Child Language. A Reader

Margery B Franklin & Sybil S Barten (ed.)

ISBN 10: 0195043324 / ISBN 13: 9780195043327

Published by Oxford University Press, 1987

About this Item

Oxford University Press. 1988. xi+(1)+398 pages. Publisher's cloth. Slightly bumped spine. Anthology with papers on children's language from the 1960s until the 1980s, mainly from pragmatic and socio-linguistic perspectives.

Seller Inventory # 3690

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Child Language. A Reader
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195043324
• ISBN 13: 9780195043327
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Languages & Linguistics: General and Scandinavian

About this title

Synopsis

Processes of language acquisition and children's uses of language have long been topics of intense interest to laymen and professionals alike. In the early 1960's, developmental psycholinguistics took shape as a field of systematic inquiry with primary focus on the acquisition of language as a formal grammatical system. The field of child inquiry has broadened steadily in the past 25 years. Current investigations are concerned with relations of language to conceptual development and the functions of language as well as with the development of language as a formal system. This comprehensive anthology reflects the excitement of theoretical debate and makes clear the kinds of empirical questions that structure the field today. Students are introduced to the field of child language through primary source material drawn from the recent work of leading researchers and theoreticians. The thirty papers collected here cover a group of significant topics including precursors of language, the transition to language, first words, syntax and semantics in early language, social and private speech, child conversation, early narrative, metaphor, and metalinguistic processes. Several different kinds of methodologies for gathering and analyzing data on child language are exemplified by the studies in this collection. For each of the five sections of the book, a brief introduction highlights critical issues in the area and delineates interrelations among selections. Intended for use as a main or supplementary text in upper level courses, this comprehensive, carefully edited anthology can also serve as an introduction to the field for professionals interested in research and theory in child language.