First Language Acquisition

Babies are not born talking. They learn language, starting right after birth.

How does this process take place? When do children master the skills

needed to use language successfully? What stages do they go through as

they learn to understand others and to talk themselves? This new edition

of Eve Clark’s best-selling, comprehensive textbook focuses on children’s

acquisition of a first language, the stages of development they go through,

and how they use language as they learn. It follows children from their

first sounds and words to the acquisition of adultlike skills in persuading,

instructing, and storytelling, whether children are acquiring just one language or two at once. Skilfully integrating extensive data with coverage

of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying first

language acquisition for courses in linguistics, developmental psychology,

and cognitive science.

eve v. clark is the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities

and Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University. Her books include

Psychology and Language (with H. H. Clark), The Ontogenesis of Meaning,

The Acquisition of Romance, The Lexicon in Acquisition, and Constructions in Acquisition (with B. F. Kelly). She is an active researcher in the field who

works on all aspects of meaning acquisition.

1 Acquiring language: Issues and questions 1

Part I Getting started 19

2 In conversation with children 21

3 Starting on language: Perception 51

4 Early words 75

5 Sounds in words: Production 94

6 Words and meanings 122

Part II Constructions and meanings 149

7 First combinations, first constructions 151

8 Modulating word meanings 176

9 Adding complexity within clauses 199

10 Combining clauses: More complex constructions 229

11 Constructing words 254

Part III Using language 279

12 Honing conversational skills 281

13 Doing things with language 306

14 Two languages at a time 336

Part IV Process in acquisition 355

15 Specialization for language 357

16 Acquisition and change 378

Glossary 401

References 406

Name index 465

Subject index 477