Download linguistics theory

Linguistics Theories
M Laila
1. Many of us usually think to get to
know what the schools of
linguistics (aliran-aliran dalam ilmu
bahasa) are and how they will be
realized in a language study.
2. A problem might arise is about the
limited time spent to read and
comprehend a lot of references
(dealing with linguistics)_ which of
course mostly include many technical
terms, or also our reluctance to open
a proper dictionary, i.e. linguistics
dictionary.
3. What is the solution?
1. Few linguistics theories are not
established yet as the product of
grammar, while some others have
been established as grammars of
language and their application can be
clearly seen as in language teaching.
2. The linguistics theory that is much
supported by great linguists,
anthropologists, sociologists, or
philosophers such as Saussure,
Boas, Sapir, Emily Durkheim,
Bloomfield, Hjelmslev, etc. is called
Structural linguistics.
3. Dealing with the theory (Structural
Linguistics) discussed previously, in
which sides you still get the problem,
especially in analysis?
• How far is your comprehension in
the three major theories of language
analysis: Traditional, Structural, and
Transformational grammar?
• However, are we already satisfied
(during the course of time learning
English) only get to know the three
different applications in a language
(here, English) analysis?.
• For the level of graduate students
of English Education, at least to get
“the red links” from one linguistics
theory to the others and its
application in an English study is a
must interest. Why?
Eg. The woman was in front of the car
1. By referring to Traditional approach
of sentence analysis, the sentence
can be analyzed into:
The woman was in front of the car
S
P
C
Traditional grammar defines classes and
assign rules for language based on meaning.
So, it proceeds subjectively, explaining how
important features of language can be related
to me;
However, Structural linguistics, in defining
classes and assigning rules in language
based on a structural analysis of the
phonology, morphology, and syntax of a
language, it proceeds objectively, showing
how important features of language in relation
to each other.
Formerly, the manifestation of
language is in the form of sound. The
basic unit of grammatical study was
found by defining and classifying the
sounds or sounds sequence that are
meaningful in language.
-The minimal meaningful unit of
language is called morpheme.
- Morpheme (in free or bound forms)
can be classified based on its
characteristic meaning: (1)
morphologically, according to the
composition of complex or compound
form; (2) syntactically, according to
the distribution of simple, complex, or
compound forms; and (3) according
to the function of the forms.
• Structural linguistics analyzes how
words form and how those
words are used together to form
larger structures. This discipline
was able to draw a line between
form and meaning in language.
The difference between structural
linguistics and traditional:
• Traditional grammar focuses mainly
on the meaning of the collection of
words portrayed. Structural
linguistics is primarily concerned
with the form of the language. For
example, structural linguistics
would emphasize that a sentence
have a noun and verb in
agreement, while traditionally, a
sentence needs to be a "complete
thought".
2. By referring to Structural
approach, which was
established to focus on
language structures i.e.
constituents of the predications
in a sentence expresses
Arguments (logical participants)
and Predicate (relational
element of arguments), the
sentence can be analyzed into
the following:
Eg. The woman was in front of the car can be
broken down into two arguments: the
woman and the car; the predicate, was in
front of.
analysed into
PREDICATION
analyzed into
CLUSTERS
(Arguments,
Predicates)
FEATURES
PREDICATION
Arguments
+DEFINITE
+HUMAN
+ADULT
-MALE
-PLURAL
‘The woman’
Predicates
DIRECTION
+PRIMARY
+PAST
‘was in front of’
Arguments
+DEFINITE
-HUMAN
+VEHICLE
-PLURAL
‘the car’
-functions: S, P, O, C
a. Syntactic dimension:
3. Structural Linguistic
Analysis of Sentence:
-categories: N,V,A,Adv, P
b. Semantic dimension: roles (A, I, O, B, L, T, etc)
3. By referring to Transformational
linguistics; in which it relies on an
individual’s intuitions of language.
Through deductive reasoning, it
formulates a set of rules which will
generate the sentences of a
language.
T/G grammar does not only generate
grammatical sentences, but it will also
exclude non-grammatical ones. That
is, T/G grammar will generate all and
only grammatical sentences.
• In order to capture the grammatical
relations, a grammar has to begin at
a more abstract level than can be
given if one only looks at the actual
spoken language (i.e. the surface
structure)
• T/G grammarians therefore
commence their deductions by
postulating a more abstract structure
containing the meaning of a sentence
(i.e. deep structure).
