First Language Acquisition

Now in its fourth edition, this textbook has been extensively updated and provides a comprehensive account of first language acquisition.

Eve V. Clark (Author)

9781009294492, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 June 2024

690 pages
25 x 17.5 x 4.2 cm, 1.32 kg

'The writing style is clear and accessible, especially given the amount of information and scientific evidence provided in the text. Clark's textbook makes the topic accessible.' Richard Sprott, University of California Berkeley

Now in its fourth edition, this textbook provides a chronological account of first language acquisition, showing how young children acquire language in their conversational interactions with adult speakers. It draws on diary records and experimental studies from leaders in the field to document different stages and different aspects of what children master. Successive chapters detail infants' and young children's progression from attending to adult faces, gaze, and hand motions, to their first attempts at communicating with gaze and gesture, then adding words and constructions. It comprehensively covers the acquisition of the core areas of language – phonetics and phonology, lexicon, grammar and sentence structure, and meaning – as well as how children acquire discourse and conversational skills. This edition includes new sections on how children build 'common ground' with adults and other children, individual differences in children's language development, how they collaborate with adults in constructing utterances, and how they qualify beliefs.

1. Acquiring language
Part I. Getting Started: 2. In conversation with children
3. Starting on language: perception
4. Early words
5. Sounds in words: production
6. Words and meanings
Part II. Constructions and Meanings: 7. First combinations, first constructions
8. Modulating word meanings
9. Adding complexity within clauses
10. Combining clauses: more complex constructions
11. Constructing words
Part III. Using Language: 12. Honing conversational skills
13. Doing things with language
14. Two languages at a time
Part IV. Process in Acquisition: 15. Specialization for language
16. Acquisition: continuity and change.

Subject Areas: Psycholinguistics [CFD]