A number of investigators have assumed that the relatively free word order of a given language was the relatively free word order which the child encountered during his language acquisition period. This study investigated the word order of a Hebrew speaker's verbal interaction with (1) his 2 year old daughter (2) an adult. The results show the father to use a relatively free word order in his verbal interaction with the adult and a fairly rigid word-order (S-V-O) in his verbal interaction with his child. Some possible interpretations are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarAdon, A. and Leopold, W. S., (1971). Child Language, a Book of Readings (Engiewood Cliffs, N.J.).
2.
Bever, T. G., Fodor J. A. and Weksel, W., (1965a). On the acquisition of syntax: A critique of “contextual generalization”, Psychol. Rev. 72, 467.
3.
Bever, T. G. et al., (1965b). Is linguistics empirical?Psychol. Rev., 72, 493.
4.
Braine, M. D. S., (1963a). The ontogeny of English phrase structure: the first phase. Language, 39, 1.
5.
Braine, M. D. S., (1963b). On learning the grammatical order of words. Psychol. Rev., 70, 323.
6.
Braine, M. D. S., (1965). On the basis of phrase structures: a reply to Bever, Fodor and Weksel. Psychol. Rev., 72, 483.
7.
Broen, P., (1971). A discussion of the linguistic environment of the young, language learning child. Presented at the ASHA Convention, New York, November 19, 1971.
8.
Brown, R. and Bellugi, U., (1964). Three processes in the child's acquisition of syntax. Harvard Educ. Rev., 34, 133.
9.
Dukes, W. F., (1965). N = 1. Psychol. Bul., 64, 74.
10.
Siegel, G. M., (1963). Verbal behaviour of retarded children assembled with pre-instructed adults. J. Speech Hear. Dis. Suppl., 10, 47.
11.
Slobin, D. I., (1968). Early grammatical development in several languages with special attention to Soviet Research. Working Paper No. 11, Language-Behavior Research Laboratories, University of California, Berkeley.
