Adam's progress & LanguageWednesday 30 May 2007 06:55
One of our favorite sports is watching Adam learn to talk. Right now, for example, there is a little phonetic puzzle [1] that entertains us no end. When confronted with an English word beginning in S + consonant, he converts it to F [2]. You need to know this when you hear him comparing the sizes of objects and he says, “dis one big, dat fall” (the copula [3] has long been on his ‘optional features in English’ list, too), or that he wants to eat his cereal with a ‘foon’. This personal phonetic rule is especially fortuitous when you take him for sladoled and he asks for a flavor called ‘Smarties’, but bizarrely it doesn’t obtain in Slovene or Polish [4]. In spite of such handicaps, he is making amazing progress in all three languages, but still it all accrues so slowly at times that when a great leap does occur, it really makes you sit up and take notice.
Watching the syntactical puzzle pieces fall into place is intriguing. Adam disdains yes/no questions and is a big fan of the one word sentence. For example, in reply to a question such as “Adam, do you want some juice?” he is likely to answer, “WANT”. If he overhears us talking about how we are out of coffee, he will look up from his Thomas and advise, “BUY” like a stockbroker caricature. Inflection [5] is spotty, with no distinction between “Adam do dis” and “Papa do dat”. Interestingly, the things he gets, or doesn’t get, in one language don’t always correspond to the other two he’s picking up. It all makes my brain hurt.
So it was that an electrical current zapped through the room last night when his mother directed a question in English to the Big-Person Grownup Chair at the end of the table where Adam now eats, freed at last from the shackles and tyranny of the Chair That Is High [6]:
“Adam, are you eating your sausages?”
Without even glancing up from his Tweety-Bird plate, my son carelessly deployed a flawless example of present continuous aspect [7], ‘be’ included. The boy is beginning to get on it.
So at least he knows what we mean when we tell him, ‘Adam, you are so fart’.
NOTES FOR REAL LINGUISTS:
[1] I don’t know why this link is here.
[2] The rule is actually a good deal more complex than this, but see the part about my brain hurting.
[3] Yes, yes, I know, but if you think I am going to get into stuff about predicates and complements and non-copular functions just when my traffic is increasing, you underestimate how shallow I can be.
[4] This really does cry out for some analysis. I will get on it right after ‘My Name Is Earl’.
[5] See note 3.
[6] Just one of many non-funny semi-linguistic ‘jokes’ going on in our house. Want to come over and see our Oil that is Baby?
[7] Let’s just not even get into this, okay?
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May 30th, 2007 at 14.26 CEST+2.00
I love these nerdy linguistic posts. Language acquisition is so interesting and mysterious.
[WARNING: Anecdotes ahead. Proceed with caution.]
When I was little I went through a pronunciation phase that involved pronouncing some words (”stone” being but one example) first in old English, then middle, and then, with much coaxing, modern English. I don’t know why or how but it amused my family (of nerds, obviously) to no end.
A friend’s niece went through a phase at Adam’s age of saying “wust” (with the u = “oo” in wood) for “just”.
And last but not least, when my boss told his toddler sons to behave, they responded with “We’re being haved!”
May 30th, 2007 at 14.30 CEST+2.00
I was teased mercilessly for my difficulty with /s/ in general and /sh/ in particular. Adam seems to be exhibiting this, too (it is an exception to the phonetic rule above), and it is pretty adorable, NOW.
The ‘behave’ story happened in our family, too — it must be a common case of rule extension or something.
May 30th, 2007 at 15.56 CEST+2.00
I’m very glad I discovered your blog via the Satin Pajama awards - you’re writing beautifully, and I’m enough of a nerd to appreciate the jokes, as well as enough of a psychologist with a partiality for developmental psychology and language acquisition to relish in the descriptions of your sons’ growing up.
Oh, and I want a flag to show “Greek expat living in the UK and accessing the net via Florida-based company server” :)
May 30th, 2007 at 16.31 CEST+2.00
Idaki: Thanks and welcome! You are not the first to be less than satisfied with the whole flag thing. I’ll see what I can do about overriding the system to acommodate your interesting situation.
May 30th, 2007 at 16.50 CEST+2.00
Faith and I agree: linguistics makes us feel our brains.
May 30th, 2007 at 17.04 CEST+2.00
Hey, and can I have a flag that indicates “of Scottish and Swedish blood, born in the U.S., citizen of the world“?
May 30th, 2007 at 17.41 CEST+2.00
Chiara’s coping more or less with three languages as well (English, Italian, French). Has problems with prepositions sometimes, thinking that they’re part of the noun, so she points to her coat and says ‘coaton’ (as in “Please put your coat on, Chiara”). She’s not yet got the hang of the rolled ‘r’, converting it into either an ‘l’ or an ‘h’ (i.e. ‘Chiala’, or sometimes ‘Chia-ha’, as the mood takes her).
May 30th, 2007 at 17.41 CEST+2.00
And I’m back with the Luxembourgish flag…
May 30th, 2007 at 17.48 CEST+2.00
I won’t pile on with further Tales of Children’s Linguistic Travails.
I see what you’re doing.
You’re cornering the Euro-market on pix & heart-warming and jowl-giggling stories of your two sons. I’m even beginning to suspect that the Jez came along not through careful birth planning but through the pressure, perhaps self-inflicted, of producing on almost a daily basis, an interesting snippet of family life. You needed material. Adam was getting tired of being the cornucopia of all thing kid-dom. Your lovely spouse, once again, bailed you out of trouble by, literally, producing new material.
Now, with one prestigious award in hand, you’re clearly aiming for the Euro-parental awards that are most probably waiting to be carved with your initials.
May 30th, 2007 at 18.30 CEST+2.00
Shmooie’s got the s + consonant thing going on, too, but his replacements vary depending on the blend. For instance, school bus is “goo bus,” stool is “dool,” and Shmoo is, simply, “shoe.” I agree, toddlers are very fart.