s first ‘word’ (I’m now hopelessly self-conscious about what to call this). In my case, having a very language-delayed, actually language-averse, child, and being a starter linguist myself made me hyper-aware of any demonstration of receptive language and too eager to assign word status to any intentional gesture and vocalization, though our early communication with our son was dependent on our recognition and validation of all his idiosyncratic productions. Deborah Gibson Ph.D student Dept of Language and Literacy Faculty of Education UBC debgibson at telus.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From k.j.alcock at lancaster.ac.uk Tue Sep 19 11:52:59 2006 From: k.j.alcock at lancaster.ac.uk (Katie Alcock) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:52:59 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <32699713-BA1B-4763-9E00-9C307507A6D5@telus.net> Message-ID: I was under the impression that the (child) words for significant items (mother, father, other family members, suckling/breasts) appear to have been assigned in many languages based on the first word-like forms that parents believe children are producing. I have no idea where I got this impression from, but parents do seem very willing to assign word status to babble. Katie Alcock Katie Alcock, DPhil Lecturer Department of Psychology University of Lancaster Fylde College Lancaster LA1 4YF Tel 01524 593833 Fax 01524 593744 Web http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/KatieAlcock.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jill.hohenstein at kcl.ac.uk Tue Sep 19 12:43:27 2006 From: jill.hohenstein at kcl.ac.uk (Jill Hohenstein) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:43:27 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: My understanding was that this idea about recognising certain first words in certain languages, particularly recognising Œsuckling¹ or Œbreast¹ as first word, came from the Schieffelin and Ochs (1986) book. Are there others now? Jill Hohenstein On 19/9/06 12:52 pm, "Katie Alcock" wrote: > I was under the impression that the (child) words for significant items > (mother, father, other family members, suckling/breasts) appear to have been > assigned in many languages based on the first word-like forms that parents > believe children are producing. > > I have no idea where I got this impression from, but parents do seem very > willing to assign word status to babble. > > Katie Alcock > > > Katie Alcock, DPhil > Lecturer > Department of Psychology > University of Lancaster > Fylde College > Lancaster LA1 4YF > Tel 01524 593833 > Fax 01524 593744 > Web http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/KatieAlcock.html > ********************************************************** Jill Hohenstein, Ph.D. Lecturer, Psychology in Education Department of Education and Professional Studies Kings College London Franklin-Wilkins Building (Waterloo Bridge Wing) Waterloo Road London SE1 9NH Phone: 0207 848 3100 Fax: 0207 848 3182 ********************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk Tue Sep 19 13:39:38 2006 From: virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk (virtual writer) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:39:38 +0000 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dalep at unm.edu Tue Sep 19 16:28:36 2006 From: dalep at unm.edu (Philip S Dale) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:28:36 -0600 Subject: MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Message-ID: In addition to their use for clinical evaluation of infants and toddlers, many researchers have found the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories useful as an outcome measure for the effect of other variables, or as a technique for selecting or matching subjects. Paul H. Brookes (http://www.brookespublishing.com), who now publish the Inventories, has just published the MBCDI User's Guide and Technical Manual, Second Edition (Fenson, Marchman, Thal, Dale, Reznick & Bates, 2007). Among the features of the revised manual which may be of particular interest to researchers are the following: - more demographically balanced normative data - norms for up to 18 months for the CDI:Words and Gestures - updated review of research, clinical findings, reliability and validity - information and normative values for the CDI-III, an extension for children 30-37 months - an introduction to the automated CDI scoring program, available through the CDI website Brookes also publishes the Mexican Spanish adaptation of the CDI, the "MacArthur Inventarios del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas" and the User's Guide and Technical Manual for that instrument (Jackson-Maldonado, Thal, Fenson, Marchman, Newton & Conboy, 2003). Philip S. Dale, Professor and Chair Speech & Hearing Sciences University of New Mexico 1700 Lomas Blvd NE Albuquerque, NM 87131 tel: 505-277-5338 fax: 505-277-0968 email: dalep at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yrose at mun.ca Tue Sep 19 17:36:56 2006 From: yrose at mun.ca (Yvan Rose) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:06:56 -0230 Subject: Student with Speech Disorder Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES members, I just received the question below, sent by a former student of mine. I (we) would very much appreciate any advice or reference on the matter. Thank you very much in advance, Yvan Rose ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- I’m working in a small town in Northern Alberta where my resources are very limited. I am an aide at a school and some students I work with have speech impediments. One student in particular has no efficient way of communicating to me or peers. The student refuses to use sign language as a form of communication and will only sign when I demand it. Words like ‘mom’, ‘ah’, ‘ouch’, ‘hockey’, ‘yeah’ and ‘stop’ are the most comprehensible. The student mumbles (lips and teeth slightly moving) in sentence formation but most often others don’t respond back. What I find most interesting is the intonation of the mumbles and the child’s expressions when speaking to me. It seems that the words are there, but the child is not letting them out. The student was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at birth (can walk, run), is a Native and lives with a family who speaks both English and Cree. I’m looking for ways to help motivate this child to speak so that others can understand. Do you know of any books or good online resources or perhaps some of your own suggestions to help me when working with this student? I would greatly appreciate it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- From gsimonce at crl.ucsd.edu Tue Sep 19 21:12:36 2006 From: gsimonce at crl.ucsd.edu (Gabriela Simon-Cereijido) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:12:36 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear info-childes members: We are starting a project with preschoolers with language impairment. We would like to record approximately 8 hours of language samples and testing per child over a year. The interactions take place in both classrooms and evaluation rooms. All the interactions are one-to-one. Our question is regarding pros and cons of using compressed WAV versus uncompressed WAV files (and the corresponding digital recorder). We need to consider both cost and storage of digital files. Looking forward to reading your good suggestions! Gabriela Simon-Cereijido Doctoral student, JDP in Lang & Comm Dis, SDSU/UCSD From virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk Wed Sep 20 01:50:52 2006 From: virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk (virtual writer) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:50:52 +0000 Subject: first words Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lise.menn at colorado.edu Wed Sep 20 17:24:27 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:24:27 -0600 Subject: Jobs: Language Development: Asst Prof, University of Colorado Message-ID: Subject: Jobs: Language Development: Asst Prof, University of Colorado University or Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Department: Linguistics Web Address: www.colorado.edu/linguistics/ Job Rank: Assistant Professor The Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado at Boulder invites applications for a tenure-track appointment at the Assistant Professor level in the field of language development, to begin August 2007. We encourage applications from specialists in any area of language development, including first language acquisition, second language acquisition, language socialization, aphasiology, and bilingualism. We especially welcome applicants whose research is empirical, usage-based, and attentive to social as well as cognitive dimensions of language development. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of specialization, as well as occasional introductory survey courses in linguistics, psycholinguistics, or sociolinguistics. Applicants should have completed a Ph.D. in linguistics (or closely related field) by the time of the appointment. Additional information on the University of Colorado Department of Linguistics can be found at www.colorado.edu/ linguistics/. The deadline for receipt of applications is November 17, 2006, but applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining details of current and future research interests, a statement of teaching experience and specialization, a curriculum vitae, two representative publications or research papers, and three letters of recommendation. Address all correspondence to: Prof. Kira Hall, Search Committee Chair, Department of Linguistics, 295 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0295. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk Thu Sep 21 06:07:21 2006 From: h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk (h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:07:21 +0800 Subject: Frequency count Message-ID: Dear all, I am now studying the lexical development of a bilingual child. I have to count the types of lexical items in each Clan file and want a cumulative count for a specific period of recording, e.g. 3 months. I have tried the command freqmerg but it only limits to 10 Clan files. Could anyone suggest another command/method which can solve my problem? Thank you in advance. Best regards, Emily Yiu Department of Linguistics, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong From wellumam at gse.harvard.edu Thu Sep 21 12:47:25 2006 From: wellumam at gse.harvard.edu (Amanda Wellum) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:47:25 -0400 Subject: Faculty Positions in Language and Literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Message-ID: THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION FACULTY POSITION IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY The Harvard University Graduate School of Education seeks to appoint an Assistant or Associate Professor (untenured) to serve its doctoral and master's programs in Language and Literacy and Mind, Brain, and Education. We welcome candidates with a particular interest in any of a broad spectrum of areas, but are especially interested in language and reading development, language-related learning disorders, neuroscience and education. Ideal candidates will have a strong interest in relating or embedding their work in instructional practice and in schools. The Graduate School of Education and the Language and Literacy program share an interdisciplinary orientation that includes pedagogical, developmental, psychological, linguistic, anthropological, and sociological approaches. Normally candidates will have an earned doctorate in a relevant discipline, experience in university teaching, and a solid record of research or strong scholarly work. Candidates should submit a curriculum vita and a cover letter describing their present and future research plans, three examples of their scholarship, and three letters of reference. Applications will be accepted in hard copy only. The search committee will begin reviewing applications on September 15, 2006, and continue until the position is filled. Please send application materials to: Search Committee in Language and Literacy c/o Carol Luongo Office of Academic Services Harvard Graduate School of Education 122 Longfellow Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 For information about the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Language and Literacy Program, please visit our web site: www.gse.harvard.edu. Applications from women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged. Harvard University is an affirmative action/EEOC institution. From Barbara.Hinger at uibk.ac.at Fri Sep 22 09:17:54 2006 From: Barbara.Hinger at uibk.ac.at (Barbara Hinger) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:17:54 +0200 Subject: spanish lexicon clan Message-ID: could somebody give me support and answer my following questions concerning the spanish lexicon in clan? the manual says that if there is a word with multiple readings, each additional reading should be entered by inserting a backslash and then putting the next reading on the next line; but, what do I have to do if the same word has two meanings but the two meanings belong to the same syntactic category? would it helpt for the mor analysis to give the two meanings in the english translation? or how else can the mor analysis distinguish between the two meanings? si {[scat con]} =if= si {[scat con]} =whether= What should I do with a conjunction in Spanish which consists of two words and not of one word, like "para que"? Do I need to enter in the lexicon "para que" or "paraque"? thank you very much kind regards Barbara Hinger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sues at xtra.co.nz Tue Sep 26 05:40:04 2006 From: sues at xtra.co.nz (sues at xtra.co.nz) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:40:04 +1200 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? Message-ID: Dear all I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of brightly coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech stream. I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving this weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at the moment. I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into ..." from Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't get anything. Deeply grateful for any kind help! Sue Sullivan Christchurch New Zealand From cbowen at ihug.com.au Tue Sep 26 07:29:13 2006 From: cbowen at ihug.com.au (Caroline Bowen) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:29:13 +1000 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <29570670.1159249204396.JavaMail.root@sf1433> Message-ID: "TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being smashed between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? Answer: C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs are of various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain point, the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a wringer, which quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each other. The flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses from the phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents the output of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an inspector whose task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of broken and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the variously colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. Enjoy your presentation! Caroline Caroline Bowen PhD Speech Language Pathologist 9 Hillcrest Road Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 Australia e: cbowen at ihug.com.au i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ t: 61 2 4757 1136 -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? Dear all I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of brightly coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech stream. I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving this weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at the moment. I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into ..." from Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't get anything. Deeply grateful for any kind help! Sue Sullivan Christchurch New Zealand From edy.veneziano at paris5.sorbonne.fr Tue Sep 26 15:57:26 2006 From: edy.veneziano at paris5.sorbonne.fr (edy veneziano) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:57:26 +0200 Subject: Conference Announcement "Constructivism and Education" In-Reply-To: Message-ID: English version (French version follows) --------------- Geneva’s Educational Research Unit is pleased to announce the third conference on "Constructivism and Education" The conference will take place in Geneva on 10-12 September 2007. The theme of the conference will be the intra/inter subjective construction of knowledge and the epistemic subject. The aim of the conference is to share with a large public the current state of research and ideas concerning the internal processes as well as the social interactions and the cultural contributions to the subjects' cognitive acquisitions and to their more general growth of knowledge. The official language of the conference will be French For more information, please contact Jean-Jacques Ducret and/or visit: http://www.geneve.ch/sred/colloc --------------- -------------------------------- Le Service de la Recherche en Education, organisateur en 2000, avec le soutien des Archives Jean Piaget, du premier colloque "Constructivisme et éducation", a le plaisir d'annoncer la tenue, du 10 au 12 septembre 2007, de son troisième colloque de même nom, qui portera sur la "Construction intra/intersubjective des connaissances et du sujet connaissant". Ce Colloque a pour ambition de faire partager à un public élargi l'état des recherches et des réflexions concernant les processus internes à chaque sujet aussi bien que les interactions sociales et l'apport culturel dans les acquisitions cognitives et l'essor des connaissances. Pour toute information, contacter Jean-Jacques Ducret veuillez aussi consulter l'adresse suivante: http://www.geneve.ch/sred/colloc -------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2894 bytes Desc: not available URL: From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 26 18:18:30 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:18:30 -0600 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <006301c6e13d$7a41dff0$0301010a@caroline> Message-ID: importantly, most phoneticians now strongly disagree with this metaphor, because although the information about each sound is spread out before and after the place where the hearer thinks it 'is', that spreading is orderly, not random; it contributes to our understanding by giving us time to integrate the information. Lise Menn On Sep 26, 2006, at 1:29 AM, Caroline Bowen wrote: > "TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being > smashed > between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? > Answer: > C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): > > Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs > are of > various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain > point, > the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a > wringer, which > quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each > other. The > flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses > from the > phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents > the output > of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an > inspector whose > task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of > broken > and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the > variously > colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously > arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." > http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml > > Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. > > Enjoy your presentation! > Caroline > > Caroline Bowen PhD > Speech Language Pathologist > 9 Hillcrest Road > Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 > Australia > e: cbowen at ihug.com.au > i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ > t: 61 2 4757 1136 > > -----Original Message----- > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info- > childes at mail.talkbank.org] > On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz > Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? > > Dear all > > I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: > > I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of > brightly > coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go > through a > > washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished > up silver > paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech > stream. > > I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm > giving > this > weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at > home at > the > moment. > > I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: > Bootstrapping into > ..." from > Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I > can't > get > anything. > > Deeply grateful for any kind help! > > Sue Sullivan > Christchurch > New Zealand > > > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From k1n at psu.edu Wed Sep 27 01:31:21 2006 From: k1n at psu.edu (Keith Nelson) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:31:21 -0400 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <0A99AE55-EACA-404D-A754-0E29B39406E9@colorado.edu> Message-ID: OK, Lise. So which do you think would better illustrate these ideas, passage 1 or passage 2 below. Passage 1. Far and few, far and few, are the lands where the Jumblies live. Passage 2. It was a dark and stormy night, when little Bunny Foo-Foo brought the Easter Bunny briskly to Benihana to imbibe some egg-drop soup and bite some tofu. Cheers, Keith (Keith Nelson) At 12:18 PM -0600 9/26/06, Lise Menn wrote: >importantly, most phoneticians now strongly disagree with this >metaphor, because although the information about each sound is >spread out before and after the place where the hearer thinks it >'is', that spreading is orderly, not random; it contributes to our >understanding by giving us time to integrate the information. > Lise Menn > >On Sep 26, 2006, at 1:29 AM, Caroline Bowen wrote: > >>"TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being smashed >>between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? Answer: >>C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): >> >>Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs are of >>various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain point, >>the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a wringer, which >>quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each other. The >>flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses from the >>phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents the output >>of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an inspector whose >>task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of broken >>and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the variously >>colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously >>arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." >>http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml >> >>Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. >> >>Enjoy your presentation! >>Caroline >> >>Caroline Bowen PhD >>Speech Language Pathologist >>9 Hillcrest Road >>Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 >>Australia >>e: cbowen at ihug.com.au >>i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ >>t: 61 2 4757 1136 >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>[mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] >>On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz >>Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM >>To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? >> >>Dear all >> >>I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: >> >>I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of >>brightly >>coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a >> >>washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver >>paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech >>stream. >> >>I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving >>this >>weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at >>the >>moment. >> >>I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into >>..." from >>Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't >>get >>anything. >> >>Deeply grateful for any kind help! >> >>Sue Sullivan >>Christchurch >>New Zealand >> >> >> > >Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 >Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 >295 UCB Hellems 293 >University of Colorado >Boulder CO 80309-0295 > >Professor of Linguistics, >University of Colorado, University of Hunan >Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] > >Lise Menn's home page >http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ > >"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" >http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf > >Japanese version of "Shirley Says" >http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm > >Academy of Aphasia >http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ > > >Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -- Keith Nelson Professor of Psychology Penn State University 423 Moore Building University Park, PA 16802 keithnelsonart at psu.edu 814 863 1747 And what is mind and how is it recognized ? It is clearly drawn in Sumi ink, the sound of breezes drifting through pine. --Ikkyu Sojun Japanese Zen Master 1394-1481 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From v.stojanovik at reading.ac.uk Wed Sep 27 17:21:10 2006 From: v.stojanovik at reading.ac.uk (Vesna Stojanovik) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:21:10 +0100 Subject: WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT: SPEECH PROSODY IN ATYPICAL POPULATIONS Message-ID: SPEECH PROSODY IN ATYPICAL POPULATIONS Monday 2nd April 2007, University of Reading www.rdg.ac.uk/epu/cls_event.htm Abstracts are invited from those working on speech prosody in atypical populations for this one day event, organised by Dr Jane Setter and Dr Vesna Stojanovik, Department of Clinical Language Sciences, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. Papers reporting on therapy or management of prosodic disorders as well as empirical papers reporting on speech prosody in atypical populations are welcome. The aim of the workshop is to bring together Clinical Linguists and Phoneticians and Speech and Language Therapists in order to highlight the issues in researching and remediating prosodic disorders, and discuss the latest findings, in this often neglected area of research and clinical concern. