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HUMOR AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

by Don L. F. Nilsenand Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Youtube Babies:

Charlie Bit My Finger Again:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Evil-Eye Baby:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=evil+eye+baby&search_type=&aq=0&oq=evil

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BABIES HAVING FUN:https://www.facebook.com/cnnturk/videos/10154304613880106/?fref=nf

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Early Expressions of Humor

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Early-Onset Children’s Humor

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Modeling:

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2012-2013 Teddy Bear Toss for 12,947 Kids at Penn State Hershey’s Children’s Hospital:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ENgOxVZm0

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LANGUAGE STAGESStage: Age:Crying BirthCooing 6 WeeksBabbling 6 MonthsIntonation 8 MonthsHolophrastic 1 YearPivot-Open 18 MonthsWord Inflections 2 YearsQuestions & Negatives 2 ½ YearsRare & Complex Lg 5 YearsMature Speech 10 Years

Let’s not forget body language—pinching and peek-a-boo

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CARETAKER SPEECHSimplified Vocabulary

Simplified Phonology

Exaggerated Pitch & Intonation

Many Questions by Mothers

Many Imperatives by Fathers

Baby-Talk Wordse.g. wawa, choo-choo, tummy, scambled eggs, pasghetti

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ACQUISITION OF SOUNDSProperties of easy sounds:

Front of the MouthTotal ArticulationMuscles already Developed (in Nursing)

Easy Sounds: /m, p, b, t, d/

Hard Sounds: /ŋ, Θ, ð, š, r, l/ clusters

Easy sounds occur in more languages and are learned earlier by children.

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ACQUISITION OF WORDSvov-vov dog

for dogs, kittens, hens, zoo animals

mooi moonfor moon, cake <O> anything round

dany bell soundfor bell, clock, telephone, doorbell

quack duck soundducks, birds, insects, coins (because a coin had an eagle on it)

koko rooster crowingrooster, merry-go-round, musical sounds, all sounds

J. P. at 16 Months[?aw] “not,” “no,” “don’t”

[b^?]/[m^?] “up”

[da] “dog”

[i?o]/[si?o] “Cheerios”

[sa] “sock”

[aj]/[^j] “light”

[baw]/[daw] “down”

[s:] “aerosol spray”

[sju:] “shoe”

[haj] “hi”

[sr] “shirt” “sweater”

[sæ:]/[esæ:] “what’s that?”

[ma] “mommy”

[dæ] “daddy”(J.P. at 16 months)

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Michael from 18-21 Months[pun] “spoon”

[peyn] “plane”

[tIs] “kiss”

[taw] “cow”

[tin] “clean”

[pol-r] “stroller”

[majtl] “Michael”

[dajt-r] “diaper”

[pati] “Papi”

[mani] “Momy”

[b-rt] “Bert”

[b-rt] “Big Bird”(- is schwa)

(Michael from 18-21 months)

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Michael systematically substituted the alveolar stop [t] for the velar stop [k] as in his words for “cow,” “clean,” “kiss,” and his own name.

He also replaced labial [p] with [t] when it occurred in the middle of a word, as in his words for “Papi” and “diaper.”

He reduced consonant clusters in “spoon,” “plane,” and “stroller,” and he devoiced final stops as in “Big Bird.”

In devoicing the final [d] in “bird,” he created an ambiguous form [b-rt] referring both to Bert and Big Bird.

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Michael’s substitutions are typical of the phonological rules that operate in the very early stages of acquisition.

Other common rules are reduplication—’bottle’ becomes [baba], ‘water’ becomes [wawa]; and the dropping of a final consonant—’bed’ becomes [be], ‘cake’ becomes ke]. These two rules show that the child prefers a simple CV syllable.