• Then they will formulate a set of
rules which will transform the abstract
structure into the one which is
actually spoken.
• The woman was in front of the
car
S  NP + VP
NP  Det + N
VP  be + PP
PP  Prep + NP
NP  Det + N
N= woman, car
Det= the
Prep= in front of
• Represented in the P-Marker
as the following:
Represented
in
the
P:
Marker:
S
NP
Det
VP
N
be
PP
Prep
NP
Det
the
l
woman
was
N
in front of the car
Eight basic concerns of T/G
grammar:
1. Non-grammaticality should be
distinguished from semantic
anomaly.
*(i) Been her Majesty has to see me
already.
*(ii) The thoughtful horizontal glory
placed gosamer darkness
ethereally.
*(iii) Colorful green ideas sleep
furiously.
2. A second basic consideration of
T/G concerns the fact that some
sentences undergo a reduction in
form but remain grammatical.
3. Ambiguity is two of types, lexical
ambiguity and grammatical ambiguity;
grammatical ambiguity is the result of a
sentence being derived from more than
one underlying sentence structure.
e.g. He likes serving women
‘He likes women who are servants’ or ‘he likes to
serve women’.
4. T/g concerns the opinion that an
explanation should be given why some
sentences which are superficially alike
have significant differences in their
underlying structures.
5. T/G grammarians are also interested in
establishing formal relationships between
sentences which are different in form but
have the same meaning. Some formal
differences are due to the use of different
lexical items in the sentences but others
are due to differences in the grammatical
structure of the sentence.
6. T/G grammarians claim that the
constituents of a language arranged
according to the rules of syntax will in
themselves be sufficient indicators of the
function they have within a sentence. It
therefore becomes redundant, and may
be confusing if a constituent’s function is
indicated in formal grammar.
7. Another claim of T/G grammarians is that
constituents are identified by their mutual
interchangeability, not by the function
they may, or may not perform. One
consequence of this is seen in the
differences in the composition of the
vervb phrase in a T/G grammar
compared to that found in a tagmemic
grammar.
8. The last basic concern of T/G is
fundamental to the whole concept of
this type of grammar. This is the claim
that sentences which differ in form
because of structural factors but have
the same meaning are of necessity
derived from the same underlying or
‘deep’ structure.
Questions:
1. Comprehend the T/G concerns above and
explain them by examples.
2. Make an inference of historical development
of standard T/G.
3. Identify some main points within Tagmemic
grammar.
4. Find any data for language analysis and the
supposed approach you will use to apply.
Several different disciplines within
linguistics as the core fields of study:
1) phonetics,
2) phonology,
3) morphology,
4) syntax,
5) semantics and language
acquisition
1) Phonetics
Phonetics is the study of the
production and perception of speech
sounds. It is concerned with the
sounds of languge, how these sounds
are articulated and how the hearer
percieves them.
Phonetics is related to the science of
acoustics in that it uses much the
same techniques in the analysis of
sound that acoustics does. There are
three subdisciplines of phonetics:
Articulatory Phonetics: the production
of speech sounds. Acousitc
Phonetics: the study of the physical
production and transmission of
speech sounds. Auditory Phonetics:
the study of the perception of speech
sounds.
2) Phonology
Phonology is the study of the
sound patterns/ systems of
language. It is concerned with
how sounds are organized in a
language. Phonolgy examines
what occurs to speech sounds
when they are combined to form
a word and how these speech
sounds interact with each other.
It endeavors to explain what
these phonological processes
are in terms of formal rules.
3) Morphology
Morphology is the study of word
formation and structure. It
studies how words are put
together from their smaller parts
and the rules governing this
process. The elements that are
combining to form words are
called morphemes.
A morpheme is the smallest unit
of meaning you can have in a
language. The word cats, for
example, contains the
morphemes cat and the plural -s.
4) Syntax
Syntax is the study of how words
combine to form sentences and the
rules which govern the formation of
sentences.
Syntax is the study of sentence
structure. It attempts to describe what
is grammatical in a particular
language in term of rules. These rules
detail an underlying structure and a
transformational process. The
underlying structure of English for
example would have a subject-verbobject sentence order (John hit the
ball). The transformational process
would allow an alteration of the word
order which could give you something
like The ball was hit by John.