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr Sue Peppé, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. REGISTRATION Early bird registration by 5 Feb 2007: General £30, Student £15 Late registration by 5 Mar 2007: General £40, Student £25 More details and a registration form can be found on the website: www.rdg.ac.uk/epu/cls_event.htm SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS Abstracts are invited for 15 minute oral papers, 30 minute workshops, or poster presentations. Abstracts of no longer than 250 words should be submitted as electronic MSWord document attachments (i.e. NOT in the body of the message) to us at the following email address: cls.events at reading.ac.uk You can also contact us at that address if you have any queries. If your document contains any phonetic symbols, please use the font Lucida Sans Unicode. Please indicate whether you are offering a 15 minute oral paper, 30 minute workshop or poster presentation at the beginning of your abstract. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Sunday 31st December 2006. We aim to let you know by 19th January 2007 whether your submission has been accepted. Dr Vesna Stojanovik Lecturer in Clinical Linguistics University of Reading School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences Earley Gate Reading RG6 6AL UK Tel: +44+118 378 7456 Fax: +44+118 378 4693 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nakhtar at ucsc.edu Wed Sep 27 21:42:46 2006 From: nakhtar at ucsc.edu (Nameera) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:42:46 -0700 Subject: Developmental Research Postdoc, University of California, Santa Cruz Message-ID: Developmental Research Postdoc, University of California, Santa Cruz. Two-year postdoctoral traineeship (post-PhD) in NIH-funded developmental research training program, to begin by April 2007. The trainee will develop research of mutual interest with program faculty, focusing on cultural, interpersonal, and individual processes involved in human development in diverse communities and in institutions such as families, schools, and museums. Faculty: Akhtar, Azmitia, Callanan, Chemers, Cooper, Gibson, Gjerde, Harrington, Leaper, Rogoff, Thorne, Wang. Send vita, statement of research interests and career goals, and reprints, and request at least three recommendations to be sent to: Barbara Rogoff, Postdoc Search, Psychology Faculty Support, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Application review begins 11/15/06. Position open until filled. Applicants from underserved minority groups are especially encouraged to apply. For additional information: http:// psych.ucsc.edu/research/postdocTrainingSummary.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl Thu Sep 28 13:29:07 2006 From: W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl (Blom, W.B.T.) Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:29:07 +0200 Subject: Reminder: EMLAR III (deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006) Message-ID: Reminder: EMLAR III 7th-9th November 2006, Utrecht University The full program of EMLAR III (Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research) and details about registration can be found at: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Frans.Adriaans/personal/emlar06.html For further questions, contact us at: emlar at let.uu.nl Deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006 NB: The programme is similar, but not identical to EMLAR II! One extra day, more hands-on sessions (E-prime, web-based experiments) and more about L2 methodology. Invited speakers: Hugo Quené (Utrecht University) – Statistics and methodology, SPSS, Statistics with R Irene Krämer (Radboud University Nijmegen) – Sentence comprehension Sonja Eisenbeiss (University of Essex) – Elicitation Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam) – PRAAT Nivja de Jong (University of Amsterdam) – E-Prime Iris Mulders (Utrecht University) – Eyetracking Judith Rispens (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) – ERP Elizabeth Johnson (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) – Infant testing Steven Gillis (University of Antwerp) – CHILDES I and II Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht University) – CHILDES I and II Huub van den Bergh (Utrecht University) – Advanced statistics Hans van de Velde (Utrecht University) – Web-based experiments Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh) – Grammaticality judgement task, Magnitude estimation Marianne Starren (Radboud University Nijmegen) – L2 corpora Christine Dimroth (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) – L2 corpora Theodore Marinis (University of Reading) – On-line sentence processing Johanne Paradis (University of Alberta, Canada) – Matching different populations Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS will hold its third workshop on the issue of Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR III). This workshop, which is part of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) graduate programme, aims to provide PhD and MA students with the opportunity to learn more about the different methods used in the field of (first and second) language acquisition research. The programme will consist of a series of lectures (each on a different method), and several more hands-on sessions on more practical aspects of language acquisition research. Each session addresses issues such as: subject selection, rationale behind a given method, practicalities involved in the actual execution of the experiment, advantages and disadvantages of a given method and do's and don't's. Organization: Sharon Unsworth Elma Blom Hannah De Mulder Natalie Boll Roberta Tedeschi Frans Adriaans -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vtorrens at psi.uned.es Fri Sep 29 09:41:50 2006 From: vtorrens at psi.uned.es (Torrens) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:41:50 +0200 Subject: GALA call for papers Message-ID: Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2007 Call for papers GALA (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition) 2007 will be held in Barcelona, hosted by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, between the 6th and the 8th of September, 2007. Information is available at http://www.gala2007.uab.es/ Invited speakers: Adriana Belletti (Università degli Studi di Siena) Naama Friedmann (Tel Aviv University) Marina Nespor (Università di Ferrara) Josef Perner (Universität Salzburg) Ken Wexler (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) We invite submissions on first and second language acquisition, bilingual acquisition, language pathology, the acquisition of sign language, and brain imaging research for acquisition and pathology. Besides the main session, two workshops will be held on 'Subordination in language development' (organised by Uli Sauerland and Bart Hollebrandse) and 'Phonological development: the emergence of segments and the syllable' (organised by Pilar Prieto). Talks for the main session and the workshops will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes discussion. At most one single-authored and one joint abstract per author will be considered. There will be two poster sessions. Please indicate in your submission whether you want your abstract to be considered for the main session, a workshop, for oral presentation, poster, or both. Submissions should be sent to cg.gala2007 at uab.es, by a unique contact author. Abstract guidelines Abstracts should be at most two pages, with only figures and references in the second. 12 point Helvetica, single-spaced, should be used, with 2cm margins. An anonymous abstract and an abstract with authors' name/s and affiliation should be send by email as Word or pdf attachments (if special symbols are used, pdf format is required). The abstract with name and affiliation should be as follows: Title (bold, left justified) Author's name/s (left justified) Affiliation (left justified) Abstract Deadline for receipt of abstracts: March 15th, 2007. Notification of acceptance: May 1st, 2007. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jedwards2 at wisc.edu Fri Sep 29 15:23:47 2006 From: jedwards2 at wisc.edu (JAN R EDWARDS) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:23:47 -0400 Subject: assistant professor position at UW-Madison In-Reply-To: <005701c6e3ab$7d054d10$11c8cc3e@vtorrens> Message-ID: Assistant Professor Position in Dept. of Communicative Disorders: UW-Madison The Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has an Assistant Professor position (tenure track) effective August 27, 2007. Candidates are invited to apply if they have expertise in either child language or audiology/hearing science. In child language, any of the following fields of expertise are of interest: augmentative communication, bilingualism, developmental disabilities, genetics, language and cochlear implants, language development and speech perception in infancy, literacy, or pediatric neurogenics. In audiology/hearing science, any of the following fields of expertise are of interest: diagnostics, rehabilitation/habilitation, experimental audiology, geriatrics, genetics, prosthetic devices and hearing, or vestibular/balance disorders. Candidates with a doctoral degree in Communicative Disorders, Experimental Psychology, Cognitive and/or Behavioral Neuroscience, or a related field, who can address one or more of the areas mentioned above are encouraged to apply. Some university-level teaching and/or post-doctoral research experience is preferred, though applications from entry-level candidates are also welcome. Experience working with/teaching diverse populations is desirable. Salary is competitive and will be commensurate with credentials and experience. Interested individuals should send a letter of application, current curriculum vita, and three letters of reference to Jan Edwards, Ph.D., Search Committee Chair, Department of Communicative Disorders, Goodnight Hall, 1975 Willow Dr., Madison, WI 53706-1177 (email: jedwards2 at wisc.edu). To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by January 10, 2007. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an affirmative action employer and encourages women and minorities to apply. Unless confidentiality is requested in writing, information regarding the applicants must be released upon request. Finalists cannot be guaranteed confidentiality. From e.casielles at wayne.edu Fri Sep 29 17:55:44 2006 From: e.casielles at wayne.edu (Eugenia Casielles) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:55:44 -0400 Subject: language-specific features of CDS In-Reply-To: <65601.34431@mail.talkbank.org> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From langconf at bu.edu Mon Sep 4 17:28:26 2006 From: langconf at bu.edu (bucld) Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:28:26 -0400 Subject: BUCLD 31 Pre-Rgistration Announcement Message-ID: Dear Colleague, We are pleased to announce that pre-registration for BUCLD 31 is now available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/prereg.htm The 31st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development will be held at Boston University, November 3-5, 2006. Our invited speakers are: Roberta Golinkoff, University of Delaware Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University "Breaking the Language Barrier: The View from the Radical Middle." Keynote address, Friday, November 3 at 8:00 pm J?rgen M. Meisel, University of Hamburg & University of Calgary ?Multiple First Language Acquisition: A Case for Autonomous Syntactic Development in the Simultaneous Acquisition of More Than One Language.? Plenary address, Saturday, November 4 at 5:45 pm Mabel Rice, University of Kansas Helen Tager-Flusberg, Boston University Simon Fisher, University of Oxford Discussant: Gary Marcus, New York University ?Future Directions in Search of Genes that Influence Language: Phenotypes, Molecules, Brains, and Growth.? Lunchtime symposium, Saturday, November 4 at 12:00 pm The Society for Language Development (SLD) will be holding its third annual symposium on ?Learning Verbs? on Thursday, November 2, in conjunction with the BUCLD meeting. BUCLD 31 is offering online pre- registration and on-site registration for this event. Speakers: Lila Gleitman, Cynthia Fisher,Adele Goldberg, and Dedre Gentner. More information on the SLD symposium can be found at: http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/sld/symposium.html BUCLD and SLD pre-registration information is available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/prereg.htm The full conference schedule is available at: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/schedule.htm More information about BUCLD is available at our website: http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD We look forward to seeing you at BUCLD 31. Sincerely, Heather Caunt-Nulton, Samantha Kulatilake, I-hao Woo BUCLD 31 Co-organizers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cjh22 at psu.edu Thu Sep 7 14:50:51 2006 From: cjh22 at psu.edu (Carol Hammer) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 10:50:51 -0400 Subject: Position - Penn State University Message-ID: NOTICE OF POSITION VACANCY Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Health and Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University seeks candidates for a tenure track position of Assistant Professor to begin fall 2007. We are seeking a colleague who will develop a research program that will strengthen the links between research and practice in the areas of language and literacy development and disorders and/or neuroscience currently targeted by faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and in the interdisciplinary initiatives of Penn State's Children, Youth and Families Consortium (CYFC). Responsibilities: Commitment to graduate and undergraduate education through teaching graduate/undergraduate courses; supervising undergraduate/graduate (M.S., Ph.D.) research; and service to the Department, College and University. Qualifications: Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders, education, psychology, child development, applied linguistics, or a related field with an emphasis on children's language and literacy development and disorders and/or neuroscience. Candidates with diverse areas of expertise related to these areas are encouraged to apply. The Department is particularly interested in candidates with expertise in multilingual/multicultural contexts. A demonstrated record of scholarship and promise of external funding are important. CCC-SLP preferred. Deadline: Review of credentials will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. To receive full consideration, materials should be received prior to November 15, 2006. Application Procedure: Submit letter of application, current curriculum vitae, official transcripts, recent publications, and three letters of reference to: Carol Scheffner Hammer, Ph.D. Search Committee Chair Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders The Pennsylvania State University 110 Moore Building University Park, PA 16802 Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bernard.grela at uconn.edu Thu Sep 7 17:13:55 2006 From: bernard.grela at uconn.edu (Grela, Bernard) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 13:13:55 -0400 Subject: Faculty Position - University of Connecticut Message-ID: Assistant Professor Communications Sciences Department The University of Connecticut, Communications Sciences Department is seeking candidates for a tenure track Assistant Professor position. The selected candidate will teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, supervise doctoral student research, advise undergraduate and graduate students, establish and maintain an active research program. Duties begin 8/23/07. Qualifications: conferred Ph.D. by August 23, 2007 with major emphasis in one of the following areas: adult neurogenics, normal child language development and child language disorders, multi-lingual/multi-cultural issues or augmentative and alternative communication; demonstrated independent research. Previous academic and/or post doctoral experience preferred. CCC-SLP desirable. Salary will commensurate with qualifications and experience. Application Procedure: Send letter of application, with a curriculum vita, three letters of reference and copies of relevant publications to: Bernard Grela, Ph.D. Search Committee Chair University of Connecticut Department of Communication Sciences 850 Bolton Road Unit 1085 Storrs, CT 06269-1085 or via email (preferred) to: Bernard.grela at uconn.edu. Consideration of applications begins 11/25/06 and will continue until position is filled. Representatives of the program will be available at the ASHA Convention Employment Center in Miami, FL ________________________________________________________ Bernard Grela, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor Communication Sciences 850 Bolton Road, Unit 1085 Storrs, CT 06260-1085 Phone: (860) 486-3394 bernard.grela at uconn.edu http://speechlab.coms.uconn.edu/faculty/grela/index.html _________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From seyda at uchicago.edu Sat Sep 9 13:34:12 2006 From: seyda at uchicago.edu (seyda at uchicago.edu) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 08:34:12 -0500 Subject: question about similes in adult speech Message-ID: Dear all, Does anyone know of research that looked at the use of copular similes (x is like y) in spontaneous adult speech? I am particularly interested in instances of such similes in talk directed to children, but other adult speech will be of interest as well. Many thanks in advance. Regards, seyda SEYDA OZCALISKAN, Ph.D. University of Chicago Department of Psychology 5848 South University Avenue G-215 CHICAGO, IL 60637 http://home.uchicago.edu/~seyda From pss116 at bangor.ac.uk Sat Sep 9 14:43:14 2006 From: pss116 at bangor.ac.uk (Ginny Mueller Gathercole) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 15:43:14 +0100 Subject: Research positions in Bangor, Welsh speakers Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Sun Sep 10 20:03:01 2006 From: gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk (Gert Westermann) Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:03:01 +0100 Subject: Jobs: two postdocs in connectionist modelling Message-ID: University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology and Oxford Brookes University, Department of Psychology Two postdoctoral positions in connectionist modelling Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University are pleased to advertise two posts linked to the planned new Oxford Centre for Connectionist Modelling to investigate phenomena of linguistic and cognitive development and normal and impaired adult processing with computational models. Two three-year ESRC-funded post-doctoral research positions in connectionist modelling are now available to work with Dr. Gert Westermann and Prof. Kim Plunkett on models of word learning and inflection processing. Candidates for both positions should have a PhD in Psychology or a related subject, good programming skills, and experience with using connectionist neural network models in psychological modelling. Position 1: This position is mainly based in the Department of Psychology at Oxford Brookes University to work with Dr Gert Westermann on models of the development, normal and impaired adult processing of verb inflections in English and German. This project will involve developing neural network models to explore the link between brain development and cognitive development in verb inflection processing as well as adult functional brain organization. Salary is in the range of ?24,886- ?27,103. Ref: 265/15846/BC For informal enquiries about this position please contact Dr Gert Westermann, gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Further details are available at http://www.brookes.ac.uk/vacancy/ Position 2: This position is mainly based in the Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, to work with Prof. Kim Plunkett on models of word learning in infancy. This project will involve developing neural network models to explore the link between brain development and cognitive development in early word learning. An important part of the research will involve identifying network architectures that are particularly well-suited to the multi-modal aspects of lexical development. Grade 7: Salary is in the range ?24,886-?30,607. For informal enquiries about this position please contact Prof Kim Plunkett, kim.plunkett at psy.ox.ac.uk Before submitting an application for this position, candidates should obtain further particulars from http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk or the Administrator (e-mail: applications at psy.ox.ac.uk or telephone 01865 271399) quoting reference CQ/06/016. The closing date for both positions is 6 October 2006. Interviews will be held in mid-October for a starting date as soon as possible thereafter. Interviews for both positions will be held together, and applicants should indicate whether they wish to be considered for one or both positions. -- ===================================================================== Dr. Gert Westermann gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP Tel +44 (0)1865 271 400 Fax: +44 (0)1865 48 38 87 http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/gert/ ===================================================================== From W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl Mon Sep 11 09:01:06 2006 From: W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl (Blom, W.B.T.) