Luna

.docx

School

California State University, Los Angeles *

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Course

4920

Subject

Linguistics

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

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Uploaded by ElderOpossumPerson148

Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD LANGUAGE DEVELEOPMENT 1 Early Childhood Language Development Student’s Name Institution Instructor Course Date

2 Early Childhood Language Development Early childhood language development is an amazing and complex process in a child's early years and lays the groundwork for their communication skills throughout their lives. In this critical time, babies and young children begin an amazing journey toward language acquisition, moving from nonverbal expressions to sophisticated grammatical structures. The complexities of this developmental trajectory include learning words, sounds, and phrases and developing a sophisticated comprehension of how language functions in diverse social circumstances. A child's linguistic development advances quickly throughout the introduction phase, setting the foundation for social engagement, efficient communication, and cognitive development. Knowing the intricacies of early child language development offers invaluable insights into the complex interactions between a kid's linguistic aptitude and nature. Part A: Morphosyntactic Development For this discussion, I calculate Luna's mean length utterance (MLU). I divide the total number of utterances by the number of morphemes to get Luna's MLU. - Total number of morphemes= 109 - Total number of utterances= 29 - MLU=109/29 = 3.75 Luna's MLU of 3.75 is in line with Stage IV of grammatical development, according to Brown (1973), as children usually display increasingly sophisticated sentence patterns, including grammatical morphemes, at this stage of development. Examples of Utterances with Different Morphemes: "She-want-s–some-coffee." (5 morphemes) Morphemes : She (1), want (1), -s (plural marker, 1), some (1), coffee (1) "Don't-know-where-is-it." (6 morphemes)

3 Early Childhood Language Development Morphemes : Do (1), n't (negation, 1), know (1), where (1), is (1), it (1) "Put-your-sticker-s-right-here." (6 morphemes) Morphemes : Put (1), your (1), sticker (1), -s (plural marker, 1), right (1), here (1) Luna's MLU of 3.75 indicates her progressing language development at 34 months, considering that in Stage IV, children typically demonstrate more advanced syntactic structures and begin to use grammatical morphemes, such as plurals ("-s") and contractions ("n't") (Hoff, 2005). Luna illustrates the ability to construct sentences with multiple morphemes, reflecting her increasing proficiency in grammar. Also, her language is becoming more sophisticated and aligns with the developmental expectations for a child at this stage, as discussed in lectures 6 and 7 (Lecture 7 CHDV4920, 2022; Lecture 7 CHDV4920, 2022). It is important to note that a comprehensive assessment involves analyzing Luna's speech sample to capture the breadth of Luna's language development. Moreover, In Luna's speech sample, there is a diverse range of sentence types showcasing her developing syntactic abilities. Throughout the 29 utterances, Luna employs a variety of sentence structures; first, there are \(7\) imperative sentences where Luna issues commands or requests, such as "Put-your-sticker-s-right-here." Secondly, declarative sentences, conveying statements or observations, are prominent, constituting \(13\) instances. For instance, "She-has- to-go-sleep" exemplifies Luna's declarative statement about someone's sleep needs. Negatives are skillfully integrated into Luna's speech, forming \(4\) sentences, as seen in "Ca-n't-have- coffee," where she negates the possibility of having coffee. Additionally, questions are prevalent, with \(5\) instances, including "She-want-s-one-that-‘s-good," where Luna seeks information about a preferable item (Emen & Aslan, 2019). Luna's adept use of various sentence types

4 Early Childhood Language Development illustrates her evolving grammatical proficiency and pragmatic understanding, indicative of her progressing language development at 34 months. Declarative sentences are the most prevalent form in Luna's speech sample, appearing \ (13\) times in her speech. This prevalence aligns with typical language development patterns for a child of Luna's age (34 months), paralleling Erika Hoff's discussion and insights from Lectures 6 and 7 (Lecture 6 CHDV4920, 2022; Lecture 7 CHDV4920, 2022). Erika Hoff explains that children around this stage tend to exhibit a higher frequency of declarative sentences as they become more proficient in expressing their thoughts and observations about the world around them (Hoff, 2005). The repetition of declarative structures, such as "It-got-real-leave-s" or "She- has-to-go-sleep," signifies Luna's growing ability to share information and make statements, demonstrating her expanding communicative competence. This emphasis on declarative sentences is developmentally appropriate, reflecting Luna's increasing command of linguistic forms and pragmatic functions in line with the expected trajectory discussed in the lectures and Hoff's work on language development. Luna's speech sample at 34 months includes a few complex sentences, demonstrating her advancing language development. One notable example is "I-said-‘bye’-just-because…-I-had-to- go-to-work-and-you-won't-let-me," where Luna combines multiple clauses to convey a more intricate message. The ability to construct complex sentences is indicative of grammatical progress, aligning with the expectations outlined in Lectures 6 and 7 and supported by Erika Hoff's insights in her book (Lecture 6 CHDV4920, 2022; Lecture 7 CHDV4920, 2022). In the early stages of language development, children typically produce simpler sentence structures, as seen in Luna's speech; introducing complex sentences suggests a growing capacity to coordinate and connect ideas (Emen & Aslan, 2019). This development is crucial for effective

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