babbling

[Fletcher , Paul]

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/




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