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:01:06 +0200 Subject: REMINDER registration EMLAR III Message-ID: Reminder: EMLAR III 7th-9th November 2006, Utrecht University The full program of EMLAR III (Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research) and details about registration can be found at: For further questions, contact us at: emlar at let.uu.nl Deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006 NB: The programme is similar, but not identical to EMLAR II! One extra day, more hands-on sessions (E-prime, web-based experiments, ...) and more about L2 methodology. Invited speakers: Hugo Quen? (Utrecht University) - Statistics and methodology, SPSS, Statistics with R Irene Kr?mer (Radboud University Nijmegen) - Sentence comprehension Sonja Eisenbeiss (University of Essex) - Elicitation Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam) - PRAAT Nivja de Jong (University of Amsterdam) - E-Prime Iris Mulders (Utrecht University) - Eyetracking Judith Rispens (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) - ERP Elizabeth Johnson (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) - Infant testing Steven Gillis (University of Antwerp) - CHILDES I and II Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht University) - CHILDES I and II Huub van den Bergh (Utrecht University) - Advanced statistics Hans van de Velde (Utrecht University) - Web-based experiments Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh) - Grammaticality judgement task, Magnitude estimation Marianne Starren (Radboud University Nijmegen) - L2 corpora Christine Dimroth (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) - L2 corpora Theodore Marinis (University College London) - On-line sentence processing Johanne Paradis (University of Alberta, Canada) - Matching different populations Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS will hold its third workshop on the issue of Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR III). This workshop, which is part of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) graduate programme, aims to provide PhD and MA students with the opportunity to learn more about the different methods used in the field of (first and second) language acquisition research. The programme will consist of a series of lectures (each on a different method), and several more hands-on sessions on more practical aspects of language acquisition research. Each session addresses issues such as: subject selection, rationale behind a given method, practicalities involved in the actual execution of the experiment, advantages and disadvantages of a given method and do's and don't's. Organization: Sharon Unsworth Elma Blom Hannah De Mulder Natalie Boll Roberta Tedeschi Frans Adriaans -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 07:40:24 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:40:24 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html From M.Saxton at ioe.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 08:03:31 2006 From: M.Saxton at ioe.ac.uk (Matthew Saxton) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:03:31 +0100 Subject: Babbling / First word In-Reply-To: Message-ID: In response to Annette's query, I have heard the same story, but with "momma" (or some /m/-initial variant: "mom", "mummy") suggested as the child's first word. Ease of articulation was given as the reason in this case also. Having said that, my son's first word was "cheers," presumably because the champagne being handed round was more salient than either of his parents. The point here is that ease of articulation is probably only one factor dictating production of the child's first recognisable word form. Without some hard evidence, though, I think we may have another case of counting words for "snow" in Eskimo....... ********************************************************************* Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, 25 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA. U.K. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304 www.ioe.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: 12 September 2006 08:40 To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.ht ml From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 08:14:03 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:14:03 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: >Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >thanks >Annette K-S Several brief things to say in response: 1. Yes, [d] is used the most in babbling, at least in English-learning babies, but not by ALL babies learning English, just most; this is not the case for Welsh, for example, so it's safer not to generalise to all languages. 2. babies' first word is not by any means always or even often 'daddy', although a fond parent hearing 'dadada' may choose to interpret the baby that way. 3. Yes, 'daddy', 'papa', and 'mama' are definitely easier because of the use of only one C across the word. 4. John Locke has a JCL paper on the use of 'mama' and 'papa' as early words in many languages - following up on a much earlier paper by Jakobson. The Locke paper was in the mid-1990s, I think. -marilyn > > >-- >________________________________________________________________ >Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, >Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, >Institute of Child Health, >30 Guilford Street, >London WC1N 1EH, U.K. >tel: 0207 905 2754 >sec: 0207 905 2334 >http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil?wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio ? defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From jacqueline.vankampen at let.uu.nl Tue Sep 12 08:34:03 2006 From: jacqueline.vankampen at let.uu.nl (kampen) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:34:03 +0200 Subject: babbling Message-ID: >Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >thanks >Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 From zeisenberg at gc.cuny.edu Tue Sep 12 14:14:17 2006 From: zeisenberg at gc.cuny.edu (Zena Eisenberg) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:14:17 -0300 Subject: RES: Babbling / First word In-Reply-To: <9E14A75D6404DC4F9233140F10AC44AABBED95@M1.ioead> Message-ID: If I may pitch in, my Portuguese speaking 2 year old's first words were: "d?" (give me) , "nan?" (no) and "ad?" (where is it?). As a language conscious mom, I awaited anxiously for the first "mam?e", as his first word, but that took a while to come up. As did "papai" (daddy). Anecdotal data aside, there is no reason to believe that mommy or daddy should be children's first words, but more likely the saliency of words in the parents' talk, their functionality and the phonetic complexity. In the example above, "give me" might be much more complicated for an English speaking child than "d?", for a Portuguese native. Zena Eisenberg PhD at CUNY - Graduate Center -----Mensagem original----- De: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] Em nome de Matthew Saxton Enviada em: ter?a-feira, 12 de setembro de 2006 05:04 Para: Annette Karmiloff-Smith; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Assunto: Babbling / First word In response to Annette's query, I have heard the same story, but with "momma" (or some /m/-initial variant: "mom", "mummy") suggested as the child's first word. Ease of articulation was given as the reason in this case also. Having said that, my son's first word was "cheers," presumably because the champagne being handed round was more salient than either of his parents. The point here is that ease of articulation is probably only one factor dictating production of the child's first recognisable word form. Without some hard evidence, though, I think we may have another case of counting words for "snow" in Eskimo....... ********************************************************************* Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, 25 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA. U.K. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304 www.ioe.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: 12 September 2006 08:40 To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.ht ml From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 12 14:23:42 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:23:42 -0600 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20060912103403.00a405c0@pop.let.uu.nl> Message-ID: Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: >> Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is >> Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is >> easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments >> from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. >> and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of >> articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. >> thanks >> Annette K-S > > > Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of > feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural > control > of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the > hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in > language > history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of > typological features. > > Jacqueline > > > http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ > > Postal address: > UiL OTS > Janskerkhof 13 > 3512 BL Utrecht > The Netherlands > phone: +31 30-2536054 > fax: +31 30-2536000 > > > > > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ikto.ness at gmail.com Tue Sep 12 14:51:54 2006 From: ikto.ness at gmail.com (Iktomi Ness) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:51:54 +0200 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <632914580609120730k79311296h5751f6d6dc35e42e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I think it may be also interesting to bear in mind that the first words parents have the opportunity may not be the first utterances the baby actually produced. My point is that, there may be words or small productions that we -as parents- miss before the utterances take a significance to us (the name of the dog, or daddy...etc) On 12/09/06, Gisela Szagun < gisela.szagun at googlemail.com> wrote: > > feeling encouraged after Zena' interersting story, here is mine: > > I don't study in the area of babbling, but my daughter's first word was > "baggie" - short for our cat's name "Mrs. Baggins". How is that for an > interpretation - either in terms of articulation or deep psychological? > Maybe she had some idea of a cat parent? (Only a joke) > > Gisela Szagun > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 14:53:45 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:53:45 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was 'Dvorak'? ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM To: kampen Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Re: babbling Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From KNelson at gc.cuny.edu Tue Sep 12 14:59:48 2006 From: KNelson at gc.cuny.edu (Nelson, Katherine) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:59:48 -0400 Subject: FW: babbling Message-ID: This already went to Annette (why not to info-childes, I don't know). But to add to the babble: ________________________________ From: Nelson, Katherine Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 7:30 AM To: Annette Karmiloff-Smith Subject: RE: babbling There's another reason that English-speaking infants may home in on dada for Daddy in addition to the ease of articulation noted by Jakobson: mothers often interpret the word as referring to Daddy and reinforce with phrases like "where's Dada?" "here comes Dada". Others interpret the babble as "doggie" or "duck" also early words for many kids. Katherine ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 3:40 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: babbling Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S -- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From P.Fletcher at ucc.ie Tue Sep 12 15:13:58 2006 From: P.Fletcher at ucc.ie (Fletcher , Paul) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:13:58 +0100 Subject: babbling Message-ID: I think that was Michael Halliday,in 'Learning how to mean' -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: 12 September 2006 15:54 Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: babbling Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was 'Dvorak'? ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM To: kampen Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Re: babbling Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge - so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources other than ease of articulation. Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on how clear the context is. Lise Menn On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. thanks Annette K-S Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural control of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that the hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in language history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of typological features. Jacqueline http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ Postal address: UiL OTS Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht The Netherlands phone: +31 30-2536054 fax: +31 30-2536000 Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 15:53:02 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:53:02 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: thanks everyone for all the information. I see everyone has cc'd Childes so I won't collate the replies. Many thanks, Annette At 16:13 +0100 12/9/06, Fletcher , Paul wrote: >I think that was Michael Halliday,in 'Learning how to mean' > >-----Original Message----- >From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] >On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley >Sent: 12 September 2006 15:54 >Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >Subject: RE: babbling > >Wasn't it Dwight Bolinger who claimed that his daughter's first word was >'Dvorak'? > > >............................................................................ >Dr Alison Crutchley >a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >............................................................................ > >________________________________ > >From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Lise Menn >Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 3:23 PM >To: kampen >Cc: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >Subject: Re: babbling > > >Except, of course, that Jakobson had no independent data on the neural >control of any aspect of articulation - and we still don't, to my knowledge >- so his explanation is better considered as a speculation. >Lists of 'first words' in English include 'byebye' - which fits the >babble-like pattern - and 'no', which clearly has motivation from sources >other than ease of articulation. >Reportage of first words has the problems that adults have expectations >about what the 'first word' is culturally supposed to be, and that observers >can differ greatly as to 'what counts' as an attempt at a word, depending on >how clear the context is. >Lise Menn > >On Sep 12, 2006, at 2:34 AM, kampen wrote: > > > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first >word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position >of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated >comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for >Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of >place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > > Jakobson (1942) already noticed this and had an analysis in terms of > feature-oppositions and hierarchy in learning steps due to neural >control > of the articulation apparatus. Jakobson developed the thesis that >the > hierarchy in language acquisition manifested itself as well in >language > history, as in a downward movement in aphasia as in the spread of > typological features. > > Jacqueline > > > http://www.let.uu.nl/~Jacqueline.vanKampen/personal/ > > Postal address: > UiL OTS > Janskerkhof 13 > 3512 BL Utrecht > The Netherlands > phone: +31 30-2536054 > fax: +31 30-2536000 > > > > > > > >Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 >Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 >295 UCB Hellems 293 >University of Colorado >Boulder CO 80309-0295 > >Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan >Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] > >Lise Menn's home page >http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ > > >"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" > >http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf > > >Japanese version of "Shirley Says" >http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm > > >Academy of Aphasia > >http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ > > > > >This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you >receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it >from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the >business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and >will accept no liability. From ann.dowker at psy.ox.ac.uk Tue Sep 12 16:09:36 2006 From: ann.dowker at psy.ox.ac.uk (Ann Dowker) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:09:36 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available URL: From dps at purdue.edu Tue Sep 12 18:01:27 2006 From: dps at purdue.edu (David Snow) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:01:27 -0400 Subject: babbling Message-ID: Hello all, In response to Ann Dowker's cogent question, I think Marilyn Vihman's work is relevant indeed to the issues about babbling and early meaningful speech that are at the center of this current group discussion (the work of Marilyn Vihman and other child phonologists who have, in recent years, contributed so much to the study of babbling and early speech development). In his crosslinguistic review of early vocal development, John Locke pointed out that [d] was the most frequent consonant in late babbling. Linguistic evidence (including phonetic surveys of world's languages) also suggests that [d] is the most basic and universal of consonants. However, it can be argued that labials (especially stops) are the simplest of consonants for most children. De Boysson-Bardies, Vihman, Roug-Hellichius et al., in their landmark 1992 study, showed that labials are remarkably common in early phonology, and, most importantly, that the frequency of labials actually increases universally as children advance from babbling to meaningful speech (suggesting a nonlinear pattern of the type that has been increasingly observed in recent studies of children's phonological development). Marilyn Vihman and colleagues have also shown that precocious word learners in English take advantage of "labial simplicity" as a powerful phonetic basis for early word production. The simplicity of labials, at least in part, is probably owing to the visual aspect. Children can use the strong visual cues of labials in the input to strengthen what Vihman has described as children's early "vocal motor schemes." All this, in addition, helps to explain why young children with hearing impairments may have labials in their inventory but few if any coronals (e.g., studies by Stoel-Gammon and colleagues), and children with severe visual impairments do not seem to demonstrate the advantage of labials over coronals in early word production that was described above for infants and toddlers with normal or impaired hearing but without impairments of vision. David Snow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Dowker" To: "Annette Karmiloff-Smith" Cc: ; "Fletcher , Paul" ; "'Alison Crutchley'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:09 PM Subject: RE: babbling > Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? > > Ann > > From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 12 18:03:38 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:03:38 -0600 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <20060912160936.8AE2A12002@webmail217.herald.ox.ac.uk> Message-ID: It's not only relevant, it's central! Lise On Sep 12, 2006, at 10:09 AM, Ann Dowker wrote: > Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? > > Ann > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ann at hawaii.edu Tue Sep 12 19:44:39 2006 From: ann at hawaii.edu (Ann Peters) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:44:39 -1000 Subject: first word Message-ID: One last comment from the last time zone in the world. My son's first recognized word (at 10 or 11 months) was "Hi!". It was so clear, and yet I doubted it was more than a fluke because it didn't fit my stereotype of what a "first word" should sound like. He said it when I came into his room for the first time one morning. The next morning as I went into his room I heard myself saying "Hi!" I was convinced. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ From ablackwe at mtsu.edu Tue Sep 12 20:14:02 2006 From: ablackwe at mtsu.edu (Aleka A. Blackwell) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:14:02 -0400 Subject: first word In-Reply-To: Message-ID: My child's first word was [dajdaj] at just about 12 months and it clearly meant 'bye bye' and not 'daddy.' My son's "daddy" (note: I speak Greek to him, his dad speaks English to him, and my son has chosen the Greek "baba" for daddy) surfaced at 17 months. **************************** Aleka A. Blackwell Associate Professor of Linguistics English Department Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, TN 37132 615-898-5960 From tina.bennett at wichita.edu Tue Sep 12 21:17:20 2006 From: tina.bennett at wichita.edu (tina.bennett) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:17:20 -0500 Subject: No subject Message-ID: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor From csg at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 12 21:41:59 2006 From: csg at u.washington.edu (Carol Stoel-Gammon) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:41:59 -0700 Subject: babbling/first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nratner at hesp.umd.edu Wed Sep 13 00:12:01 2006 From: nratner at hesp.umd.edu (Nan Ratner) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:12:01 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: And then there are the atypical kids. My son, Adami, couldn't say Mama for years, he said Nana instead, but managed "trash truck" much better, as one of his first 10 words, although it came out without the /r/ and /k/; however, the affricates and fricative came out just fine. Go figure. He had SLI and some of the kids we followed in Rescorla and Ratner (1996) also had weird initial phonemic inventories. Nan Nan Bernstein Ratner, Professor and Chairman Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences 0100 Lefrak Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 nratner at hesp.umd.edu http://www.bsos.umd.edu/hesp/facultyStaff/ratnern.htm 301-405-4213 301-314-2023 (fax) >>> Carol Stoel-Gammon 09/12/06 5:41 PM >>> As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 07:37:57 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:37:57 +0100 Subject: more on babbling Message-ID: In view of the various responses to Annette's question, which looked as if they had missed mine, I'm sending mine out again - sorry! It's based on recordings of nearly 200 babies exposed to UK English and 100-150 exposed to Welsh in North Wales. At 9:14 am +0100 12/9/06, Marilyn Vihman wrote: >Several brief things to say in response: > >1. Yes, [d] is used the most in babbling, at least in >English-learning babies, but not by ALL babies learning English, >just most; this is not the case for Welsh, for example, so it's >safer not to generalise to all languages. > >2. babies' first word is not by any means always or even often >'daddy', although a fond parent hearing 'dadada' may choose to >interpret the baby that way. > >3. Yes, 'daddy', 'papa', and 'mama' are definitely easier because of >the use of only one C across the word. > >4. John Locke has a JCL paper on the use of 'mama' and 'papa' as >early words in many languages - following up on a much earlier paper >by Jakobson. The Locke paper was in the mid-1990s, I think. > >-marilyn -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil?wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio ? defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 07:38:11 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:38:11 +0100 Subject: first words Message-ID: Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 10:32:19 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:32:19 +0100 Subject: babbling In-Reply-To: <000601c6d695$782241e0$4c52d280@SnowOffice> Message-ID: that is so helpful. thank you. Annette At 14:01 -0400 12/9/06, David Snow wrote: >Hello all, > > In response to Ann Dowker's cogent question, I think Marilyn >Vihman's work is relevant indeed to the issues about babbling and >early meaningful speech that are at the center of this current group >discussion (the work of Marilyn Vihman and other child phonologists >who have, in recent years, contributed so much to the study of >babbling and early speech development). > > In his crosslinguistic review of early vocal development, John >Locke pointed out that [d] was the most frequent consonant in late >babbling. Linguistic evidence (including phonetic surveys of world's >languages) also suggests that [d] is the most basic and universal of >consonants. However, it can be argued that labials (especially >stops) are the simplest of consonants for most children. De >Boysson-Bardies, Vihman, Roug-Hellichius et al., in their landmark >1992 study, showed that labials are remarkably common in early >phonology, and, most importantly, that the frequency of labials >actually increases universally as children advance from babbling to >meaningful speech (suggesting a nonlinear pattern of the type that >has been increasingly observed in recent studies of children's >phonological development). Marilyn Vihman and colleagues have also >shown that precocious word learners in English take advantage of >"labial simplicity" as a powerful phonetic basis for early word >production. The simplicity of labials, at least in part, is probably >owing to the visual aspect. Children can use the strong visual cues >of labials in the input to strengthen what Vihman has described as >children's early "vocal motor schemes." All this, in addition, helps >to explain why young children with hearing impairments may have >labials in their inventory but few if any coronals (e.g., studies by >Stoel-Gammon and colleagues), and children with severe visual >impairments do not seem to demonstrate the advantage of labials over >coronals in early word production that was described above for >infants and toddlers with normal or impaired hearing but without >impairments of vision. > >David Snow > >----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Dowker" >To: "Annette Karmiloff-Smith" >Cc: ; "Fletcher , Paul" >; "'Alison Crutchley'" >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:09 PM >Subject: RE: babbling > >>Could Marilyn Vihman's work be relevant here? >> >>Ann From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 11:31:04 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:31:04 +0100 Subject: two questions please Message-ID: First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I may, two more questions. 