babbling

[Lise Menn]

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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