Michael from 18-21 Months[dot] “don’t”

[kh Ip] “skip”

[su] “shoe”

[dæt] “that”

[ph e] “play”

[d^p] “thump”

[bæt] “bath”

[th ap] “stop”

[kIdi] “kitty”

[wajt] “light”

[dawi] “dolly”

[go] “grow”

([ph ] [th ] [kh ] are aspirated [p] [t] and [k] respectively)

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ACQUISITION OF GRAMMARHolophrastic (one part of speech)

Pivot-Open (two parts of speech)

Telegraphic (four parts of speech)

Adult (eight parts of speech)

Linguist (each part of speech has many sub-categories)

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THREE STAGES OF ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGY

1. Holophrastic: men, went, broke, broughtRight Answer, but Wrong Reason

2. Rule-Governed: mans, goed, breaked, bringedWrong Answer, but Right Reason

3. Knowledge of both Rules and Exceptions to the Rules: men, went, broke, broughtRight Answer, and Right Reason

NOTE: These stages also operate for adults learning a new profession

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WHAT WOULD A CHILD SAY?

children

went

better

best

brought

sang

geese

worst

knives

worse

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GRAMMAR: TWO-WORD STAGE

The two-word stage is also called the Pivot-Open stage because one of the words is usually a Lexical Word (an open set that refers to something), and the other word is a Functional Word (a closed set with grammatical rather than reference meaning).

In the following sentences, indicate which is the Pivot word and which is the Open word:

Adam, Eve, and SarahAllgone sock.

Byebye boat.

More wet.

Katherine Sock.

Hi Mommy.

Allgone sticky.

It ball.

Dirty sock.

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Adam, Eve, and SarahSee boy

See soci.

Pretty boat.

Pretty fan.

More taxi.

More melon.

Push it.

Move it.

Mommy sleep.

Bye-bye melon.

Bye-bye hot.

(Adam, Eve, and Sarah)

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M. L. U.As children progress from the holophrastic to the

pivot-open to the telegraphic to the mature stages of language development, a simple but effective gauge of their level of development is MLU.

MLU means “Mean Length of Utterance.” “MLU is the average length of the utterances the child is producing at a particular point.”

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TELEGRAPHIC SPEECHDuring this stage of development, the

functional categories like Determiners, Auxiliaries, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Expletives are missing.

And the Lexical categories like Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs (usually without any suffixes) are present.

Neil Smith talking to 2-year-old Amahl

Cat stand up table.

What that?

He play little tune.

Andrew want that.

Cathy build house.

No sit there.

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ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGYNeil Smith talking to 2-year-old Amahl

AGE 2:

Progressive –ing: I singing.

Plural –s: blue shoes.

Copula am, is, are: He is asleep.

Articles a, the: He is a doctor.

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CHILD: Nobody don’t like me.MOTHER: No, say “Nobody likes me.”

CHILD: Nobody don’t like me.(dialogue repeated eight times)MOTHER: Now, listen carefully, say

“Nobody likes me.”

CHILD: Oh, nobody don’t likes me.

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ADULT: What does [maws] mean?CHILD: Like a cat.

ADULT: Yes, What else?CHILD: Nothing else.

ADULT: It’s part of your head.CHILD: [fascinated]

ADULT: [touching child’s mouth] What’s this?CHILD: [maws]

(Neil Smith talking to 2-year-old Amahl)

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ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGY: AGE 3

AGE 3:

Third Person Singular –s: He wants an apple

Past tense –d: I helped Mummy

Full Progressive be + -ing: I am singing

Shortened Copula: He’s a doctor

Shortened Progressive: I’m singing

Three-Year Old Jonathan

3-Year Old Jonathan Conducting Beethoven’s 5th Symphony:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REJ-lCGiKU

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CHILDREN’S METAPHORS

Don’t giggle me.

I danced the clown.

Yawny Baby—you can push her mouth open to drink her.

Who deaded my kitty cat?

Are you gonna nice yourself?

CF: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

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“WUG” AS A NOUNMake it plural.

Make it possessive.

Make it plural and possessive.

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“WUG” AS A VERBPut it after “he” in a sentence.

