Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:53:40.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning to code experience through language*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Gordon Wells
Gordon Wells
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An attempt is made to explain how the child comes to relate his acquisition of the form of language with the categories that he is establishing in the organization of his non-linguistic experience, by hypothesizing a basis for language in pre-linguistic cognitive development. The child's task is seen as being to match the organization of language with the cognitive organization that he has already imposed upon his experience. This is made possible, it is argued, because the organization of meaning within the language system is closely related to the universal categories of early experience. Evidence from recordings of a small sample of children in the early stages of language acquisition is advanced in support of this hypothesis, and the results of the linguistic analysis are discussed in the light of findings from the Genevan school of developmental psychology.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , November 1974 , pp. 243 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bever, T. G. (1970). The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. M. (1970). Language development: form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. M., Lightbown, P. & Hood, L. (1974). Structure and variation in child language. Columbia Teachers' College: unpublished research paper.Google Scholar
Brown, R., Cazden, C. & Bellugi, U. (1969). The child's grammar from I to III. In Hill, J. P. (ed.), 1967 Minnesota symposium on child psychology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1969). Processes of growth in infancy. In Ambrose, A. (ed.), Stimulation in early infancy. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1973). The ontogenesis of speech acts. Paper read to the British Psychological Society. To be published in JCh Lang. 2.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1973). How children describe time and order. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Edwards, D. (1972). Sensori-motor intelligence and semantic intentions in child grammar. Unpublished paper. University of Sussex: Graduate School in Arts and Social Studies.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1968). The case for case. In Bach, E. & Harms, R. T. (eds), Universal in linguistic theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P., Smith, J. H. & Laufer, B. (1973). Communication and the beginning of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1968). Notes on transitivity and theme in English, Part 3. JL 4. 179–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1970). Language structure and language function. In Lyons, J. (ed.), New Horizons in linguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1972). Learning how to mean. To appear in Lenneberg, E. & Lenneberg, E. (eds), Foundations of language development: a multi-disciplinary approach. UNESCO/IBRO.Google Scholar
Hunt, J. McV. (1964). The psychological basis for using pre-school enrichment as an antidote for cultural deprivation. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 10. 209–48.Google Scholar
Kagan, J. (1971). Change and continuity in infancy. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. London: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macnamara, J. (1972). Cognitive basis of language learning in infants. PsychRev 79. 1–13.Google ScholarPubMed
Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Schaffer, H. R. (1971). The growth of sociability. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sinclair-de-Zwart, H. (1969). Developmental psycholinguistics. In Elkind, D. & Flavell, J. H. (eds), Studies in cognitive development. London: O.U.P.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1973). Cognitive prerequisites for the development of grammar. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., Antinucci, F. & Wells, C. G. (1972). Semantics of child speech. Berkeley: Institute of Human Learning, University of California.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, C. G. (1973 a). Coding manual for the description of child speech. Bristol: School of Education, University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Wells, C. G. (1973 b). Language development in pre-school children. First annual report to SSRC.Google Scholar
Wells, C. G. & Ferrier, L. (forthcoming). Framework for the semantic description of child speech in its conversational context. To appear in the Proceedings of the International Symposium on First Language Acquisition, Florence 1972.Google Scholar