• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

site logo
The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language
search
  • Home
  • About TESL-EJ
  • Vols. 1-15 (1994-2012)
    • Volume 1
      • Volume 1, Number 1
      • Volume 1, Number 2
      • Volume 1, Number 3
      • Volume 1, Number 4
    • Volume 2
      • Volume 2, Number 1 — March 1996
      • Volume 2, Number 2 — September 1996
      • Volume 2, Number 3 — January 1997
      • Volume 2, Number 4 — June 1997
    • Volume 3
      • Volume 3, Number 1 — November 1997
      • Volume 3, Number 2 — March 1998
      • Volume 3, Number 3 — September 1998
      • Volume 3, Number 4 — January 1999
    • Volume 4
      • Volume 4, Number 1 — July 1999
      • Volume 4, Number 2 — November 1999
      • Volume 4, Number 3 — May 2000
      • Volume 4, Number 4 — December 2000
    • Volume 5
      • Volume 5, Number 1 — April 2001
      • Volume 5, Number 2 — September 2001
      • Volume 5, Number 3 — December 2001
      • Volume 5, Number 4 — March 2002
    • Volume 6
      • Volume 6, Number 1 — June 2002
      • Volume 6, Number 2 — September 2002
      • Volume 6, Number 3 — December 2002
      • Volume 6, Number 4 — March 2003
    • Volume 7
      • Volume 7, Number 1 — June 2003
      • Volume 7, Number 2 — September 2003
      • Volume 7, Number 3 — December 2003
      • Volume 7, Number 4 — March 2004
    • Volume 8
      • Volume 8, Number 1 — June 2004
      • Volume 8, Number 2 — September 2004
      • Volume 8, Number 3 — December 2004
      • Volume 8, Number 4 — March 2005
    • Volume 9
      • Volume 9, Number 1 — June 2005
      • Volume 9, Number 2 — September 2005
      • Volume 9, Number 3 — December 2005
      • Volume 9, Number 4 — March 2006
    • Volume 10
      • Volume 10, Number 1 — June 2006
      • Volume 10, Number 2 — September 2006
      • Volume 10, Number 3 — December 2006
      • Volume 10, Number 4 — March 2007
    • Volume 11
      • Volume 11, Number 1 — June 2007
      • Volume 11, Number 2 — September 2007
      • Volume 11, Number 3 — December 2007
      • Volume 11, Number 4 — March 2008
    • Volume 12
      • Volume 12, Number 1 — June 2008
      • Volume 12, Number 2 — September 2008
      • Volume 12, Number 3 — December 2008
      • Volume 12, Number 4 — March 2009
    • Volume 13
      • Volume 13, Number 1 — June 2009
      • Volume 13, Number 2 — September 2009
      • Volume 13, Number 3 — December 2009
      • Volume 13, Number 4 — March 2010
    • Volume 14
      • Volume 14, Number 1 — June 2010
      • Volume 14, Number 2 – September 2010
      • Volume 14, Number 3 – December 2010
      • Volume 14, Number 4 – March 2011
    • Volume 15
      • Volume 15, Number 1 — June 2011
      • Volume 15, Number 2 — September 2011
      • Volume 15, Number 3 — December 2011
      • Volume 15, Number 4 — March 2012
  • Vols. 16-Current
    • Volume 16
      • Volume 16, Number 1 — June 2012
      • Volume 16, Number 2 — September 2012
      • Volume 16, Number 3 — December 2012
      • Volume 16, Number 4 – March 2013
    • Volume 17
      • Volume 17, Number 1 – May 2013
      • Volume 17, Number 2 – August 2013
      • Volume 17, Number 3 – November 2013
      • Volume 17, Number 4 – February 2014
    • Volume 18
      • Volume 18, Number 1 – May 2014
      • Volume 18, Number 2 – August 2014
      • Volume 18, Number 3 – November 2014
      • Volume 18, Number 4 – February 2015
    • Volume 19
      • Volume 19, Number 1 – May 2015
      • Volume 19, Number 2 – August 2015
      • Volume 19, Number 3 – November 2015
      • Volume 19, Number 4 – February 2016
    • Volume 20
      • Volume 20, Number 1 – May 2016
      • Volume 20, Number 2 – August 2016
      • Volume 20, Number 3 – November 2016
      • Volume 20, Number 4 – February 2017
    • Volume 21
      • Volume 21, Number 1 – May 2017
      • Volume 21, Number 2 – August 2017
      • Volume 21, Number 3 – November 2017
      • Volume 21, Number 4 – February 2018
    • Volume 22
      • Volume 22, Number 1 – May 2018
      • Volume 22, Number 2 – August 2018
      • Volume 22, Number 3 – November 2018
      • Volume 22, Number 4 – February 2019
    • Volume 23
      • Volume 23, Number 1 – May 2019
      • Volume 23, Number 2 – August 2019
      • Volume 23, Number 3 – November 2019
      • Volume 23, Number 4 – February 2020
    • Volume 24
      • Volume 24, Number 1 – May 2020
      • Volume 24, Number 2 – August 2020
      • Volume 24, Number 3 – November 2020
      • Volume 24, Number 4 – February 2021
    • Volume 25
      • Volume 25, Number 1 – May 2021
      • Volume 25, Number 2 – August 2021
      • Volume 25, Number 3 – November 2021
      • Volume 25, Number 4 – February 2022
    • Volume 26
      • Volume 26, Number 1 – May 2022
      • Volume 26, Number 2 – August 2022
      • Volume 26, Number 3 – November 2022
      • Volume 26, Number 4 – February 2023
    • Volume 27
      • Volume 27, Number 1 – May 2023
      • Volume 27, Number 2 – August 2023
      • Volume 27, Number 3 – November 2023
      • Volume 27, Number 4 – February 2024
    • Volume 28
      • Volume 28, Number 1 – May 2024
      • Volume 28, Number 2 – August 2024
      • Volume 28, Number 3 – November 2024
      • Volume 28, Number 4 – February 2025
    • Volume 29
      • Volume 29, Number 1 – May 2025
  • Books
  • How to Submit
    • Submission Info
    • Ethical Standards for Authors and Reviewers
    • TESL-EJ Style Sheet for Authors
    • TESL-EJ Tips for Authors
    • Book Review Policy
    • Media Review Policy
    • APA Style Guide
  • Editorial Board
  • Support

Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition

September 1998 — Volume 3, Number 3

Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition

James L. Morgan & Katherine Demuth (Eds.) (1996)
Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Pp. xi + 487
ISBN 0-8058-1266-0 (paper)
US $36.00
(also available in cloth: ISBN 0-8058-1265-2, US $69.95)

Handbook of Research in Language Development Using CHILDES

Jeffrey L. Sokolov & Catherine E. Snow (Eds.) (1994)
Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Pp. xi + 489
ISBN 0-8058-1186-9 (paper)
US $29.95
(also available in cloth: ISBN 0-8058-1185-0, US $79.95)

A Developmental-Functionalist Approach to Child Language

Nancy Budwig (1995)
Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Pp. xii + 224
ISBN 0-8058-0520-6 (cloth)
US $45.00

These are three very useful books for anyone interested in current theory and research in children’s acquisition of their first language. They provide three different but complementary updates of research in this area. They may be less directly useful for those involved in second language teaching and TESL, but given the closer relationship that has developed recently between first and second language acquisition, these volumes should still be useful sourcebooks for language researchers and for those with specialist language acquisition interests.

The thread that holds all three books together is mainly their subject matter–an attempt to understand the complex but fascinating phenomenon of child language acquisition. There is also a second bond they share in their commonality of approach–all owe their broad origins to developmental psycholinguistics. This is the approach that has led to such a wealth of theory and research in child first language acquisition, but perhaps is less common in many other applied linguistic settings (e.g., TESL) where a sociolinguistic orientation has often been more usually applied.

The first volume, Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition, edited by Morgan and Demuth, is a most important theoretical contribution to child language study. It presents a coherent and comprehensive series of chapters that all take as their starting point an attempt to unravel how the adult speech that is addressed to young children might lead to their [-1-] acquisition of the first language. The particular focus in this collection is on the role of prosody. In this it extends and refines Pinker’s (1984) original “prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis.” This was the first systematic theory that focussed on the role of prosody in adult input to children and attempted to explain how certain features of adult speech gave clues to the syntactic structure of the language, which in turn assisted young children in the acquisition of that first language.

The editors assess the present state of this hypothesis in this volume through a collection of 25 interdisciplinary contributions by well-known researchers. These chapters are sensibly grouped into five sections, each dealing with one special aspect of the issue: part I–The nature, perception and representation of input speech; part II–Speech and the acquisition of words; part III–Speech and the acquisition of grammatical morphology and form classes; part IV–Speech and the acquisition of phrase structure; and, part V–Speech and the acquisition of language.

Inevitably, it seems, the more research is conducted into first language acquisition, the more the complexities of this seemingly effortless achievement by young children become apparent. For example, in chapter 23, Gerken points out the three main but very considerable problems that children have to solve in acquiring language. These are: segmentation (i.e., the location of words and phrases in the continuous speech stream); labelling (i.e., making the distinction between the different types of words and phrases, such as nouns and verbs); and, structure (i.e., discovering the hierarchical arrangement of words and phrases).

Overall it seems to be the case from the evidence presented in this excellent volume that there is considerable support for the view that prosody plays an important role in first language acquisition, but not sufficient evidence to support the strong version of the bootstrapping hypothesis (i.e., that prosody is a sufficient explanation for language acquisition). Hence, more work still needs to be done to clarify exactly what role prosody plays in children’s acquisition of their first (and possibly, subsequent) language.