5) Semantics
Semantics is the study of
meaning. It is concerned with
describing how we represent the
meaning of a word in our mind
and how we use this
representation in constructing
sentences. Semantics is based
largely on the study of logic in
philosophy.
6) Language Acquisition
Language acquistion examines how
children learn to speak and how adults
learn a second language. Language
acquistion is very important because it
gives us insight in the underlying
processes of language.
There are two components which
contribute to language acqusition. The
innate knowledge of the learner (called
Universal Grammer or UG) and the
environment.
The notion of UG has broad
implications. It suggests that all
languages operate within the same
framework and the understanding of
this framework would contribute greatly
to the understanding of what language
is.
Other fields of linguistics,
distinguished by the kinds of
non-linguistic factors:
• Sociolinguistics:
Sociolinguistics is the study of
interrelationships of language
and social structure, linguistic
variation, and attitudes toward
language.
• Neurolinguistics:
Neurolinguistics is the study of
the brain and how it functions in
the production, preception and
acquistion of language.
• Historical Linguistics:
Historical linguistics is the study of
language change and the
relationships of languages to each
other.
Historical linguistics is the study of
the origin and development of
language by examining the changes
taken place through time, and the
evolution of language in relation to
adaption of other words in other
languages, as well as the change in
sound and form.
Historical linguists also investigate
two main questions about language,
which are 'What are its origin?' and
'Why are there so many languages
rather than one?' (Lehmann 1973:
18)
According to Theordora Bynon,
historical linguistics examines
the way languages maintain
their structure over time, and
examines the diachronic
features of language.
Descriptive linguistics eliminates
the factor of time and studies
the synchronic aspect of
language (Bynon 1977: 1).
• The change in sound is called a
phonological change. Changes in
form called morphological changes.
There are three main explanations for
the source of change in language.
According to Winfred Lehman they
are: 1) influence of language on
another, resulting in borrowed terms,
2) the imperfect learning of language
by children, and 3) the effects of the
system or systems of individual
languages. (Lehman 17)
• Anthropological Linguistics:
Anthropological linguistics is the
study of language and culture
and how they interact.
• Pragmatics:
Pragmatics studies meaning in
context.
• Psycholinguistics: the study
of the cognitive processes and
representations underlying
language use.
• Applied linguistics, the study of
language-related issues applied in
everyday life, notably language
policies, planning, and education.
(Constructed language fits under
Applied linguistics.)
• Biolinguistics, the study of natural
as well as human-taught
communication systems in animals,
compared to human language.
• Clinical linguistics, the application
of linguistic theory to the field of
SpeechLanguage Pathology.
• Computational linguistics,
the study of computational
implementations of linguistic
structures.
• Developmental linguistics,
the study of the development of
linguistic ability in individuals,
particularly the acquisition of
language in childhood.
• Evolutionary linguistics, the
study of the origin and
subsequent development of
language by the human species.
• Language geography, the
study of the geographical
distribution of languages and
linguistic features.
• Linguistic typology, the study of
the common properties of diverse
unrelated languages, properties that
may, given sufficient attestation, be
assumed to be innate to human
language capacity.
• Neurolinguistics, the study of the
structures in the human brain that
underlie grammar and
communication.
• Sociolinguistics, the study of
variation in language and its
relationship with social factors.
• Stylistics, the study of linguistic
factors that place a discourse in
context.
• Semiotics is the study of sign
processes (semiosis), or signification
and communication, signs and
symbols, both individually and
grouped into sign systems, including
the study of how meaning is
constructed and understood.
• Semioticians often do not restrict
themselves to linguistic
communication when studying the
use of signs but extend the meaning
of "sign" to cover all kinds of cultural
symbols.
• Semiotic disciplines closely related
to linguistics are literary studies,
discourse analysis, text linguistics,
and philosophy of language.
• Questions:
1. How was the influence of
Roman Jacobson’s ideas on
Chomsky’s theory of
linguistics?
2. How was the linguistics theory
viewed from Hjelmslev?
