Child Language
Acquisition and Growth

An accessible introduction to child language acquisition, exploring language development from birth.

Barbara C. Lust (Author)

9780521449229, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 21 September 2006

410 pages, 29 tables
24.4 x 17.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.73 kg

'… this glimpse into a different scientific tradition, coupled with the opportunity to grasp the complexity of this uniquely human skill made this book well worth reading…' Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The remarkable way in which young children acquire language has long fascinated linguists and developmental psychologists alike. Language is a skill that we have essentially mastered by the age of three, and with incredible ease and speed, despite the complexity of the task. This accessible textbook introduces the field of child language acquisition, exploring language development from birth. Setting out the key theoretical debates, it considers questions such as what characteristics of the human mind make it possible to acquire language; how far acquisition is biologically programmed and how far it is influenced by our environment; what makes second language learning (in adulthood) different from first language acquisition; and whether the specific stages in language development are universal across languages. Clear and comprehensive, it is set to become a key text for all courses in child language acquisition, within linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

1. The growth of language
2. What is acquired?
3. What is the problem of language acquisition?
4. How we can construct a theory of language acquisition
5. Brain and language development
6. The nature of nurture
7. How can we tell what children know?: methods for the study of language acquisition
8. The acquisition of phonology
9. The acquisition of syntax
10. The acquisition of semantics
11. On the nature of language growth
12. Conclusions: towards an integrated theory of language acquisition.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Linguistics [CF]