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Development of coordination in the natural speech of young children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Barbara Lust
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Cynthia A. Mervis
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Abstract

Natural speech of 32 young children from 2; 0 to 3; 1 (1·97 to 6·38 in MLU) was studied for evidence of use of coordination (by and). Analyses of the structure of coordinative expressions reflected development in structural variants as well as amount of coordination. Analyses suggested that early forms of coordination in natural speech reflected the same constraints which had been suggested by previous study of these children's language through an experimental elicited imitation task. A basis for a developmental theory of acquisition of coordination is sketched.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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Footnotes

[*]

Address for correspondence: Dr Barbara Lust, Dept. HDFS, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. We thank Hermine Sinclair for critical advice.

References

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