Structural Linguistics
SEMANTICS by Geoffrey Leech
7 types of meaning:
1) Conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive, or
denotative content
(the central factor in linguistic communication).  two structural principls that
seem to lie at the basis of all linguistic patterning: the principles of
contrastiveness and of constituent structure. The first underlie the classification
of sounds in phonology, the second is that which larger linguistic units are built
up out of smaller units. Eg. [b] has features +BILABIAL, +VOICE, +STOP, NASAL. Woman is specified as +HUMAN, -MALE, +ADULT.
______
Associative meaning includes:
2)Connotative meaning:
what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to, over and above its
purely conceptual content. Eg. Woman, not only physical characteristics
(‘biped’, having a womb’) but also psychological and social properties
(‘gregarious’, subject to maternal instinct’), and may extend to features which
are merely typical rather than invariable concomitants of womanhood (‘capable
of speech’, experienced in cookery’, skirt-or-dress-wearing’).
3) Stylistic meaning:
what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. A recent
amount of English style has recognized the following main dimensions of
stylistic variation:
-Relatively permanent features of style: INDIVIDUALITY, DIALECT, TIME
-Discourse: MEDIUM (speech, writing), PARTICIPATION (monologue,
dialogue)
-Relatively temporary features of style: PROVINCE (language of law, of
science, of ads), STATUS (polite, colloquial, slang), MODALITY (language of
memoranda, lectures, jokes), SINGULARITY (the style of Dickens, of
Hemingway, etc.).
Types of meaning (continued)
4) Affective meaning:
what is communicated of feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer to the
listener or to something he is talking about. Eg. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I
wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little (this is a politeness
with the object of getting people to be quite).
5) Reflected meaning:
The meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning; or, what is
communicated through association with another sense of the same expression.
Eg. Are limbe, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved – still warm – too hard to stir?
In these lines from Futility, a poem on dead soldier, Wilfred Owen overtly uses
the word dear to the sense ‘expensively’, but also alludes, one feels in the
context of the poem, to the sense ‘beloved’.
6) Collocative meaning:
what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment
of another word. Eg. Pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning
‘good-looking’.
Reflected and collocative meaning, affective and stylistic meaning all have more
in common with connotative meaning than with conceptual meaning: they all
have the same open-ended, indeterminate character, and lend themselves to
analysis in terms of scales or ranges, rather than in discrete either this-or-that
terms. They can all be brought together under the heading of ASSOCIATIVE
MEANING.
7) Thematic meaning:
what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the
message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.
Eg. It is ofteen felt that an active sentence such (1) has a different meaning from
its passive equivalevt (2), although in conceptual content they seem to be the
same:
(1) Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize.
(2) The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith.
CASE GRAMMAR
The Fillmore 1968 Model: Case System
1. Agentive (A): the case of the (typically animate) perceived instigator of the action identified
by the verb. The agentive must always be chosen as subject in simple active sentences.
Eg. John / broke / the window. A=S The window / was broken / by John
A=PP
A
V
O
O
V
A
2. Instrumental (I): the case of the inanimate force or object casually involved in the state or
action identified by the verb. The instrumental case may occur as the subject of the verb, as
the direct object of the verb use, and also in prepositional phrases.
Eg. The hammer / broke / the window . I=S
John / used / a hammer. I=DO
I
V
O
A
V
I
The window / was broken / with a hammer. I=PP
O
V
I
3. Dative (D): the case of the (animate) being affected by the state or action identified by the
verb. The dative case may occur as the subject, direct object, or indirect object of nonaction
verbs; it may also occur as the indirect object of state or action verbs but is not simply an
indirect object. The dative is typically marked with the preposition to.
Eg. John / believed / the story. D=S
The book / was boring / to John. D=IO
D
V
O
O
V
D
4. Objective (O): the semantically most neutral case, the case of anything representable by a
noun whose role in the action or state identified by the verb is identified by semantic
interpretation of the verb itself.
The objective case may occur as either subject or
object with nonaction verbs and as the direct object of action verbs.
Eg. The story / is true. O=S
John / liked / the the movie. O=DO
O
V
D
V
O
We / persuaded / John / he could win. O=Sent
A
V
D
O=S
5. Factitive (F): the case of the object or being resulting from the state or action identified by
the verb, or understood as part of the meaning of the verb. The factitive case is used to
distinguish the effected object, which does not exist prior to the verbal action, from the
affected object, which preexists and is acted upon.