1. Can anyone point me to research testing whether young children learn information better when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather than purely in spoken language? 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish something that actually happened from something they are repeatedly told by an adult had happened? Relevant research pointers? Many thanks, as always, Annette ?-- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html From ikto.ness at gmail.com Wed Sep 13 11:41:35 2006 From: ikto.ness at gmail.com (Iktomi Ness) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:41:35 +0200 Subject: two questions please In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This has got to do with the relationship between musical training and pitch processing This has got to do with pitch processing http://incm.cnrs-mrs.fr/pperso/pdf/Magne_Schon_JOCN_06.pdf On 13/09/06, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > > First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and > dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. > These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I > may, two more questions. > > 1. Can anyone point me to research testing > whether young children learn information better > when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather > than purely in spoken language? > > 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish > something that actually happened from something > they are repeatedly told by an adult had > happened? Relevant research pointers? > > Many thanks, as always, > Annette > > > ?-- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ahousen at vub.ac.be Wed Sep 13 11:44:50 2006 From: ahousen at vub.ac.be (Alex Housen) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:44:50 +0200 Subject: No subject Message-ID: I am out of office until September 19th. Your mail will be read when I return. Alex Housen From pgordon at exchange.tc.columbia.edu Wed Sep 13 12:25:07 2006 From: pgordon at exchange.tc.columbia.edu (Gordon, Peter) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:25:07 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: OK here's my anecdote: My god-daughter, at 10 months, regularly used 2 words referentially: "Juice" and "Shoes". Although these were similar -- both being produced with a very forceful burst -- the former clearly began with an affricate and the latter a fricative. The more remarkable fact was that these words were only said in the presence of appropriate referents and could be elicited by pointing to each thing in the same session. By 12 months, these words had dropped out of her repertoire completely as she began to work on the usual daddy/mommy business. They did eventually re-emerge, but now were assimilated to the same: /du/ for both words, just like any other 16 month old. Peter Gordon, 525 W 120th St. Box 180 Biobehavioral Sciences Department Teachers College, Columbia University New York, NY 10027 (212) 678-8162 ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Nan Ratner Sent: Tue 9/12/2006 8:12 PM To: Annette Karmiloff-Smith; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; Carol Stoel-Gammon Subject: Re: babbling/first words And then there are the atypical kids. My son, Adami, couldn't say Mama for years, he said Nana instead, but managed "trash truck" much better, as one of his first 10 words, although it came out without the /r/ and /k/; however, the affricates and fricative came out just fine. Go figure. He had SLI and some of the kids we followed in Rescorla and Ratner (1996) also had weird initial phonemic inventories. Nan Nan Bernstein Ratner, Professor and Chairman Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences 0100 Lefrak Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 nratner at hesp.umd.edu http://www.bsos.umd.edu/hesp/facultyStaff/ratnern.htm 301-405-4213 301-314-2023 (fax) >>> Carol Stoel-Gammon 09/12/06 5:41 PM >>> As as been noted by many of the respondents, the first word of many children (including mine) is something other than daddy. It is true, however, that for American children, daddy is among the very first words. Based on data from the CHILDES data base, daddy is produced by 50% of children at age 11.48 months, while mommy is produced by 50% of children at 11.64 months. Other words on the CHILDES list reach the 50% criterion after 12.28 months. ************************************ Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ph.D. Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington 1417 N.E. 42nd Street Seattle, WA 98105-6246 Phone: 206-543-7692 Fax: 206-543-1093 ************************************ On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote: > Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is > Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is > easiest? not sure either is true but would appreciated comments > from those who study this area. Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. > and Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of > articulation? All thoughts on the topic most appreciated. > thanks > Annette K-S > > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, > Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, > Institute of Child Health, > 30 Guilford Street, > London WC1N 1EH, U.K. > tel: 0207 905 2754 > sec: 0207 905 2334 > http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/ > n_d_unit.html > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shariellen at nyc.rr.com Wed Sep 13 12:39:05 2006 From: shariellen at nyc.rr.com (Shari Berkowitz) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:39:05 -0400 Subject: babbling/first words Message-ID: OK, I'll play. My son's first words were mommy, daddy and book. My daughter's first word, as the second child, was "don't touch it, it's mine," as her big brother said to her all day long. Obviously, this was all one word, with reduced consonants, but the intonation and intent were spot-on. Best, Shari Berkowitz ____________________________________ Shari Berkowitz, MS, CCC-SLP Speech-Language Pathologist Feeding Interventionist Doctoral Student, CUNY Graduate Center -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ehoff at fau.edu Wed Sep 13 12:48:59 2006 From: ehoff at fau.edu (Erika Hoff) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:48:59 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFB4@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From macw at cmu.edu Wed Sep 13 16:29:35 2006 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:29:35 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFB4@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: Dear Alison et al., Your observations suggest an interesting new method of computing time in child language acquisition. When you use the phrase "in the first few months," I believe you mean something like "in the first few months after the onset of language" or "in the first few months after the first word." Then, later, when you refer to your sons use of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean his use of this word at "four months after the onset of language." It makes good sense for child language people to think in these terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? --Brian MacWhinney On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a > 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our > son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' > that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no > reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in > Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the > road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). > > So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence > of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... > > Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only > said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. > > Alison > > > ...................................................................... > ...... > Dr Alison Crutchley > Course Leader, English Language > School of Music, Humanities and Media > University of Huddersfield > Queensgate > Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH > > a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk > http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm > ...................................................................... > ...... > > ________________________________ > > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett > Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: > > > > One of my daughters used, as her first word (at > about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, > accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. > > She also produced a very credible "hi" when just > two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor > of a football game on television. Even my father, > a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. > It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we > initiated interactions. But of course > it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. > > -Tina Bennett-Kastor > > > > > > > This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If > you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and > remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not > relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we > do not endorse it and will accept no liability. > > > > From twila at umich.edu Wed Sep 13 16:53:38 2006 From: twila at umich.edu (Tardif, Twila) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:53:38 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <012d01c6d733$00dec060$eb2a5b83@irm.ad.fau.edu> Message-ID: And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. Twila Tardif -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Erika Hoff Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:49 AM To: 'Alison Crutchley' Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ........................................................................ .... Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ........................................................................ .... ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From babs at mail.utexas.edu Wed Sep 13 16:59:36 2006 From: babs at mail.utexas.edu (Barbara Davis) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:59:36 -0500 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <012d01c6d733$00dec060$eb2a5b83@irm.ad.fau.edu> Message-ID: On the deeper origins of 'daddy' and 'mommy' as first words: Dean Falk's 2004 BBS commentary "Prelinguistic evolution in early hominids: Whence motherese?" considers the importance of increasing necessity for early hominid mothers to be separated from their babies while foraging as creating selection pressures for an elaboration of the dyadic vocal communication pattern. She suggests an early linkage between nasal demand sounds and the word for female parent. For contrast, the label for male parent would be oral. This potential hypothesis for early contrastive use of 'daddy' and 'mommy' in first vocabularies is emphasized in a study of kinship terms in 474 contemporary languages, where Murdock found that 78% of words for mother began with a nasal consonant while 66% of words for father began with an oral consonant. Early sounds available to the infant production system include both [b] and [d], so the concept of ease is not easy to establish. Babs Davis On 9/13/06, Erika Hoff wrote: > > I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. > My > son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word > was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. > Both > babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute > meaning. > > Erika Hoff > > -----Original Message----- > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto: > info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] > On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley > Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: RE: first words > > Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' > is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, > igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly > regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these > 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was > carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted > 'Bears!'). > > So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of > linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... > > Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said > when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. > > Alison > > > > ............................................................................ > Dr Alison Crutchley > Course Leader, English Language > School of Music, Humanities and Media > University of Huddersfield > Queensgate > Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH > > a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk > http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm > > ............................................................................ > > ________________________________ > > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett > Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: > > > > One of my daughters used, as her first word (at > about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, > accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. > > She also produced a very credible "hi" when just > two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor > of a football game on television. Even my father, > a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. > It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we > initiated interactions. But of course > it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. > > -Tina Bennett-Kastor > > > > > > > This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you > receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it > from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the > business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and > will accept no liability. > > > > > -- Barbara L. Davis, Ph.D. Professor and Graduate Advisor Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders 1 University Station, A1100 The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712-1089 (512) 471-1929 office phone (512) 471-2957 office fax babs at mail.utexas.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From velleman at comdis.umass.edu Wed Sep 13 17:05:02 2006 From: velleman at comdis.umass.edu (Shelley Velleman) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:05:02 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <7696E99B-DF61-4FDD-964F-A274AB3F0A89@cmu.edu> Message-ID: Marilyn Vihman's system of referring to the "4-word point" (when the child has 4 words in a 1/2 hour recording session, 8-10 words reported by parents) and "25-word point" (child has 40-60 words reported by parents) is a good system, too. Shelley Velleman On Sep 13, 2006, at 12:29 PM, Brian MacWhinney wrote: > Dear Alison et al., > Your observations suggest an interesting new method of > computing time in child language acquisition. When you use the > phrase "in the first few months," I believe you mean something like > "in the first few months after the onset of language" or "in the > first few months after the first word." Then, later, when you > refer to your sons use of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean > his use of this word at "four months after the onset of language." > It makes good sense for child language people to think in these > terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the > first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment > to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist > calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? > > --Brian MacWhinney > > On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > >> Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a >> 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for >> our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all >> 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course >> there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not >> many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying >> him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted >> 'Bears!'). >> >> So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence >> of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... >> >> Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - >> only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. >> >> Alison >> >> >> ..................................................................... >> ....... >> Dr Alison Crutchley >> Course Leader, English Language >> School of Music, Humanities and Media >> University of Huddersfield >> Queensgate >> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >> >> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >> ..................................................................... >> ....... >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett >> Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM >> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >> Subject: >> >> >> >> One of my daughters used, as her first word (at >> about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, >> accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. >> >> She also produced a very credible "hi" when just >> two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor >> of a football game on television. Even my father, >> a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. >> It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we >> initiated interactions. But of course >> it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. >> >> -Tina Bennett-Kastor >> >> >> >> >> >> >> This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. >> If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail >> and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does >> not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then >> we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. >> >> >> >> > > From jlm at psych.stanford.edu Wed Sep 13 17:17:25 2006 From: jlm at psych.stanford.edu (Jay McClelland) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:17:25 -0700 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <5C49626685F3B248BA61C4F05767E2A812891A@ECLUST2-VS4.adsroot.itcs.umich.edu> Message-ID: Tardif, Twila wrote: > And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the > name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada > was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. > What an enjoyable conversation this is turning out to be! I hope others are learning as much as I am from it. I have recently moved from Carnegie Mellon to Stanford and my Stanford address was not recognized by the list, so (now that I've been rehabilitated) I am including here the message that I attempted to send to the list yesterday. Twila's anecdote seems to support the greater power of 'No Coda' relative to 'Onset' discussed in my message, which follows here: Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and "No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively (that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English (do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for 'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' (excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. -- Jay McClelland --------------- http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm / Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent confidence of the child (Vine?s). ----------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba *Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father " in most Semitic languages . The Syriac or Chaldee version of the word is found three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), and in each case is followed by its Greek equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament . Most modern Israelis (along with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as one would use "Dad " or "Daddy " in English. Unfortunately this translation also falls far short of the original meaning. From a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 17:38:07 2006 From: a.karmiloff at ich.ucl.ac.uk (Annette Karmiloff-Smith) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:38:07 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <45083D25.9090500@psych.stanford.edu> Message-ID: I'm certainly learning a lot, having started this! A. At 10:17 -0700 13/9/06, Jay McClelland wrote: >Tardif, Twila wrote: >>And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the >>name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada >>was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. >> >What an enjoyable conversation this is turning out to be! I hope >others are learning as much as I am from it. > >I have recently moved from Carnegie Mellon to Stanford and my >Stanford address was not recognized by the list, so (now that I've >been rehabilitated) I am including here the message that I attempted >to send to the list yesterday. Twila's anecdote seems to support the >greater power of 'No Coda' relative to 'Onset' discussed in my >message, which follows here: > >Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are >essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in >the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and >"No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by >cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). > >Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic >English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most >frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively >(that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar >nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English >(do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs >papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for >'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' >(excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). > >More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children >have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may >require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was >part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in >onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. >-- Jay McClelland > >--------------- >http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm > >/ Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. >4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the >traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were >forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It >approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which >it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact >that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking >Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they >used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens >unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of >the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent >confidence of the child (Vine's). > >----------------- > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba > >*Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father >" in most Semitic languages >. The Syriac > or Chaldee version of the word >is found three times in the New Testament > (Mark > 14:36; Romans > 8:15; Galatians > 4:6), and in each case is >followed by its Greek >equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing >warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent >in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an >ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament >. >Most modern Israelis (along >with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as >one would use "Dad " or "Daddy >" in English. Unfortunately this >translation also falls far short of the original meaning. From gelman at umich.edu Wed Sep 13 18:55:50 2006 From: gelman at umich.edu (Gelman, Susan) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:55:50 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <5C49626685F3B248BA61C4F05767E2A812891A@ECLUST2-VS4.adsroot.itcs.umich.edu> Message-ID: My daughter's first word was also the name of our cat (Rudy, which she pronounced as "Doo-dee"). My 2 sons' first words were "hi" and "uh-oh", respectively. Not sure what to conclude from this, but it was interesting for me to see the overlap with what others reported. --Susan Gelman -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Tardif, Twila Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:54 PM To: Erika Hoff; Alison Crutchley Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words And my daughter's was very clearly "I'ee" (Iggy without consonants), the name of our cat but it took a while before we figured that out. Dada was next though and referred to BOTH mom and dad and nobody else. Twila Tardif -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Erika Hoff Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:49 AM To: 'Alison Crutchley' Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words I've been reading these for days and can no longer resist adding my data. My son's first word was "hiya" said in greeting, and my daughter's first word was "uh-oh" said as commentary on something about to fall off a table. Both babbled da-da-da before this, but I never felt compelled to impute meaning. Erika Hoff -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Alison Crutchley Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:38 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: RE: first words Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. Alison ........................................................................ .... Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ........................................................................ .... ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: One of my daughters used, as her first word (at about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. She also produced a very credible "hi" when just two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor of a football game on television. Even my father, a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we initiated interactions. But of course it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. -Tina Bennett-Kastor This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability. From a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk Wed Sep 13 21:06:34 2006 From: a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk (Alison Crutchley) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:06:34 +0100 Subject: FW: first words Message-ID: Brian MacWhinney has encouraged me to post our recent exchange to the list... see below. Best wishes Alison ............................................................................ Dr Alison Crutchley Course Leader, English Language School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm ............................................................................ ________________________________ From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 9:58 PM To: Alison Crutchley Subject: Re: first words Dear Alison, OK. This helps a lot. Would you be willing to post your really helpful further commentary to info-childes? Many thanks. And please include a statement that you really meant four months and NOT four months after the beginning of language. Personally, I am not convinced that children are not actually echoing words at this early age. You know that quote from Hamlet. Something like "there is more in heaven and earth Horatio than in all your scholarly readings." --Brian On Sep 13, 2006, at 4:53 PM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > Dear Brian > > I think my use of the word 'word' was misleading. Before 6 months > of age our son produced word-like strings - which sounded to us > like 'elk', 'igloo' and 'bears' - but were clearly (to us at least) > not used in any context that would support their interpretation as > having actual reference or 'meaning' for him. We like a joke, so we > pretended that he was talking to us about igloos etc. > > However, imagine that we lived in North Dakota (e.g. http:// > www.wapiti.net/), and an elk strolled by just as Tilden shouted > 'Elk' (or indeed a bear as he - coincidentally - shouted something > that sounded like 'Bears'). We might well be tempted to interpret > this as 'real' word use, especially if he did it more that once > (which could still be coincidence, given the frequency with which > he produced these strings over a shortish period). > > Incidentally Tilden gave up producing these strings and started > babbling a few months later. He hasn't mentioned an elk since. > > Friends of mine visited with their son recently who seemed to me > clearly to be saying 'cherry' when given one. His mother insisted > that he wasn't. It all goes to show (for me, anyway) that the > science of establishing what exactly a first word is, and how we > can be sure it is that for the child as well as for us, is still > far from exact. > > With very best wishes Alison > > > ________________________________ > > From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] > Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 9:29 PM > To: Alison Crutchley > Subject: Re: first words > > > > Alison, > This would be the earliest reported use of a word by several > months. The previous earliest reported use was from Ponori (1897) > who reports the first word at seven months. > If you think your observation was solid, I think it quite important > to get this out more clearly in public. > Many thanks. > > --Brian MacWhinney > > On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:59 PM, Alison Crutchley wrote: > >> Actually I did mean four months from birth... But I think your >> point is well made. Given that lang acq is so individually >> variable, knowing that a child produced a word or structure at a >> certain age doesn't mean much. But if we know the 'starting point' >> - when the first word appeared for each child - this might mean >> that individuals could be more easily compared with one another...? >> >> best wishes Alison >> >> >> ..................................................................... >> . >> ...... >> Dr Alison Crutchley >> Course Leader, English Language >> School of Music, Humanities and Media >> University of Huddersfield >> Queensgate >> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >> >> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >> ..................................................................... >> . >> ...... >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: Brian MacWhinney [mailto:macw at cmu.edu] >> Sent: Wed 13/09/2006 5:29 PM >> To: Alison Crutchley >> Cc: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >> Subject: Re: first words >> >> >> >> Dear Alison et al., >> Your observations suggest an interesting new method of computing >> time in child language acquisition. When you use the phrase "in the >> first few months," I believe you mean something like "in the first >> few months after the onset of language" or "in the first few months >> after the first word." Then, later, when you refer to your sons use >> of "bears" at four months, I assume you mean his use of this word at >> "four months after the onset of language." >> It makes good sense for child language people to think in these >> terms. Of course, it requires a firm commitment to the time of the >> first word. But this is not all that different from the commitment >> to the time of the beginning of the Christian era or the Buddhist >> calendar. How about 4 months AL (ante lingua)? >> >> --Brian MacWhinney >> >> On Sep 13, 2006, at 3:38 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote: >> >>> Tina highlights part of the difficulty in establishing what a >>> 'first word' is. In the first few months we made up stories for our >>> son involving elk, igloo(s) and legs, as these were all 'words' >>> that he produced on a fairly regular basis. Of course there was no >>> reason to think he was 'using' these 'words'. (Not many igloos in >>> Yorkshire, although I did jump when I was carrying him down the >>> road in the sling at about 4 months and he shouted 'Bears!'). >>> >>> So it's not just the children who may be relying on a convergence >>> of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to establish meanings... >>> >>> Incidentally, I think our son's first 'real' word was 'hiya' - only >>> said when clamping a phone (or phone-shaped object) to his ear. >>> >>> Alison >>> >>> >>> .................................................................... >>> . >>> . >>> ...... >>> Dr Alison Crutchley >>> Course Leader, English Language >>> School of Music, Humanities and Media >>> University of Huddersfield >>> Queensgate >>> Huddersfield, UK. HD1 3DH >>> >>> a.crutchley at hud.ac.uk >>> http://www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/research/ac.htm >>> .................................................................... >>> . >>> . >>> ...... >>> >>> ________________________________ >>> >>> From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of tina.bennett >>> Sent: Tue 12/09/2006 10:17 PM >>> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>> Subject: >>> >>> >>> >>> One of my daughters used, as her first word (at >>> about 6 months) /da/, meaning "that", with rising intonation, >>> accompanied by pointing to objects she wanted us to name. >>> >>> She also produced a very credible "hi" when just >>> two weeks old and we were ignoring her in favor >>> of a football game on television. Even my father, >>> a speech pathologist, heard it and his mouth dropped open. >>> It was the first thing we used to say to her every time we >>> initiated interactions. But of course >>> it is impossible for a newborn to have done such a thing. >>> >>> -Tina Bennett-Kastor >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If >>> you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and >>> remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not >>> relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we >>> do not endorse it and will accept no liability. >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > From masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl Wed Sep 13 21:10:55 2006 From: masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl (masmo at lingua.filg.uj.edu.pl) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:10:55 +0200 Subject: first words Message-ID: I am afraid I forgot what the first words of my sons were, but I have recently noted the two first (Polish) words of my granddaughter Helenka. They were exact homophones and sounded [ko]. One meant "oko" (eye), the other "kot" (cat). Her subsequent "first" words seemed to be picked up according to her preference for velar consonants. I found it VERY anti-Jakobsonian. Magdalena Smoczynska -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debgibson at telus.net Wed Sep 13 21:35:28 2006 From: debgibson at telus.net (Deborah Gibson) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:35:28 -0700 Subject: first words Message-ID: I?m interested in the definition of ?word? in a child?s first word, as I?m researching my autistic son?s delayed language acquisition. He had many unconventional early ?words?; for example, intentional vocalisations, such as squeaks and growls, and lexical signs (taught and invented), that were consistent in form and meaning but which did not contain speech sounds. His first word (at 3.1.25) with speech sounds was ?Daddy? [d?d?d?d?], which was whispered as were all his early words that contained speech sounds. I am unsure of the criteria for determining word status in both his signs and his early productions, and in differentiating ?real? words from what are variously termed as phonetically under-specified sound patterns, phonetically consistent forms, protowords, non-words, marginal words, performatives, pre-lexical terms, situational words, indices of meaning etc! I have a few questions that will help me to establish which of his early words qualify as real words, in order to compare his lexical development in terms of rate, vocabulary count, compilations of early semantic categories, and the timing of his word spurt to those of studies of typical children. My questions are: Is the definition of a ?word? in child language acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a word? Can a ?word? include an unconventional non-speech vocalization, like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or must it fall within the speech sounds of the native language and be a recognizable approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the motor articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the child? To be a ?word?, can it be comprehensible to the only the child?s intimates, or understandable to more than the child?s immediate circle? If being a ?word? depends on having a regular extension of the word?s meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child?s intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the ?word? have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered a ?real word?? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils down to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on the continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish vocalization from word? I?m sorry this is such a long post, and I hope it doesn?t go beyond the limits of this board! Deborah Gibson Ph.D student Dept of Language and Literacy Faculty of Education UBC debgibson at telus.net From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu Wed Sep 13 23:17:26 2006 From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:17:26 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <34349CCA-5EC3-433C-91EF-7D1785E3FB1F@telus.net> Message-ID: Dear All, I wanted to get in on the fun, too! My daughter's first word (at about 7 1/2 months, i.e. after her birth, Brian) was a very elaborate and unmistakable sign for "all gone" which could be done with two hands, or one, if for example I was holding her so that one arm was not available for the sign. We could put together a number of guidelines for deciding on first words, but they probably don't take into consideration the many variations on reference and intention that an autistic child would show. Wrt to word form. I believe "M," Deuchar's daughter, whose lexicon is in her book with Quay, had among her first words "mm-mm"--which doesn't have a real vowel, but which she used consistently for referring to a specific object. I don't think one would consider faithfulness to the adult target as a criterion for quite some time. Cheers, Barbara On Sep 13, 2006, at 5:35 PM, Deborah Gibson wrote: > I?m interested in the definition of ?word? in a child?s first word, as > I?m researching my autistic son?s delayed language acquisition. He > had many unconventional early ?words?; for example, intentional > vocalisations, such as squeaks and growls, and lexical signs (taught > and invented), that were consistent in form and meaning but which did > not contain speech sounds. His first word (at 3.1.25) with speech > sounds was ?Daddy? [d?d?d?d?], which was whispered as were all his > early words that contained speech sounds. I am unsure of the criteria > for determining word status in both his signs and his early > productions, and in differentiating ?real? words from what are > variously termed as phonetically under-specified sound patterns, > phonetically consistent forms, protowords, non-words, marginal words, > performatives, pre-lexical terms, situational words, indices of > meaning etc! I have a few questions that will help me to establish > which of his early words qualify as real words, in order to compare > his lexical development in terms of rate, vocabulary count, > compilations of early semantic categories, and the timing of his word > spurt to those of studies of typical children. > > My questions are: Is the definition of a ?word? in child language > acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by > form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a > word? Can a ?word? include an unconventional non-speech vocalization, > like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or must it fall > within the speech sounds of the native language and be a recognizable > approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the motor > articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the child? To > be a ?word?, can it be comprehensible to the only the child?s > intimates, or understandable to more than the child?s immediate > circle? > > If being a ?word? depends on having a regular extension of the word?s > meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with > consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child?s > intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the > ?word? have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered > a ?real word?? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, > even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils down > to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on the > continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional > vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish > vocalization from word? > > I?m sorry this is such a long post, and I hope it doesn?t go beyond > the limits of this board! > > Deborah Gibson > Ph.D student > Dept of Language and Literacy > Faculty of Education > UBC > debgibson at telus.net > ***************************************** Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D Research Associate, Project Manager University of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 Tel: 413.545.5023 bpearson at research.umass.edu http://www.umass.edu/aae/ From macw at cmu.edu Thu Sep 14 01:18:06 2006 From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:18:06 -0400 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <15354B5A074595428080E99CE0DBB872E7EFCE@murphy.AD.HUD.AC.UK> Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, Thanks to Alison for posting the clarification regarding her son Tilden's production of "bears" at 4 months and "elk" and "igloo" shortly thereafter. These are indeed real months, not months after the beginning of speech as I (perhaps facetiously) had suggested. What happens to early word learning theory if we take observations of this type seriously (as I think we should)? I see some possibilities: 1. The observations are correct, but the actual productions were so sporadic and rare that they can be dismissed as chance combinations. 2. Tilden actually heard the words in the adult speech and they managed to creep into his babbling repertoire as "amalgams" or "frozen forms" copied in their entirety. 3. There was some subliminal shaping going on through which Tilden said something like "bears" or "elk" and Alison and her husband then latched onto this and shaped up production of the sound. Until this possible phenomenon is more fully documented, it would be premature to even attempt to decide between such possibilities. But, in principle, one can easily imagine words being learned as sound forms long before they are learned as meaningful sound-meaning associations. It seems to me that this is exactly what the recent burst of interest in statistical learning would predict. If children are doing such great segmentation, shouldn't they be storing the results of the segmentation as raw sound forms? And if a particular child, such as Tilden perhaps, is rather good at auditory- articulatory matching or mapping, then that child could indeed produce such "words" long before the onset of the first real word. I think I observed something like this in my older boy Ross, but it is the type of thing that, if you see it, you tell yourself you must be dreaming. I wonder if anyone else besides Alison has spotted this? Brian MacWhinney From ann at hawaii.edu Thu Sep 14 02:00:49 2006 From: ann at hawaii.edu (Ann Peters) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:00:49 -1000 Subject: first words Message-ID: Hello Deb, First of all, a lot of people have addressed the question of how one recognizes a child's first "words" (3 names that pop into my mind: Charles Feguson, Lise Menn, Marilyn Vihman). And lots of terms have been proposed such as phenetically consistent forms. And criteria such as some sort ofphenotic consistency plus some sort of environmental consistency. The angle I have been thinking about concerns the social nature of "language" and the negotiability of meanings (cf. Vygotsky). I have been studying the emergence of language in a young visually impaired child (Seth) who had, in his father (Dad), an extremely empathetic primary-caregiver. At around 18 months Seth had quite a number of "idiosyncratic words". These were phonologically consistent forms that were reinforced and perpetuated by Dad's recognition of them. E.g. Seth would say /ihi/ as he patted his father's head, /baba:/ when he wanted to eat, /ntu/ when he wanted to be put down, /nu:/ when he threw something. Some forms had histories that reflect their phonological origin, e.g. /i-i:t/ when he wanted to eat, /shisha:/ when he was thirsty, /gaga:/ when he wanted a cookie, /kokowk/ when he touched something cold, /chI/ when he wanted to be picked up (derived from Dad saying "come up on Daddy's chest"). Some of these forms were ephemeral, some persisted for months. In every case I am sure they would NOT have persisted had Dad not somehow validated them for Seth. On the other hand, Dad never seems to have forced such forms to persist by "freezing" them into Seth's vocabulary. Therefore they were "free" to be replaced by more adult forms when Seth was ready. I suspect that it is hard for a child to invent a "word" out of whole cloth. It is certainly much easier with the cooperation of someone else. "It takes two to talk" - at least at first. