first words

[Ann Peters]

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/