No subject

[roeper at linguist.umass.edu]

Dear Everyone--

   I think the GEMS idea is terrific.  I have collected quite a bit of
data from my children which I continue to find very useful.
   There is a real intellectual rationale here.  In complex areas of syntax
there are important constructions which never appear frequently enough to
show up on occasional tapes, but parents hear them.  For instance, the use
of -able is very rare,but I have several examples like "don't tickle me,
I'm laughable".
   In fact, diary data for children from four to eight is sorely needed
because most of the crucial sentences will be just those that are occasional
among thousands of others.  One thing I have occasionally encouraged
interested parents to do is to take down everything interesting, but
specialize a little too.  For instance, what is the set of exclamatives
that children use.  Do they say "what a fool" or "what fool".  There are
many interesting issues that will probably be addressed only through
such diaries.\
   (I have not read all the messages about this since I am in Romania right
now--so perhaps I am just echoing other expressed views.)
    Tom Roeper