Eg. John / built / a table. F=effected O
Mary / dreamed / a dream. F=cognate O
A
V
F
D
V
F
6. Locative (L): the case which identifies the location or spatial orientation of the state or action
identified by the verb.
Eg. The toys / are / in the box. L=PP
The box / contains / the toys. L=S
O
V
L
L
V
O
7. Comitative ©: this case is not defined. It is mentioned under coordinate conjunction and
listed as a propositional case in the revised version.
Eg. The children / are / with Mary. C=PP
Mary / has / the children / with her. C=S
O
V
C
C
V
O
C
CASE GRAMMAR
The Fillmore 1971 model: case system
•Agent (A)
•Experiencer (E): the experiencer of a psychological event;
the case required by genuine psychological event or
mental state verb.
•Instrument (I)
•Object (O)
•Source (S): the origin or the starting point of motion. It
refers primarily to the place-from-which the motion begins,
(earlier location).
•Goal (G): the end point of motion; it refers to the placetowards-which the motion tends (final location)
•Location (L): the place where an object or event is
located.
•Time (T): the time at which an object or event is located.
•Benefactive (B): the one who benefits from an event or
activity.
The Chafe 1970 model: case system
•agent, (2) patient, (3) experiencer, (4) beneficiary, (5)
instrument, (6) complement, (7) location
The Semantic Structure of Sentences
1. a. Semantics (as the study of meaning0 is central to the study of
communication. Semantics is also at the centre of the study of the
human mind.
b. Semantics as one branch of linguistics parallels to and interact with
syntax and phonology.
c. If syntax and phonology study the structure of expressive possibilities
in language, semantics studies the meanings that can be expressed.
So, semantics is a fruitful and exciting point of departure of the current
discussion.
2. Words as components of sentence
a. Semantic structure of words can not only be identified from the way to
define words, such as words are names for ‘things’, or refers to
‘material objects’. In this case, we consider the quality of ‘reference’.
This naming function of at least a major part of the vocabulary was
very early emphasized in grammatical terminology. Eg. The proper
names (Sally, John, Mickey, etc) present the simplest case of words
having meaning, and this way of invoking meaning is a model of
semantic processes in general. The account of meaning, under which
words are said to be the names of things, is very familiar as referential
theory of meaning.
b. Problems: semantics must be able to account for the meanings of
words like: abstraction, process, imagination, good, true, happy, etc.
So, we must not try to force all meanings into the referential mould.
c. Words in natural languages also have associated with them certain
conventional semantic properties which constitute their meanings. Eg.
Book, although is a referential word, its meaning is not determined by
ita referents but by the position which it occupies in the vocabulary of
English, in relation to other words in the same semantic field:
magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, paperback, etc.
d. Investigating the relations between words and words, as well those
between words and things is claimed by Stephen Ullman, a proponent
of referential theory, that each word would be regarded as an isolated
and self-contained unit.
3. How to describe meanings of whole sentences.
a. Traditional analysis of sentence
b. Terms: roles, argument, predicate, predication
c. Fillmore 68 and 71 case system
Semantic Structure of Sentences (contunued)
1. Constituents of sentences: Subject, verb, object, adverb, etc.
2. Constituents of the predications that sentences express:
Arguments (logical participants) and predicate (relational element of
arguments)
So, the term predicate, here, should be differentiated from Traditional predicate
(verb).
Eg. The woman was in front of the car can be broken down into two arguments:
the woman and the car; the predicate, was in front of.
The woman has features: +DEFINITE + HUMAN + ADULT –MALE – PLURAL
analysed into
PREDICATION
CLUSTERS
(Arguments,
Predicates)
analyzed into
FEATURES
PREDICATION
Arguments
+DEFINITE
+HUMAN
+ADULT
+MALE
-PLURAL
‘The man’
Predicates
DIRECTION
+PRIMARY
+PAST
‘was in front of’
Arguments
+DEFINITE
+HUMAN
+ADULT
-MALE
-PLURAL
‘the woman’
-functions: S, P, O, C
a. Syntactic dimension:
3. Structural Linguistic
Analysis of Sentence:
-categories: N,V,A,Adv, P
b. Semantic dimension: roles (A, I, O, B, L, T, etc)
WORDS AND THEIR COMPONENTS
1)
2)
There are structural relationships between words in
sentences which are indispensable to making up the
meaning of the whole. The meaning of words
concerned is not given by their individual referential
ties with denoted objects, but by their relationship to
each other. The analysis of meaning cannot be
achieved by simple linear segmentation, the
structure of words is more abstract than linear
structure; not at all observable. Thus, a particular
word-meaning may be said to be the sum of a
number of semantic components, and the semantic
structure of a whole language may be said to be a
patterned network of semantic features.
