What Has Been Learned from the Five Data Sets About a Child’s Early Lexical/Semantic and Grammatical Development?

What has been learned from the five data sets about a child’s early lexical/semantic and grammatical development?

In this essay I will be exploring five data sets taken from four children, two twin boys and two girls. The data sets show the development of the children from age 1-4. Each extract shows interaction between either two children, or a child and a caregiver. I will be focusing on the two key constituents of lexis/semantics and grammar. Using the information I have found will help to understand their language acquisition development over time.

In data set 1, the 1 year and 6 month old girl uses the preposition of the word “in” correctly. This indicates that even from an early age, a child can understand and express a relation to another word or element in a clause. The context of the extract relates to the idea of understanding certain actions. The girl is saying “In dere” which shows she can articulate that the water from the tap goes into the watering can in which she is holding. This extract is also an example of the two-word stage and how children may use two words as opposed to using singular words in order to get things or ask for things they want or need. The girl in extract D uses over extension. When being asked by her Father “What’s what?” when pointing at a picture of a pig in a book, she responds by saying “oink oink” which is correct. Her Father then asks her again “What’s that?” when pointing at a picture of a cow in the book, but she responds with “oink oink” which is incorrect. This indicates that the girl is under the impression that all four legged animal are pigs which is an example of over extension. In extract E, boy twin 2, like girl 1, is at the two-word stage. When his Father is leaving for work, he has recognised that he is leaving the house. He portrays this understanding by saying “Daddy go.” Although he can recognise that his Father is leaving for work, he has emitted the inflectional affix of “ing” in the word “going”,...