Early Language Acquisition: from a Language Periphery to Verbal

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss the early language acquisition, which comprises the language acquisition period from the very beginning of the grammar system development to its complete formation. In the present research, the part of The Corpus of Lithuanian Children Language, which comprises transcribed and grammatically coded longitudinal language records of four singletons (two typically developing children, one typically developing early talker, and one typically developing late talker) and one heterozygous twin pair (a girl and a boy). The following hypotheses have been proposed: 1) the period of the grammar system formation of atypical language (twins’ language) is later and lasts longer than in the case of a typical language development; 2) children with atypical language development (twins) experience more language acquisition problems than children with typical language acquisition. The quantitative comparative research has confirmed the first hypothesis that the development of twins’ language is later and the formation of the grammar system lasts longer than in typical language development. The second hypothesis has been only partly confirmed: in the language of the twin girl, the tendencies of the grammar system acquisition correspond to the typical late talking, while in the language of the twin boy, the acquisition of the grammar system is slower and longer than in typically developing children. In addition, slower development of lexis related to the frequent use of onomatopoeias and twins’ secret language and uneven mean length of an utterance are typical of twins’ language.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.32.0.19640