Clearly this is an important book for those interested in fundamental theories of language acquisition, but the implications for this research are important for language teachers as well as researchers.

The second volume, Handbook of Research in Language Development Using CHILDES, addresses the important issue of research methods in child language acquisition. For some time now a database of computerised child language transcripts, the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) has been developed and made available to researchers. This database is associated with Catherine Snow and her colleagues at Harvard University who have been pioneers in the area. [-2-] The database arose from the experience of many child language researchers that collecting child language data (e.g., via transcripts of tape-recorded adult-child speech) was an extremely time-consuming and expensive business and that any one individual could only realistically collect data from samples which were too small for any quantitative analytic purposes (e.g., statistical analyses). The CHILDES database aims to provide researchers with aggregated child language data, by combining computerised data from a number of research studies, thereby offseting the relatively small scale data collections of individual researchers and allowing more sophisticated analyses to be performed.

In this edited volume Jeffrey Sokolov and Catherine Snow provide an extremely useful handbook for those researchers who wish to use the CHILDES database effectively. It also provides an excellent textbook for new and developing researchers in child language research, reflecting the developments of the last two decades. The contributions cover a range of useful aspects of child language research such as the basic measures of child language (Pan), diminutives in the babytalk register (Berko Gleason, Perlmann, Ely & Evans), use of superordinates (Bodin & Snow), phonological analysis of child speech (Bernstein Ratner) and some common features of mothers’ vocabularies (Hu). Broader issues are also examined, such as early morphological development in Spanish (Schnell de Acedo), language profiles of children with special language impairment (Rosenthal Rollins), individual differences (Sokolov & Moreton), young children’s hypotheses about English reflexives (Thomas) and the acquisition of different types of narrative discourse (Wolf, Moreton & Camp). Finally, McWhinney summarises the future for CHILDES-based research.

The articles stand alone, but they are also written as a teaching text, with each chapter having been designed as a lesson in a particular area of child language research. Hence there is a clear attempt to provide clarity in the writing of each chapter and step-by-step instruction in the methods of analysis–with the answers to the various exercises given at the back of the volume.

This book is highly recommended for anyone wishing to research child language. It has obvious usefulness therefore for first language researchers, but it would also be a very helpful reference volume for child language researchers in languages other than English and in second and subsequent languages.

Finally, Nancy Budwig’s 1995 book, A Developmental-Functionalist Approach to Child Language, presents a very interesting attempt to breech the structuralist/functionalist divide by proposing a new developmental-functionalist approach to the study of child language. The book, based on her Ph.D. research, is organised into three parts. In part I, she outlines the foundations of her functionalist approach. She discusses her particular interpretation of [-3-] functionalism, distinguishing it from earlier functionalist approaches (e.g., Skinner’s behaviorism), and describes her focus on self-reference forms (e.g. I, my) in young children’s speech. In Part II, Budwig presents extensive individual case studies of three children, whom she termed “ego-anchored children.” These three children were aged just under 2 years at the commencement of the study with Mean Length of Utterances (MLUs) ranging from 1.72-2.82. Their linguistic usage and development is then compared in the fourth chapter with three “non-ego-anchored children.” These were somewhat older children (28-32 months) with higher MLUs (average MLU=3.0).

From her data, it seemed to be the case that the main difference in self-reference was that whereas the younger children used multiple references to themselves (e.g., I, we, my, own name) with similar frequencies of use, the non-ego-anchored children showed a more developed (and specialised) I/we distinction. Suggestions as to why this might be the case are then made.

Taking a functional rather than the usual structural (form-based) approach, Budwig then analyses the children’s use of I and we, firstly according to standard semantic and pragmatic considerations. Then, as these appear to her to be insufficient to explain the contrasts she found, she presents a core field analysis of the children’s use of the I/we contrast. This leads to new insights into the way that children organise and then reorganise their use of self-reference forms. An interesting feature of the explanation for this is that Budwig does not take the usual developmental explanation to account for differences between the ego-anchored and non-ego-anchored self-reference systems, but claims instead that there are multiple factors in the organisation of self-reference forms and the functions they serve. Further research is needed to explore the nature of the interplay between these factors.

In summary, although these texts were all written primarily for a first language acquisition researcher audience, there would be much of interest to a second language researcher here as well.

Reference

Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Marion Myhill
University of Tasmania at Launceston
<Marion.Myhill@utas.edu.au>

© Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.

Editor’s Note: Dashed numbers in square brackets indicate the end of each page for purposes of citation.

[-4-]

© 1994–2025 TESL-EJ, ISSN 1072-4303
Copyright of articles rests with the authors.