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Now in its fourth edition, this textbook provides a well-illustrated account of how young children acquire language. Drawing on diary records and experimental studies from leaders in the field, it documents different stages and aspects of what children master, based on their conversational interactions with more expert (adult) speakers.
List of contents
1. Acquiring language; Part I. Getting Started: 2. In conversation with children; 3. Starting on language: perception; 4. Early words; 5. Sounds in words: production; 6. Words and meanings; Part II. Constructions and Meanings: 7. First combinations, first constructions; 8. Modulating word meanings; 9. Adding complexity within clauses; 10. Combining clauses: more complex constructions; 11. Constructing words; Part III. Using Language: 12. Honing conversational skills; 13. Doing things with language; 14. Two languages at a time; Part IV. Process in Acquisition: 15. Specialization for language; 16. Acquisition: continuity and change.
About the author
Eve V. Clark is Lyman Professor in Humanities and Professor of Linguistics and Symbolic Systems, Emerita at the Department of Linguistics, Stanford University and is the 2021 recipient of the Roger Brown Award for her research on language acquisition. Recent publications include Language in Children (2017).
Summary
Now in its fourth edition, this textbook provides a chronological account of first language acquisition, showing how young children acquire language in their conversational interactions with adult speakers. It draws on diary records and experimental studies from leaders in the field to document different stages and different aspects of what children master. Successive chapters detail infants' and young children's progression from attending to adult faces, gaze, and hand motions, to their first attempts at communicating with gaze and gesture, then adding words and constructions. It comprehensively covers the acquisition of the core areas of language – phonetics and phonology, lexicon, grammar and sentence structure, and meaning – as well as how children acquire discourse and conversational skills. This edition includes new sections on how children build 'common ground' with adults and other children, individual differences in children's language development, how they collaborate with adults in constructing utterances, and how they qualify beliefs.
Foreword
Now in its fourth edition, this textbook has been extensively updated and provides a comprehensive account of first language acquisition.