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ From preshusteph at yahoo.com Thu Sep 14 02:51:17 2006 From: preshusteph at yahoo.com (stephanie nguyen) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:51:17 -0700 Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list Message-ID: thanks -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu Thu Sep 14 02:53:34 2006 From: karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu (Karin Stromswold) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:53:34 -0400 Subject: Psycholinguist Faculty Position at Rutgers - New Brunswick Message-ID: Rutgers University - New Brunswick's Center for Cognitive Science & Psychology Department has a faculty position for a psycholinguist. If you know any strong candidates, please pass this information along ... Karin Stromswold Here's the text of the advertisement Psycholinguist.* Subject to funding, the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) together with the Psychology Department at Rutgers, New Brunswick, seeks a psycholinguist whose work compliments those of the Psychology Department and the other disciplines represented in the Center, for a tenure-track appointment at either the advanced Assistant or beginning Associate Professor level. The Center's members also include faculty in Computer Science, Linguistics and Philosophy. The Center sponsors a regular colloquium series that is attended by students, faculty, and postdoctoral fellows of the Center as well as individuals from many of the surrounding Universities and Colleges. It is common for faculty from different disciplines to teach together. A successful applicant should have an outstanding research program, a serious commitment to teaching both undergraduate and graduate students, grant procurement potential, and a strong commitment to interdisciplinary research and scholarship in a rich and supportive cognitive science environment. Please send a vita and a personal statement outlining your research agenda and teaching philosophy, and three letters of recommendation to: Jo'Ann Meli, Chair of the Language Search Committee, Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, 088540 or langsearch at ruccs.rutgers.edu. Applications will be read as they are completed. Rutgers is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and has a strong institutional commitment to diversity."? Karin Stromswold, MD PhD Department of Psychology & Center for Cognitive Science Rutgers - New Brunswick karin at ruccs.rutgers.edu http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~karin/stromswold.html tel: 732-445-2448 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2461 bytes Desc: not available URL: From m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk Thu Sep 14 07:24:22 2006 From: m.vihman at bangor.ac.uk (Marilyn Vihman) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:24:22 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <45083D25.9090500@psych.stanford.edu> Message-ID: >Two quick comments: First, the CV syllables used by babies are >essentially universally preferred and this fact is represented in >the two parade-case constraints from optimality theory: "Onset" and >"No Coda". Onset may be weaker than no coda -- this is supported by >cases like aba from semitic languages (see text below!). > >Second comment is that b is the most frequent onset in monomorphemic >English monosyllables, based on CELEX. b, p, and m are the most >frequent voiced stop, unvoiced stop, and nasal onsets respectively >(that is b > d or g, p > t or k, m > n; there is no onset velar >nasal). Not clear why we have dada and papa but not baba in English >(do young children contrastively control b and p well? Maybe baba vs >papa are in the ear of the behearer?), or maybe that is taken for >'baby'? In french we have the full set: maman, papa, and be'be' >(excuse my weak rendition of the accent aigue!). Just in answer to this bit, Jay - children do NOT contrastively control voiceless/voiced (or voice onset time, more specifically) in the usual first word period: See Macken, 1980, in Yeni-komshian et al., Child Phonology, who discusses the work on stop production, esp. in English and Spanish - but I havne't seen any studies giving evidence of such a distinction at 12-18 mos. As for 'onset', you're right: In many languages VCV is an extremely common early word pattern, with even stops being omitted word-initially. I think this is a reflection of the accentual pattern: if stress is not word initial (as in most English words), or there are geminate consonants, the first syllable is less salient and the onset C is too. Finally, in reposne to the long question from Deborah Gibson - and also Brian's speculative comments on first words - Lorraine McCune and I have a 1994 JChLg paper that provides criteria for identifying first words, using both form and meaning and also parental id and frequency of occurrence in a recording session and range of use. For identifying early words we do not expect a close relationship with the adult form OR meaning, but there are criteria that can be used - and we like to think of it as a dialogue between two observers rather than hard science...These criteria are also reprinted in my book (1996, Blackwell). I wouldn't get too excited aobut accidental occurrences of sporadic adult-sounding vocalisations produced by pre-canonical infants! It's not that different from sound change: If Northern Pomo /ma:/ and Estonian /ma:/ both mean 'ground, land',do we jump to the conclusion that this N. Calif. language and that Finno-Ugric language must be related historically...? -marilyn > >More speculatively, I think it's been suggested that young children >have trouble gaining control of liquids and fricatives which may >require finer control for correct articulation (perhaps this was >part of Jacobson's speculations?) Liquids are used frequently in >onsets by adults but not apparently by babies. >-- Jay McClelland > >--------------- >http://www.path-light.com/IAM11.htm > >/ Abba i/s an Aramaic word, found in Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15 and Gal. >4:6. In the Gemara (a Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna, the >traditional teaching of the Jews) it is stated that slaves were >forbidden to address the head of the family by this title. It >approximates to a personal name, in contrast to "Father," with which >it is always joined in the NT. This is probably due to the fact >that, abba having practically become a proper name, Greek-speaking >Jews added the Greek word pater, "father," from the language they >used. Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, and betokens >unreasoning trust; "father" expresses an intelligent apprehension of >the relationship. The two together express the love and intelligent >confidence of the child (Vine's). > >----------------- > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba > >*Abba* (or *Aba*) means "father >" in most Semitic languages >. The Syriac > or Chaldee version of the word >is found three times in the New Testament > (Mark > 14:36; Romans > 8:15; Galatians > 4:6), and in each case is >followed by its Greek >equivalent, which is translated "father." It is a term expressing >warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent >in the English language. It has passed into European languages as an >ecclesiastical term, "abbot." See Abba in the New Testament >. >Most modern Israelis (along >with other semitic-speaking peoples) call their fathers /*Abba*/ as >one would use "Dad " or "Daddy >" in English. Unfortunately this >translation also falls far short of the original meaning. -- ------------------------------------------------------- Marilyn M. Vihman | Professor, Developmental Psychology | /\ School of Psychology | / \/\ University of Wales, Bangor | /\/ \ \ The Brigantia Building | / \ \ Penrallt Road |/ =======\=\ Gwynedd LL57 2AS | tel. 44 (0)1248 383 775 | B A N G O R FAX 382 599 | -------------------------------------------------------- -- Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dil?wch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio ? defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. www.bangor.ac.uk This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor. The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance Office. www.bangor.ac.uk From G.Morgan at city.ac.uk Thu Sep 14 08:02:52 2006 From: G.Morgan at city.ac.uk (Morgan, Gary) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:02:52 +0100 Subject: first signs Message-ID: Dear info-childes, a great discussion and the last comment from Ann Peters about 'whole cloth' prompted me to respond about children exposed to a natural sign language (ASL, British Sign Language etc) and their first signs. First a growing body of cross linguistic research is showing that these children's first signs appear around 12 months and have common semantic characteristics (mum, dad, everyday objects, cat, dog, milk etc). They exhibit interesting 'child forms' e.g. the handshapes are usually unmarked ones even when the parent's input to the child was a more marked handshape. The handshape in the sign DAD in BSL is a fist with the index and middle finger extended out (like a two finger point). The hands come together and the extended fingers tap on each other twice (you will have to look at a BSL dictionary to really appreciate this). In child forms at 12 months the handshape is normally much less marked so the child might use two whole hands with outstreached fingers (like waving at someone) which touch each other several times. Repetition and inhibition of repetition is a common factor in children's first signs - Richard Meier has written about first signs in ASLL and I have done similar work for BSL. In the 1980s there was some noise in the language acquisition field about the 'sign advantage' - this claim was that 6 month olds were using sign language. Virginia Volterra was able to show that these first signs were gestures that excited deaf parents were interpreting as first signs. So the sign MILK in ASL and BSL often is made with a repetitive open and closing of a fist hand. This is a common gesture in hearing children with no exposure to sign language (Volterra and Erting 1990). The same criterion for deciding what are first words have to be used for first signs. Finally the 'whole cloth' comment. There is sometimes an assumption that 'homesigns' as in Susan Goldin-Meadow's work would be examples of children inventing signs themselves. I think Ann's comment would apply to these communication situations where the deaf child TOGETHER with the parent creates an idiosyncratic form that persist until something comes along to replace it. Best Gary Morgan http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/ http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/g.morgan ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Ann Peters Sent: Thu 14/09/2006 03:00 To: Deborah Gibson; info-childes Cc: Ann Peters Subject: first words Hello Deb, First of all, a lot of people have addressed the question of how one recognizes a child's first "words" (3 names that pop into my mind: Charles Feguson, Lise Menn, Marilyn Vihman). And lots of terms have been proposed such as phenetically consistent forms. And criteria such as some sort ofphenotic consistency plus some sort of environmental consistency. The angle I have been thinking about concerns the social nature of "language" and the negotiability of meanings (cf. Vygotsky). I have been studying the emergence of language in a young visually impaired child (Seth) who had, in his father (Dad), an extremely empathetic primary-caregiver. At around 18 months Seth had quite a number of "idiosyncratic words". These were phonologically consistent forms that were reinforced and perpetuated by Dad's recognition of them. E.g. Seth would say /ihi/ as he patted his father's head, /baba:/ when he wanted to eat, /ntu/ when he wanted to be put down, /nu:/ when he threw something. Some forms had histories that reflect their phonological origin, e.g. /i-i:t/ when he wanted to eat, /shisha:/ when he was thirsty, /gaga:/ when he wanted a cookie, /kokowk/ when he touched something cold, /chI/ when he wanted to be picked up (derived from Dad saying "come up on Daddy's chest"). Some of these forms were ephemeral, some persisted for months. In every case I am sure they would NOT have persisted had Dad not somehow validated them for Seth. On the other hand, Dad never seems to have forced such forms to persist by "freezing" them into Seth's vocabulary. Therefore they were "free" to be replaced by more adult forms when Seth was ready. I suspect that it is hard for a child to invent a "word" out of whole cloth. It is certainly much easier with the cooperation of someone else. "It takes two to talk" - at least at first. ann **************************** Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus Graduate Chair http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ Department of Linguistics University of Hawai`i email: ann at hawaii.edu 1890 East West Road, Rm 569 phone: 808 956-3241 Honolulu, HI 96822 fax: 808 956-9166 http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk Thu Sep 14 09:00:58 2006 From: zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk (=?iso-8859-2?B?WnV6YW5hIE9uZHLh6GtvduE=?=) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:00:58 +0200 Subject: query Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES, I would like to ask if "baby word" exists as a specifically defined linguistic term in English or American linguistics. In Slovak linguistics we work with such a term; it is clearly defined and divided into several categories. But I have not found a "definition" or classification of it (when compared to terms, for example, babytalk or child-directed speech) in English or American literature I have read so far. Thanks, Zuzana Dr. Zuzana Ondr??kov? University of ?ilina Slovakia E-mail: zuzana.ondrackova at fpv.utc.sk From mfleck at cs.uiuc.edu Thu Sep 14 13:57:06 2006 From: mfleck at cs.uiuc.edu (Margaret Fleck) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:57:06 -0500 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <007001c6d7dc$4b51d930$3d3bc19e@FPVKAJ1> Message-ID: A few quick anecdotes and comments to add to the mix. Recognizability of an early, mangled word depends not only on context and consonants, but sometimes also critically on the vowels, stress/intonation pattern and the word's position in the lexicon. For example, "thank you" (one of my third child's earlier words) is easily recognized in the form ['d ae_nasal d oo]. There simply isn't anything else that it could be. On the other hand, at 20 months he has a word [d ah p] whose identity I still can't pin down. It's a verb that means something like "stomp", but there's quite a lot of verbs with similar meanings and similar phonetics in the English lexicon. Or maybe he means to say different ones of these verbs at different times, and they are all coming out as [d ah p]. Who knows? His third word, after "mamamama" and "dadadada", by the way, was "kitty" ['ih y iy]. I had to hear it MANY times around the cat, and not in other contexts, before I was sure of what it was. Whether you pick up things like that depends on how much attention you are paying: my husband never noticed the word until I pointed it out to him. > So the sign MILK in ASL and BSL often is made with a repetitive open and closing of a fist hand. > This is a common gesture in hearing children with no exposure to sign language (Volterra and > Erting 1990). One small reason for caution here: US hearing babies (or babies thought to be hearing) are routinely TAUGHT the rather similar "byebye" gesture (open and close a fist with the fingers uppermost) by daycare teachers (probably also other caregivers). E.g. they sometimes actually hold the little hand and move it appropriately, as the parent leaves the room. That particular gesture is neither spontanteous, nor learned by merely observing others. Cheers, Margaret From KNelson at gc.cuny.edu Thu Sep 14 14:15:31 2006 From: KNelson at gc.cuny.edu (Nelson, Katherine) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:15:31 -0400 Subject: two questions please Message-ID: Annette, Your second question (in your more recent inquiry) is relevant to research from three areas - theory of mind, episodic and autobiographical memory, and source monitoring. The short answer is that 5 year-olds should be capable of distinguishing self experience from reported accounts. But 3- and 4-year-olds may have difficulties with that, and even adults do some of the time. Here are some relevant references: Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1993). Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 403-439. Nelson, K. (2001). Language and the Self: From the "Experiencing I" to the "Continuing Me". In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental Issues (pp. 15-34). Mahway NJ: Erlbaum. Nelson, K. (2005). Emerging levels of consciousness in early human development. In H. S. Terrace & J. Metcalfe (Eds.), The Missing Link in Cognition: Origins of Self-Reflective Consciousness (pp. 116-141). New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, K. (2005). Language pathways to the community of minds. In J. W. Astington & J. Baird (Eds.), Why language matters to theory of mind. New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory: A Social Cultural Developmental Theory. Psychological Review, 111, 486-511. Perner, J. (2001). Episodic Memory: Essential distinctions and developmental implications. In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental Perspectives (pp. 181-202). Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum. Roberts, K. P., & Blades, M. (Eds.). (2000). Children's Source Monitoring. Mahwah, NJ: ERlbaum Assoc. Best, Katherine ________________________________ From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Annette Karmiloff-Smith Sent: Wed 9/13/2006 7:31 AM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk Subject: two questions please First, thanks to all those on CHILDES and dev-europe who answered my query about babbling. These are such wonderful networks. I have, if I may, two more questions. 1. Can anyone point me to research testing whether young children learn information better when it is embedded in song and/or dance, rather than purely in spoken language? 2. Would five year olds be able to distinguish something that actually happened from something they are repeatedly told by an adult had happened? Relevant research pointers? Many thanks, as always, Annette ?-- ________________________________________________________________ Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci, Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, U.K. tel: 0207 905 2754 sec: 0207 905 2334 http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From M.I.Rozendaal at uva.nl Fri Sep 15 14:53:10 2006 From: M.I.Rozendaal at uva.nl (Rozendaal, M.I.) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:53:10 +0200 Subject: determiners and pronoun in English and French Message-ID: Dear Childes-members, Could any one point me to literature on the acquisition of different types of determiners (definite, indefinite, demonstrative possessive) and pronouns referring to third person referents (personal , demonstrative, relative and reflexive pronouns, clitics) between 1;6 and 3;0 in English and French. What I am interested in, is when children generally start to use the different types of determiners and pronouns productively. Information about an apparent 'order of acquisition' (as far as it is possible to establish these) is also welcome. Best wishes, Margot Rozendaal Margot Rozendaal University of Amsterdam Department of Psycholinguistics and Language Pathology Spuistraat 210 1012 VT Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 - 525 3877 http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.i.rozendaal/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aananda at stanford.edu Fri Sep 15 18:07:07 2006 From: aananda at stanford.edu (Bruno Estigarribia) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:07:07 -0700 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <34349CCA-5EC3-433C-91EF-7D1785E3FB1F@telus.net> Message-ID: > > My questions are: Is the definition of a ?word? in child language > acquisition determined by form or consistent meaning, or both? If by > form, how close to adult pronunciation does it have to be to be a > word? Can a ?word? include an unconventional non-speech > vocalization, like an imitation of an animal sound, or a gesture, or > must it fall within the speech sounds of the native language and be a > recognizable approximation of adult pronunciation, subject to the > motor articulation skills and emerging phonological rules of the > child? To be a ?word?, can it be comprehensible to the only the > child?s intimates, or understandable to more than the child?s > immediate circle? > > If being a ?word? depends on having a regular extension of the word?s > meaning, will an intentional non-speech sound or gesture with > consistent context-bound meaning that is understood by the child?s > intimates qualify? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, must the > ?word? have conventional adult extensions of meaning to be considered > a ?real word?? Will possessing some extensions of the adult meaning, > even if irregular and underextended, suffice? My question boils > down to this: What are the various criteria for determining where on > the continuum, between the two milestones of the onset of intentional > vocalizations and the word spurt, do researchers distinguish > vocalization from word? > A great discussion with several threads now... My two cents: "word" is indeed a tricky term in linguistic theory, and it may not be a very useful one. Clearly there are at the very least three concurrent aspects to words: the form aspect, the context-appropriateness aspect (I dislike unnecessary coinages, but I hesitate to call it "meaning"), and the interpersonal aspect (somebody referred to Vygotsky earlier), that is, the recognition of the conventionality and social life of signs. These aspects can be grasped at different times, and they themselves are complex and acquired piecemeal (witness the numerous phonetic deviations in child language, and underextensions and overextensions). Of course one does not want to wait until children have full command of all these aspects to credit them for knowing some word, but at the same time, saying a child knows word X is impossibly vague. It is always better -if possible- to just describe exactly the extent of knowledge involved, especially for "first words". (Now comes the bit of self-publicity) When my son was 6 months old, every time we would go down the stairs he would look at the lamp above and blow air between his teeth. He's a learner of Argentinian Spanish and the corresponding word would have been "luz" [lus]. A couple of weeks later, he would (sometimes) turn and look at lamps or lights whenever we said "luz" (he looked at an unfamiliar lamp on command when we went to visit my family in Argentina a month later, to his grandma's and grand-aunt's delight). If I hadn't been a linguist, I would have certainly missed that. It was obvious to me that he had made SOME connection (btw, this production never left his vocabulary, it just got better articulated and extended). Was that a word? What would you know about my son's linguistic knowledge if I had just said that at 6 months he knew the word "light"? Each one of you would have come to different conclusions... Sorry I can't quote relevant literature making these points (which I'm sure exists). Just some musings... Keep it coming! Bruno Estigarribia Ph.D. candidate Stanford Linguistics From bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de Mon Sep 18 14:29:23 2006 From: bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de (bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:29:23 GMT Subject: Announcement and Programme - Session on Lexical Bootstrapping - GCLA conference Message-ID: Dear all, Please find below the announcement and programme of our special session on Lexical Bootstrapping in child language development, to be held at the 2nd GCLA International Conference. LEXICAL BOOTSTRAPPING IN CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND CHILD CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Theme session to be held at the SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE GERMAN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION, Munich, 5-7 October 2006 ORGANISATORS: Susanna Bartsch and Dagmar Bittner Center for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin **DESCRIPTION** Apart from some few exceptions (Brown 1958, Nelson 1973), the research on child lexical development did not receive much attention from students of child language in the 1960s and 1970s. In opposition to some statements found in the more recent literature (e.g., Rothweiler & Meibauer 1999), this fact is not really surprising when one considers the very influential role then played by formal linguistics with its primacy of syntactic structures and the view of lexicon and semantics as something rather epiphenomenal. From the 1980s on, this state of affairs has changed dramatically. A huge body of research, much of which has been done within functionalist-cognitivist frameworks and focussed on within- and cross-domain correlations in language development (Bates et al.'s 1988 correlational method), seems to allow for the formulation of a Lexical Bootstrapping Hypothesis (LBH) (some more recent examples: Dale et al. 2000; Dionne et al. 2003; Bassano et al. 2004). LBH is the assumption that early lexical development, as mapping of words to referents or their conceptualisations, and even to whole propositions, is not only prior to, but also pre-requisite for the emergence of morpho-syntactic constructions. Such assumption on the fundamental role of early lexical acquisition for later language development as a whole challenges the view about the primacy of syntax over lexicon and semantics that has been postulated in these 50 years of formal linguistics. In our theme session, we aim at an exploratory discussion about the role of Lexical Bootstrapping in children's linguistic and conceptual development. Bassano, D., Laaha, S., Maillochon, I., & Dressler, W. U. (2004). Early acquisition of verb grammar and lexical development: Evidence from periphrastic constructions in French and Austrian German. First Language, 24(1), pp. 33?70. Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. 1988. From First Words to Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Brown, R. 1958. Words and things. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Dale, P. S., Dionne, G., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. 2000. Lexical and grammatical development: A behavioural genetic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 27/3, 619-642. Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin R. 2003. Genetic evidence for bidirectional effects of early lexical and grammatical development. Child Development, 74, 394-412. Nelson, K. 1973. Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Chicago: Univ. Press. Rothweiler, M. & Meibauer, J. (eds.) 1999. Das Lexikon im Spracherwerb: Ein ?berblick. In: Meibauer, J., & Rothweiler, M. (eds.). 1999. Das Lexikon im Spracherwerb. UTB f?r Wissenschaft; Mittlere Reihe, 2039. T?bingen: Francke. **PROGRAMME** THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 2006 11.15-11.45 Introducing the Lexical Bootstrapping Hypothesis (LBH) Susanna Bartsch (Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin) 11.45-12.15 The Interrelation Between Lexical and Grammatical Abilities in Early Language Acquisition Christina Kauschke (Universit?t Potsdam) 12.15-12.45 Implications of Noun/Verb Asynchrony for Children's Lexical and Cognitive Development: A Developmental Perspective from Turkisch Feyza Turkay (Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Lyon, France) 15.30-16.00 The Very Emergence of Words: Methodological and Theoretical Issues in its Description Alexandra Karousou, Demetra Katis, and Chrisoula Stambouliadou (University of Athens) 16.00-16.30 The "Lexical Bootstrapping" Hypothesis and Bilingual First Language Acquisition (Using Data from a Longitudinal Study of a German-Russian-Speaking Child) Elena Dieser (University of T?bingen) 16.30-17.00 Discussion Round FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 2006 10.15-10.45 Acquisition of Verbs and Development of Sentence Structure in German Impaired and Unimpaired Children Dagmar Bittner (Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research, Berlin) Julia Siegm?ller (Universit?t Potsdam) 10.45-11.15 Pre-Language Cognition, Motion Event Semantics, and the Transition from Single Words to First Sentences Lorraine McCune, Ellen Herr-Israel (Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ) 11.45-12.15 Syntactic Constructions and the Emergence of Event Types: A Computational Analysis of Verb Learning Alessandro Lenci (Universit? di Pisa) 12.15-12.45 Bootstrapping-Mechanismen: das Lexikon als Zentrum des Zusammenspiels sprachlicher Aufgabenbereiche - netzwerktheoretische Erkl?rungen zum kindlichen Erstspracherwerb Karin Schlipphak (M?nchen) 15.15-15.45 Does Number of Action Labels Predict an Early Acquisition of the Conventional Meaning of Verbs? Ping Chen (Peking University) Lauren Tonietto, Maria-Alice Parente (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre) Karine Duvignau, Bruno Gaume (Universit? Toulouse III) 15.45-16.15 Final Discussion For the abstracts, please point your browser to http://www.kognitive- sprachforschung.lmu.de/event/programme.html Also see the related event ELeGi 2006: International Conference "Exploring the Lexis-Grammar Interface", Hanover, October 5-7, 2006 (at the same time as our session). http://www.elegi-2006.com/ELeGI%20preliminary%20conference%20programme%20040 906.pdf Best regards, Susanna Susanna Bartsch Zentrum f?r allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZaS) Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research J?gerstr. 10-11 10117 Berlin Germany From t.marinis at reading.ac.uk Mon Sep 18 18:43:31 2006 From: t.marinis at reading.ac.uk (t.marinis at reading.ac.uk) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:43:31 +0100 Subject: Research assistant position(s), Turkish/English speaker(s) Message-ID: University of Reading School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences Research Assistant: Grade RA1B, 1 full-time or 2 part-time, 3 years fixed term Reference Number: R0682 Payscale: ?20,044 - ?22,289 p.a., pro rata We are seeking one full-time or two part-time research assistants to work on the ESRC-funded project ?Real-time processing of syntactic information in children with English as a Second Language & children with Specific Language Impairment? under the supervision of the Principal Investigator Dr Theo Marinis. You will be an enthusiastic graduate with an undergraduate or masters degree in Linguistics, Psychology, Speech & Language Therapy or related discipline and a strong interest in research. You will have good time management and organisational skills, good English language and IT skills, excellent communication skills and knowledge of language development and bilingualism. You will be a good team player, able to contribute to the team working on the project. A background in language impairment, sentence processing, English or Turkish linguistics is desirable. Full-time post-holders must be native speakers of Turkish. In the event of employing two part-time RAs, one of the two must be native speaker of Turkish. Part-time post-holders can pursue a PhD at the University of Reading on a topic related to the grant. Candidates interested in pursuing a PhD in language development or language processing of Turkish in Turkish-English bilingual children with/without language impairment or adults using off-line and/or on-line methodology are especially encouraged to apply. Contact Details: Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 217, Reading, RG6 6AH. Telephone (0118) 378 6771 (voicemail). Application forms and further particulars are also available in Word/RTF format from: http://www.info.rdg.ac.uk/newjobs/details.asp?RefernceNumber=R0682 Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Dr Theo Marinis, e-mail: t.marinis at reading.ac.uk, tel: +44-118-378 7465. Closing Date: 13/10/2006 Interview date 1 November 2006 v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ Dr Theodoros Marinis School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences University of Reading Reading RG6 6AL, UK Tel. +44-118-378 7465 Fax +44-118-378 4693 http://www.rdg.ac.uk/cls/marinis.html v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ From speakit02 at aol.com Mon Sep 18 23:37:46 2006 From: speakit02 at aol.com (speakit02 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:37:46 -0400 Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list In-Reply-To: <20060914025117.3508.qmail@web60023.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Wouldn't it be nice to get caught committing random acts of kindness. -----Original Message----- From: preshusteph at yahoo.com To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Sent: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:51 PM Subject: please unsubscribe me from your mailing list thanks ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debgibson at telus.net Tue Sep 19 04:33:23 2006 From: debgibson at telus.net (Deborah Gibson) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:33:23 -0700 Subject: first words Message-ID: Thank you to everyone who responded, both to me directly and on this wonderful resource, to my question about the criteria for determining a child's 'real' words. Two ideas particularly helpful to me resulted from this discussion. The first was that I consider my autistic son?s ?real? words to be those that meet the criteria of being consistent, meaningful, appropriate, communicative, extended to multiple exemplars, and relatively permanent, as conventional symbolic adult words are. In my son?s case, few if any of his 87 earlier productions before his word spurt meet these criteria, especially in form. The second useful idea is to regard his earlier productions as having aspects of these criteria which are acquired at different times. I?ll try to devise a taxonomy to analyse the development of these aspects over the word?s history, looking at the changes in his acquisition of understanding, form and meaning as a continuum, which, in the case of autistic children, may not always result in a conventional word with appropriate usage. I agree with Bruno Estigarribia who wrote that if he hadn?t been a linguist he would have missed his son?s first ?word? (I?m now hopelessly self-conscious about what to call this). In my case, having a very language-delayed, actually language-averse, child, and being a starter linguist myself made me hyper-aware of any demonstration of receptive language and too eager to assign word status to any intentional gesture and vocalization, though our early communication with our son was dependent on our recognition and validation of all his idiosyncratic productions. Deborah Gibson Ph.D student Dept of Language and Literacy Faculty of Education UBC debgibson at telus.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From k.j.alcock at lancaster.ac.uk Tue Sep 19 11:52:59 2006 From: k.j.alcock at lancaster.ac.uk (Katie Alcock) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:52:59 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: <32699713-BA1B-4763-9E00-9C307507A6D5@telus.net> Message-ID: I was under the impression that the (child) words for significant items (mother, father, other family members, suckling/breasts) appear to have been assigned in many languages based on the first word-like forms that parents believe children are producing. I have no idea where I got this impression from, but parents do seem very willing to assign word status to babble. Katie Alcock Katie Alcock, DPhil Lecturer Department of Psychology University of Lancaster Fylde College Lancaster LA1 4YF Tel 01524 593833 Fax 01524 593744 Web http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/KatieAlcock.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jill.hohenstein at kcl.ac.uk Tue Sep 19 12:43:27 2006 From: jill.hohenstein at kcl.ac.uk (Jill Hohenstein) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:43:27 +0100 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: My understanding was that this idea about recognising certain first words in certain languages, particularly recognising ?suckling? or ?breast? as first word, came from the Schieffelin and Ochs (1986) book. Are there others now? Jill Hohenstein On 19/9/06 12:52 pm, "Katie Alcock" wrote: > I was under the impression that the (child) words for significant items > (mother, father, other family members, suckling/breasts) appear to have been > assigned in many languages based on the first word-like forms that parents > believe children are producing. > > I have no idea where I got this impression from, but parents do seem very > willing to assign word status to babble. > > Katie Alcock > > > Katie Alcock, DPhil > Lecturer > Department of Psychology > University of Lancaster > Fylde College > Lancaster LA1 4YF > Tel 01524 593833 > Fax 01524 593744 > Web http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/KatieAlcock.html > ********************************************************** Jill Hohenstein, Ph.D. Lecturer, Psychology in Education Department of Education and Professional Studies Kings College London Franklin-Wilkins Building (Waterloo Bridge Wing) Waterloo Road London SE1 9NH Phone: 0207 848 3100 Fax: 0207 848 3182 ********************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk Tue Sep 19 13:39:38 2006 From: virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk (virtual writer) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:39:38 +0000 Subject: first words In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dalep at unm.edu Tue Sep 19 16:28:36 2006 From: dalep at unm.edu (Philip S Dale) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:28:36 -0600 Subject: MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Message-ID: In addition to their use for clinical evaluation of infants and toddlers, many researchers have found the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories useful as an outcome measure for the effect of other variables, or as a technique for selecting or matching subjects. Paul H. Brookes (http://www.brookespublishing.com), who now publish the Inventories, has just published the MBCDI User's Guide and Technical Manual, Second Edition (Fenson, Marchman, Thal, Dale, Reznick & Bates, 2007). Among the features of the revised manual which may be of particular interest to researchers are the following: - more demographically balanced normative data - norms for up to 18 months for the CDI:Words and Gestures - updated review of research, clinical findings, reliability and validity - information and normative values for the CDI-III, an extension for children 30-37 months - an introduction to the automated CDI scoring program, available through the CDI website Brookes also publishes the Mexican Spanish adaptation of the CDI, the "MacArthur Inventarios del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas" and the User's Guide and Technical Manual for that instrument (Jackson-Maldonado, Thal, Fenson, Marchman, Newton & Conboy, 2003). Philip S. Dale, Professor and Chair Speech & Hearing Sciences University of New Mexico 1700 Lomas Blvd NE Albuquerque, NM 87131 tel: 505-277-5338 fax: 505-277-0968 email: dalep at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yrose at mun.ca Tue Sep 19 17:36:56 2006 From: yrose at mun.ca (Yvan Rose) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:06:56 -0230 Subject: Student with Speech Disorder Message-ID: Dear Info-CHILDES members, I just received the question below, sent by a former student of mine. I (we) would very much appreciate any advice or reference on the matter. Thank you very much in advance, Yvan Rose ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- I?m working in a small town in Northern Alberta where my resources are very limited. I am an aide at a school and some students I work with have speech impediments. One student in particular has no efficient way of communicating to me or peers. The student refuses to use sign language as a form of communication and will only sign when I demand it. Words like ?mom?, ?ah?, ?ouch?, ?hockey?, ?yeah? and ?stop? are the most comprehensible. The student mumbles (lips and teeth slightly moving) in sentence formation but most often others don?t respond back. What I find most interesting is the intonation of the mumbles and the child?s expressions when speaking to me. It seems that the words are there, but the child is not letting them out. The student was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at birth (can walk, run), is a Native and lives with a family who speaks both English and Cree. I?m looking for ways to help motivate this child to speak so that others can understand. Do you know of any books or good online resources or perhaps some of your own suggestions to help me when working with this student? I would greatly appreciate it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- From gsimonce at crl.ucsd.edu Tue Sep 19 21:12:36 2006 From: gsimonce at crl.ucsd.edu (Gabriela Simon-Cereijido) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:12:36 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear info-childes members: We are starting a project with preschoolers with language impairment. We would like to record approximately 8 hours of language samples and testing per child over a year. The interactions take place in both classrooms and evaluation rooms. All the interactions are one-to-one. Our question is regarding pros and cons of using compressed WAV versus uncompressed WAV files (and the corresponding digital recorder). We need to consider both cost and storage of digital files. Looking forward to reading your good suggestions! Gabriela Simon-Cereijido Doctoral student, JDP in Lang & Comm Dis, SDSU/UCSD From virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk Wed Sep 20 01:50:52 2006 From: virtual_writer at hotmail.co.uk (virtual writer) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:50:52 +0000 Subject: first words Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lise.menn at colorado.edu Wed Sep 20 17:24:27 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:24:27 -0600 Subject: Jobs: Language Development: Asst Prof, University of Colorado Message-ID: Subject: Jobs: Language Development: Asst Prof, University of Colorado University or Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Department: Linguistics Web Address: www.colorado.edu/linguistics/ Job Rank: Assistant Professor The Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado at Boulder invites applications for a tenure-track appointment at the Assistant Professor level in the field of language development, to begin August 2007. We encourage applications from specialists in any area of language development, including first language acquisition, second language acquisition, language socialization, aphasiology, and bilingualism. We especially welcome applicants whose research is empirical, usage-based, and attentive to social as well as cognitive dimensions of language development. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of specialization, as well as occasional introductory survey courses in linguistics, psycholinguistics, or sociolinguistics. Applicants should have completed a Ph.D. in linguistics (or closely related field) by the time of the appointment. Additional information on the University of Colorado Department of Linguistics can be found at www.colorado.edu/ linguistics/. The deadline for receipt of applications is November 17, 2006, but applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining details of current and future research interests, a statement of teaching experience and specialization, a curriculum vitae, two representative publications or research papers, and three letters of recommendation. Address all correspondence to: Prof. Kira Hall, Search Committee Chair, Department of Linguistics, 295 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0295. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk Thu Sep 21 06:07:21 2006 From: h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk (h0009780 at hkusua.hku.hk) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:07:21 +0800 Subject: Frequency count Message-ID: Dear all, I am now studying the lexical development of a bilingual child. I have to count the types of lexical items in each Clan file and want a cumulative count for a specific period of recording, e.g. 3 months. I have tried the command freqmerg but it only limits to 10 Clan files. Could anyone suggest another command/method which can solve my problem? Thank you in advance. Best regards, Emily Yiu Department of Linguistics, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong From wellumam at gse.harvard.edu Thu Sep 21 12:47:25 2006 From: wellumam at gse.harvard.edu (Amanda Wellum) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:47:25 -0400 Subject: Faculty Positions in Language and Literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Message-ID: THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION FACULTY POSITION IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY The Harvard University Graduate School of Education seeks to appoint an Assistant or Associate Professor (untenured) to serve its doctoral and master's programs in Language and Literacy and Mind, Brain, and Education. We welcome candidates with a particular interest in any of a broad spectrum of areas, but are especially interested in language and reading development, language-related learning disorders, neuroscience and education. Ideal candidates will have a strong interest in relating or embedding their work in instructional practice and in schools. The Graduate School of Education and the Language and Literacy program share an interdisciplinary orientation that includes pedagogical, developmental, psychological, linguistic, anthropological, and sociological approaches. Normally candidates will have an earned doctorate in a relevant discipline, experience in university teaching, and a solid record of research or strong scholarly work. Candidates should submit a curriculum vita and a cover letter describing their present and future research plans, three examples of their scholarship, and three letters of reference. Applications will be accepted in hard copy only. The search committee will begin reviewing applications on September 15, 2006, and continue until the position is filled. Please send application materials to: Search Committee in Language and Literacy c/o Carol Luongo Office of Academic Services Harvard Graduate School of Education 122 Longfellow Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 For information about the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Language and Literacy Program, please visit our web site: www.gse.harvard.edu. Applications from women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged. Harvard University is an affirmative action/EEOC institution. From Barbara.Hinger at uibk.ac.at Fri Sep 22 09:17:54 2006 From: Barbara.Hinger at uibk.ac.at (Barbara Hinger) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:17:54 +0200 Subject: spanish lexicon clan Message-ID: could somebody give me support and answer my following questions concerning the spanish lexicon in clan? the manual says that if there is a word with multiple readings, each additional reading should be entered by inserting a backslash and then putting the next reading on the next line; but, what do I have to do if the same word has two meanings but the two meanings belong to the same syntactic category? would it helpt for the mor analysis to give the two meanings in the english translation? or how else can the mor analysis distinguish between the two meanings? si {[scat con]} =if= si {[scat con]} =whether= What should I do with a conjunction in Spanish which consists of two words and not of one word, like "para que"? Do I need to enter in the lexicon "para que" or "paraque"? thank you very much kind regards Barbara Hinger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sues at xtra.co.nz Tue Sep 26 05:40:04 2006 From: sues at xtra.co.nz (sues at xtra.co.nz) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:40:04 +1200 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? Message-ID: Dear all I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of brightly coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech stream. I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving this weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at the moment. I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into ..." from Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't get anything. Deeply grateful for any kind help! Sue Sullivan Christchurch New Zealand From cbowen at ihug.com.au Tue Sep 26 07:29:13 2006 From: cbowen at ihug.com.au (Caroline Bowen) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:29:13 +1000 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <29570670.1159249204396.JavaMail.root@sf1433> Message-ID: "TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being smashed between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? Answer: C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs are of various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain point, the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a wringer, which quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each other. The flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses from the phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents the output of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an inspector whose task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of broken and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the variously colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. Enjoy your presentation! Caroline Caroline Bowen PhD Speech Language Pathologist 9 Hillcrest Road Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 Australia e: cbowen at ihug.com.au i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ t: 61 2 4757 1136 -----Original Message----- From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? Dear all I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of brightly coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech stream. I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving this weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at the moment. I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into ..." from Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't get anything. Deeply grateful for any kind help! Sue Sullivan Christchurch New Zealand From edy.veneziano at paris5.sorbonne.fr Tue Sep 26 15:57:26 2006 From: edy.veneziano at paris5.sorbonne.fr (edy veneziano) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:57:26 +0200 Subject: Conference Announcement "Constructivism and Education" In-Reply-To: Message-ID: English version (French version follows) --------------- Geneva?s Educational Research Unit is pleased to announce the third conference on "Constructivism and Education" The conference will take place in Geneva on 10-12 September 2007. The theme of the conference will be the intra/inter subjective construction of knowledge and the epistemic subject. The aim of the conference is to share with a large public the current state of research and ideas concerning the internal processes as well as the social interactions and the cultural contributions to the subjects' cognitive acquisitions and to their more general growth of knowledge. The official language of the conference will be French For more information, please contact Jean-Jacques Ducret and/or visit: http://www.geneve.ch/sred/colloc --------------- -------------------------------- Le Service de la Recherche en Education, organisateur en 2000, avec le soutien des Archives Jean Piaget, du premier colloque "Constructivisme et ?ducation", a le plaisir d'annoncer la tenue, du 10 au 12 septembre 2007, de son troisi?me colloque de m?me nom, qui portera sur la "Construction intra/intersubjective des connaissances et du sujet connaissant". Ce Colloque a pour ambition de faire partager ? un public ?largi l'?tat des recherches et des r?flexions concernant les processus internes ? chaque sujet aussi bien que les interactions sociales et l'apport culturel dans les acquisitions cognitives et l'essor des connaissances. Pour toute information, contacter Jean-Jacques Ducret veuillez aussi consulter l'adresse suivante: http://www.geneve.ch/sred/colloc -------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2894 bytes Desc: not available URL: From lise.menn at colorado.edu Tue Sep 26 18:18:30 2006 From: lise.menn at colorado.edu (Lise Menn) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:18:30 -0600 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <006301c6e13d$7a41dff0$0301010a@caroline> Message-ID: importantly, most phoneticians now strongly disagree with this metaphor, because although the information about each sound is spread out before and after the place where the hearer thinks it 'is', that spreading is orderly, not random; it contributes to our understanding by giving us time to integrate the information. Lise Menn On Sep 26, 2006, at 1:29 AM, Caroline Bowen wrote: > "TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being > smashed > between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? > Answer: > C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): > > Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs > are of > various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain > point, > the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a > wringer, which > quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each > other. The > flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses > from the > phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents > the output > of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an > inspector whose > task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of > broken > and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the > variously > colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously > arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." > http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml > > Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. > > Enjoy your presentation! > Caroline > > Caroline Bowen PhD > Speech Language Pathologist > 9 Hillcrest Road > Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 > Australia > e: cbowen at ihug.com.au > i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ > t: 61 2 4757 1136 > > -----Original Message----- > From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info- > childes at mail.talkbank.org] > On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz > Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM > To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org > Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? > > Dear all > > I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: > > I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of > brightly > coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go > through a > > washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished > up silver > paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech > stream. > > I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm > giving > this > weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at > home at > the > moment. > > I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: > Bootstrapping into > ..." from > Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I > can't > get > anything. > > Deeply grateful for any kind help! > > Sue Sullivan > Christchurch > New Zealand > > > Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 295 UCB Hellems 293 University of Colorado Boulder CO 80309-0295 Professor of Linguistics, University of Colorado, University of Hunan Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] Lise Menn's home page http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ "Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf Japanese version of "Shirley Says" http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm Academy of Aphasia http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From k1n at psu.edu Wed Sep 27 01:31:21 2006 From: k1n at psu.edu (Keith Nelson) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:31:21 -0400 Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? In-Reply-To: <0A99AE55-EACA-404D-A754-0E29B39406E9@colorado.edu> Message-ID: OK, Lise. So which do you think would better illustrate these ideas, passage 1 or passage 2 below. Passage 1. Far and few, far and few, are the lands where the Jumblies live. Passage 2. It was a dark and stormy night, when little Bunny Foo-Foo brought the Easter Bunny briskly to Benihana to imbibe some egg-drop soup and bite some tofu. Cheers, Keith (Keith Nelson) At 12:18 PM -0600 9/26/06, Lise Menn wrote: >importantly, most phoneticians now strongly disagree with this >metaphor, because although the information about each sound is >spread out before and after the place where the hearer thinks it >'is', that spreading is orderly, not random; it contributes to our >understanding by giving us time to integrate the information. > Lise Menn > >On Sep 26, 2006, at 1:29 AM, Caroline Bowen wrote: > >>"TRIVIA: Old Question: Who compared speech to raw Easter eggs being smashed >>between the rollers of a wringer? What point was he trying to make? Answer: >>C. F. Hockett, A Manual of Phonology (p. 210): >> >>Imagine a row of Easter eggs carried along a moving belt; the eggs are of >>various sizes, and variously colored, but not boiled. At a certain point, >>the belt carries the row of eggs between the two rollers of a wringer, which >>quite effectively smash them and rub them more or less into each other. The >>flow of eggs before the wringer represents the series of impulses from the >>phoneme source; the mess that emerges from the wringer represents the output >>of the speech transmitter. At a subsequent point, we have an inspector whose >>task it is to examine the passing mess and decide, on the basis of broken >>and unbroken yolks, the variously spread-out albumen, and the variously >>colored bits of shell, the nature of the flow of eggs which previously >>arrived at the wringer... The inspector represents the hearer." >>http://www.linguistics.ku.edu/news/archive/KULD041498.shtml >> >>Hockett, CF (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press. >> >>Enjoy your presentation! >>Caroline >> >>Caroline Bowen PhD >>Speech Language Pathologist >>9 Hillcrest Road >>Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 >>Australia >>e: cbowen at ihug.com.au >>i: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ >>t: 61 2 4757 1136 >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>[mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] >>On Behalf Of sues at xtra.co.nz >>Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 3:40 PM >>To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org >>Subject: Mangled Easter Eggs - quote ??? >> >>Dear all >> >>I wonder if anyone can help out in a moment of (small) crisis: >> >>I am looking for a quote about English prosody being akin to a row of >>brightly >>coloured Easter Eggs coming along on a conveyor belt until they go through a >> >>washer/mangler - the author likens the resulting mess of squished up silver >>paper and chocolate eggs and yolks to disentangling the English speech >>stream. >> >>I found it magnificent and used the image as title for a paper I'm giving >>this >>weekend!! But I haven't been able to find the source as I am not at home at >>the >>moment. >> >>I think it was in James Morgan's [ed] "Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping into >>..." from >>Brown University but when I google Mangled Easter Eggs or similar I can't >>get >>anything. >> >>Deeply grateful for any kind help! >> >>Sue Sullivan >>Christchurch >>New Zealand >> >> >> > >Lise Menn Office: 303-492-1609 >Linguistics Dept. Fax: 303-413-0017 >295 UCB Hellems 293 >University of Colorado >Boulder CO 80309-0295 > >Professor of Linguistics, >University of Colorado, University of Hunan >Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics] > >Lise Menn's home page >http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/ > >"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia" >http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf > >Japanese version of "Shirley Says" >http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm > >Academy of Aphasia >http://www.academyofaphasia.org/ > > >Notation is like money: a good servant but a bad master. -- Keith Nelson Professor of Psychology Penn State University 423 Moore Building University Park, PA 16802 keithnelsonart at psu.edu 814 863 1747 And what is mind and how is it recognized ? It is clearly drawn in Sumi ink, the sound of breezes drifting through pine. --Ikkyu Sojun Japanese Zen Master 1394-1481 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From v.stojanovik at reading.ac.uk Wed Sep 27 17:21:10 2006 From: v.stojanovik at reading.ac.uk (Vesna Stojanovik) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:21:10 +0100 Subject: WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT: SPEECH PROSODY IN ATYPICAL POPULATIONS Message-ID: SPEECH PROSODY IN ATYPICAL POPULATIONS Monday 2nd April 2007, University of Reading www.rdg.ac.uk/epu/cls_event.htm Abstracts are invited from those working on speech prosody in atypical populations for this one day event, organised by Dr Jane Setter and Dr Vesna Stojanovik, Department of Clinical Language Sciences, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. Papers reporting on therapy or management of prosodic disorders as well as empirical papers reporting on speech prosody in atypical populations are welcome. The aim of the workshop is to bring together Clinical Linguists and Phoneticians and Speech and Language Therapists in order to highlight the issues in researching and remediating prosodic disorders, and discuss the latest findings, in this often neglected area of research and clinical concern. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr Sue Pepp?, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. REGISTRATION Early bird registration by 5 Feb 2007: General ?30, Student ?15 Late registration by 5 Mar 2007: General ?40, Student ?25 More details and a registration form can be found on the website: www.rdg.ac.uk/epu/cls_event.htm SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS Abstracts are invited for 15 minute oral papers, 30 minute workshops, or poster presentations. Abstracts of no longer than 250 words should be submitted as electronic MSWord document attachments (i.e. NOT in the body of the message) to us at the following email address: cls.events at reading.ac.uk You can also contact us at that address if you have any queries. If your document contains any phonetic symbols, please use the font Lucida Sans Unicode. Please indicate whether you are offering a 15 minute oral paper, 30 minute workshop or poster presentation at the beginning of your abstract. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Sunday 31st December 2006. We aim to let you know by 19th January 2007 whether your submission has been accepted. Dr Vesna Stojanovik Lecturer in Clinical Linguistics University of Reading School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences Earley Gate Reading RG6 6AL UK Tel: +44+118 378 7456 Fax: +44+118 378 4693 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nakhtar at ucsc.edu Wed Sep 27 21:42:46 2006 From: nakhtar at ucsc.edu (Nameera) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:42:46 -0700 Subject: Developmental Research Postdoc, University of California, Santa Cruz Message-ID: Developmental Research Postdoc, University of California, Santa Cruz. Two-year postdoctoral traineeship (post-PhD) in NIH-funded developmental research training program, to begin by April 2007. The trainee will develop research of mutual interest with program faculty, focusing on cultural, interpersonal, and individual processes involved in human development in diverse communities and in institutions such as families, schools, and museums. Faculty: Akhtar, Azmitia, Callanan, Chemers, Cooper, Gibson, Gjerde, Harrington, Leaper, Rogoff, Thorne, Wang. Send vita, statement of research interests and career goals, and reprints, and request at least three recommendations to be sent to: Barbara Rogoff, Postdoc Search, Psychology Faculty Support, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Application review begins 11/15/06. Position open until filled. Applicants from underserved minority groups are especially encouraged to apply. For additional information: http:// psych.ucsc.edu/research/postdocTrainingSummary.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl Thu Sep 28 13:29:07 2006 From: W.B.T.Blom at uva.nl (Blom, W.B.T.) Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:29:07 +0200 Subject: Reminder: EMLAR III (deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006) Message-ID: Reminder: EMLAR III 7th-9th November 2006, Utrecht University The full program of EMLAR III (Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research) and details about registration can be found at: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Frans.Adriaans/personal/emlar06.html For further questions, contact us at: emlar at let.uu.nl Deadline for registration: 29-Sep-2006 NB: The programme is similar, but not identical to EMLAR II! One extra day, more hands-on sessions (E-prime, web-based experiments) and more about L2 methodology. Invited speakers: Hugo Quen? (Utrecht University) ? Statistics and methodology, SPSS, Statistics with R Irene Kr?mer (Radboud University Nijmegen) ? Sentence comprehension Sonja Eisenbeiss (University of Essex) ? Elicitation Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam) ? PRAAT Nivja de Jong (University of Amsterdam) ? E-Prime Iris Mulders (Utrecht University) ? Eyetracking Judith Rispens (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) ? ERP Elizabeth Johnson (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) ? Infant testing Steven Gillis (University of Antwerp) ? CHILDES I and II Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht University) ? CHILDES I and II Huub van den Bergh (Utrecht University) ? Advanced statistics Hans van de Velde (Utrecht University) ? Web-based experiments Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh) ? Grammaticality judgement task, Magnitude estimation Marianne Starren (Radboud University Nijmegen) ? L2 corpora Christine Dimroth (Max Planck Institute Nijmegen) ? L2 corpora Theodore Marinis (University of Reading) ? On-line sentence processing Johanne Paradis (University of Alberta, Canada) ? Matching different populations Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS will hold its third workshop on the issue of Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (EMLAR III). This workshop, which is part of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) graduate programme, aims to provide PhD and MA students with the opportunity to learn more about the different methods used in the field of (first and second) language acquisition research. The programme will consist of a series of lectures (each on a different method), and several more hands-on sessions on more practical aspects of language acquisition research. Each session addresses issues such as: subject selection, rationale behind a given method, practicalities involved in the actual execution of the experiment, advantages and disadvantages of a given method and do's and don't's. Organization: Sharon Unsworth Elma Blom Hannah De Mulder Natalie Boll Roberta Tedeschi Frans Adriaans -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vtorrens at psi.uned.es Fri Sep 29 09:41:50 2006 From: vtorrens at psi.uned.es (Torrens) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:41:50 +0200 Subject: GALA call for papers Message-ID: Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2007 Call for papers GALA (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition) 2007 will be held in Barcelona, hosted by the Universitat Aut?noma de Barcelona, between the 6th and the 8th of September, 2007. Information is available at http://www.gala2007.uab.es/ Invited speakers: Adriana Belletti (Universit? degli Studi di Siena) Naama Friedmann (Tel Aviv University) Marina Nespor (Universit? di Ferrara) Josef Perner (Universit?t Salzburg) Ken Wexler (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) We invite submissions on first and second language acquisition, bilingual acquisition, language pathology, the acquisition of sign language, and brain imaging research for acquisition and pathology. Besides the main session, two workshops will be held on 'Subordination in language development' (organised by Uli Sauerland and Bart Hollebrandse) and 'Phonological development: the emergence of segments and the syllable' (organised by Pilar Prieto). Talks for the main session and the workshops will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes discussion. At most one single-authored and one joint abstract per author will be considered. There will be two poster sessions. Please indicate in your submission whether you want your abstract to be considered for the main session, a workshop, for oral presentation, poster, or both. Submissions should be sent to cg.gala2007 at uab.es, by a unique contact author. Abstract guidelines Abstracts should be at most two pages, with only figures and references in the second. 12 point Helvetica, single-spaced, should be used, with 2cm margins. An anonymous abstract and an abstract with authors' name/s and affiliation should be send by email as Word or pdf attachments (if special symbols are used, pdf format is required). The abstract with name and affiliation should be as follows: Title (bold, left justified) Author's name/s (left justified) Affiliation (left justified) Abstract Deadline for receipt of abstracts: March 15th, 2007. Notification of acceptance: May 1st, 2007. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jedwards2 at wisc.edu Fri Sep 29 15:23:47 2006 From: jedwards2 at wisc.edu (JAN R EDWARDS) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:23:47 -0400 Subject: assistant professor position at UW-Madison In-Reply-To: <005701c6e3ab$7d054d10$11c8cc3e@vtorrens> Message-ID: Assistant Professor Position in Dept. of Communicative Disorders: UW-Madison The Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has an Assistant Professor position (tenure track) effective August 27, 2007. Candidates are invited to apply if they have expertise in either child language or audiology/hearing science. In child language, any of the following fields of expertise are of interest: augmentative communication, bilingualism, developmental disabilities, genetics, language and cochlear implants, language development and speech perception in infancy, literacy, or pediatric neurogenics. In audiology/hearing science, any of the following fields of expertise are of interest: diagnostics, rehabilitation/habilitation, experimental audiology, geriatrics, genetics, prosthetic devices and hearing, or vestibular/balance disorders. Candidates with a doctoral degree in Communicative Disorders, Experimental Psychology, Cognitive and/or Behavioral Neuroscience, or a related field, who can address one or more of the areas mentioned above are encouraged to apply. Some university-level teaching and/or post-doctoral research experience is preferred, though applications from entry-level candidates are also welcome. Experience working with/teaching diverse populations is desirable. Salary is competitive and will be commensurate with credentials and experience. Interested individuals should send a letter of application, current curriculum vita, and three letters of reference to Jan Edwards, Ph.D., Search Committee Chair, Department of Communicative Disorders, Goodnight Hall, 1975 Willow Dr., Madison, WI 53706-1177 (email: jedwards2 at wisc.edu). To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by January 10, 2007. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an affirmative action employer and encourages women and minorities to apply. Unless confidentiality is requested in writing, information regarding the applicants must be released upon request. Finalists cannot be guaranteed confidentiality. From e.casielles at wayne.edu Fri Sep 29 17:55:44 2006 From: e.casielles at wayne.edu (Eugenia Casielles) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:55:44 -0400 Subject: language-specific features of CDS In-Reply-To: <65601.34431@mail.talkbank.org> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: