Psychological linguistics: implications for a theory of initial development and a method for research

Presented here are an hypothesis of language development and a description of a method for studying language, both based on Kantor's psychological linguistics. According to our hypothesis, language develops in four stages. In the first, which spans the first 9 to 15 months, random movements evolve into body management, manual, and locomotor skills that enable an infant to engage in play activities, among other things, with the mother and others. Simple gestural communication soon follows. Random babbling progresses beyond the sounds that are more universal in the language to the family's particular pattern of intonations and inflections, and receptive speech begins, that is, the infant learns to react to simple verbal-vocal requests. During the second stage, which coincides with the child's second year, vocalizations evolve into "idiosyncratic expressions" and rough approximations of heard sound patterns. Language is now holophrastic--one-word utterances--mostly of the mediative variety. During the third stage, which extends to about 30 months of age, language skills are described as first-approximation referential interactions: they are longer and more detailed, include some narrative interchanges, and refer to past and future events. Typically the child now talks to him or herself, or engages in expressive referential interactions. In the fourth stage, when the child reaches the age of 52 months or so, second-approximation speech begins. By now the vocal apparatus is sufficiently developed to enable a child to make most of the vowel sounds, and the enhanced language skills set the occasion for more frequent linguistic interchanges. He or she also begins to respond to symbols and other representations of objects and events. In other words, he or she begins to engage in symbolizing behavior. Language obviously continues to develop beyond the fourth stage. Social conditions outside of the family further affect language style and generate specialized forms of speech, notably the jargon of a particular occupation or hobby. The method for studying language interactions involves, through the use of TV tapes, a description of the behavior of a speaker and the listener, the referent, and the setting conditions. The behavior of a speaker is analyzed in terms of the frequency with which he or she begins a language interchange, the average length of the initiation, the modality (verbal-vocal, gestural, or both) and the accompanying behavior. It is also analyzed for content, including time frame, actuality, and persons, animals, objects, activities, and others. Noted, too, are the feeling reactions regarding the referents.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)