Free English Language Dissertations - Evidence Suggests That Infants Incorporate The Use Of Verbs Into Their Stage
Evidence suggests that infants incorporate the use of verbs into their Stage 1 language development, whilst a structure of grammar appears to emerge in stage 2, whereby the placement of a verb often follows the subject in a sentence and, by stage 5, there is a more efficient use made of verbs to adequately express a concept of intention in more developed sentences (Crystal, 2003, page 438). Clark (1979) attributes this sufficiency to the increasing use of pronouns and of nouns which have been acquired from those objects, people and places that constitute a child’s familiar environment. McNeill recognised the differences between ‘surface language structures’ (Graddol et al, 1994, page 87) which he correlated with cross cultural similarities and differences, and ‘deep structures in language’ which involved an ability to manoeuvre grammar within language to express more cognisant intentions (Graddol et al, 1994, page 87). Designated generative grammar, this enables deep language to revert to its surface structural elements and vice versa (Graddol et al, 1994, pages 85 89).
CONCLUSION
It was noted by Pinker (1994, page 32) that complex language is universal because children actually reinvent it, developing this concept into an argument for pidgin languages evolving into the format associated with creole citing Bickerton (1990) whose research involved emigrants from such countries as Puerto Rico and the Phillipines whose children adapted the pidgin English spoken by their parents into a unique adaptation which evolved into creole (Crystal, 2003, pages 96 97).
A number of complex stages contribute to language acquisition in children, with theory attributing such language development to a mixture of an innate sense, together with attributing environmental factors. Children gradually acquire the full complement of grammatical sequences and phonological content necessary for a full command of language, actively assisted by carers in Western societies presenting opportunities for these essential skills to develop. Evidence, however, has shown that this factor is not considered universal, with child-raising in many cultures being provided by a more polyadic influence and children absorbing their language skills from their surrounding environments.
Regardless of where the influence may be directly attributed, language acquisition and development in children could be summed up in an observation made by Barrett et al:
linguistic input may play an important role in early lexical development, with children deriving their initial use of a word from the most frequently occurring use which is modelled for them in their environment
(Barrett et al, 1991, page 22 quoted in Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 23).