Saussure’s idea of system in language:
3)
He divides semantic distinction into two: signification
( a property of individual signs) and value
(corresponds with ‘sense’).
4)
A sign is an indivisible union of a significant (
acoustic image) and a signifie (concept). Signifiant is
an abstract psychological representation of the
phonetic level of a word. Signifie is an abstract
psychological representation of some part of the
subjects of human discourse.
5)
Method of ostensive definition= saying the word and
indicating its referent by gesture or other nonlinguistic means.
A proponent of referential theory is Stephen Ullman.
6)
WORDS WITHIN SENTENCES
1)
A limites range of inter-word relationships are
found in two axes: paradigmatic (vertical) and
syntagmatic (horizontal) relationships.
2)
The semantic properties of sentences or logical
properties of ill-formed proposition are:
contradictory (e.g. the nun was a grandfather),
tautologous (e.g. the grandfather was a man),
and analiticy.
3)
Although words or ‘lexical items’ are of major
importance in determining the semantic content
of sentences, they are not the sole determinats
of the meaning of sentences.
4)
Based on Geoffrey Leech and John Lyons,
logical considerations are relevant to
determining certain types of sense-relationships
between lexical items. For example: slice,
crush, shred, flatten, splinter, fragment,
crumple, bend, fold, twist, warp, atomize,
solidify, crack, all have general semantic
characterization ‘change of state’ verbs.
LEARNING LANGUAGE
•
This section (1) looks at the incipient and formative
stages of language acquisition in the infant, and (2)
presents some characteristics of children’s language
which seem to testify to an innate endowment
independent of parental influence and others which are
best explained as reflections of the linguistic models to
which the children are exposed.
•
The early stages in children’s linguistic development
are: babbling, comprehension, single words, and short
sentences. Babbling is usually prolific in the middle and
the second half of the first year (6-9 months). The
sounds in this phase are linguistically random. At about
11-12 months babbling stop abruptly.
•
The child’s phonological system is poorly realized
phonetically and for quite a long time, incomplete. Much
of the nature of child language is mysterious; children
mean more than they say. Children’s understanding of
language is commonly in advance of their linguistic
production.
•
•
Lexical words: open class (O), refer to nouns
Function words: pivots (P), refer to artc, partc, prep,
aux, etc.
Research topic
Data: utterance “Mommy sock”
Context: 1). As Kathryn picked up her mother’s sock.
2). As mother put the child’s sock on her.
This suggests or means:
1) a semantic structure beneficiary – patient. (i.e. what I
called the ‘possessive’ relationship above).
2) Agent – patient (with the predicate unexpressed in
both cases).
Therefore, these two structures seem to underlie a large
number of the two-words utterances of the child
concerned.
The sentences of young children lack noun and verb
inflexions, auxiliaries, articles, and prepositions.
E.g: there go one; put truck window; Adam make tower;
Eve lunch; where ball go; hear tractor. All of these are
called telegra[hic.
Children do not produce complex sentences until after they
have mastered simple sentences.
Children’s exposure
•
If a child is not exposed to a natural language in
infancy, he will not develop language; and furthermore,
if for this reason he has no language, it is well-nigh
impossible to tech it to him later in life.
•
Exposure to language is essential to ‘trigger’ the innate
language learning faculty, and apparently there is a
critical time for this exposure in optimally, early in
infancy, and certainly before puberty.
•
A very characteristic form of mother-child interaction
involves the child taking the lead in conversation.
Usually ‘commentary’ on whatever, is going on at the
time, and the mother is repeating the child’s utterances,
correcting or expanding them by supplying words or
morphemes which the child omits.
•
•
Eg: Mummy make lunch (child)
Yes, Mummy’s making lunch (mother)
This mother’s response (in Psycholinguistics) is called
reinforcement
English verbs are classified into two: strong/ irregular
verbs (change the root vowel; eg. ride-rode) and weak/
regular verbs (preserve the vowel; eg. call-called).