Make it past tense.

Make it a past participle.

Make it a present participle.

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“WUG” AS AN ADJECTIVE OR ADVERB

Make it comparative.

Make it superlative.

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ACQUISITION OF NEGATIVES

Stage One: “No you catch me.”

Stage Two: “You didn’t caught me.”

Stage Three: “You didn’t catch me.”

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ACQUISITION OF WH-QUESTIONSSTAGE ONE:What Mummy doing? Why you singing? Where daddy go?

STAGE TWO:Where you will go? Why kitty can’t see? Why you don’t

know?

STAGE THREE:Where will you go? Why can’t kitty see? Why don’t you know?

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CHILD: Want other one spoon, Daddy.FATHER: You mean, you want the other spoon.

CHILD: Yes, I want the other one spoon, please Daddy.FATHER: Can you say, “the other spoon”?

CHILD: Other … one … spoon.FATHER: Say “other.”

CHILD: Other.FATHER: Spoon

CHILD: SpoonFATHER: Other spoon.

CHILD: Other … spoon. Now give me other one spoon?

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CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?

CHILD: YesADULT: What did you say she did?

CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly?

CHILD: No, she holded them loosely

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EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWINGSelf-Directed Louding: Baby’s getting a rash

Rhetorical Questions: Don’t you know I just wiped that off?

Self-Answered Questions: What does the lamb say? Baaa.

Limiting Questions: Do you want chocolate or vanilla?

What is the function of egocentric speech? Do adults use this device?

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RESTRICTED AND ELABORATED CODES

In 1971, Basil Bernstein distinguished between local language (restricted codes) and public language (elaborated codes).

Restricted codes use “he” and “she” instead of “Mom” and “Dad.”

They use back channels like “You know.”

They use tags like “isn’t it.”

They use fewer verbs and adjectives.

They use more slang, fixed expressions, and cliches.

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ACQUISITION OF HUMOR

Even babies have a sense of humor. Adults laugh with children who are playing peek-a-boo or watching Sesame Street with its Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Young children are also fond of knock-knock jokes and riddles.

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TOILET HUMOR

Alvin Schwartz says that children who are six or seven enjoy toilet humor because they no longer have accidents, but they still remember when they did. They like the following poem:

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I see London; I see France.I see Betsy’s underpants.They aren’t green; they aren’t blue.They’re just filled with number two.

They also like to talk about the secret parts of the body:

Mary had a little bear,The best that she could find.And everywhere that Mary went,There was her bare behind.

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CONSERVATION HUMOR

Paul McGhee told a joke to children of different ages: “A man goes into a pizza parlor and tells the server to cut his pizza into four pieces because he isn’t hungry enough to eat six pieces.”

1st Graders didn’t laugh because they didn’t get the joke. They hadn’t yet mastered conservation.

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8th Graders didn’t laugh because they had mastered conservation so long ago that there was no tension.

The students in the middle grades laughed the hardest. They experienced pleasure because they could take pride in the fact that they were able to figure out that the amount of pizza was the same regardless of how many pieces it was cut into.

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6 LEVELS OF HUMOR DEVELOPMENT

In Antony Chapman’s It’s a Funny Thing, Humor, Alice Sheppard has outlined six levels of humor development for children:

LEVEL 1 (IDIOSYNCRATIC): Involves amusement related to a young child’s individual experience as with a surprise, a physical sensation, or a response to someone else’s smile or laughter.

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LEVEL 2 (NORMATIVE): Involves a generalization that implies a rule, or a convention. Later, the child will violate the rule or convention.

LEVEL 3 (EXPECTATION): Involves a reference to the unusualness or the improbability of an event.

LEVEL 4 (RELATIONAL): Involves concern for inner motives related to a situation, relations among events, and multiple aspects of the situation.

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LEVEL 5 (EXTRA-CONTEXTUAL): Involves context beyond the situation implied in the notion of parody, take-off, irony, or satire. It also involves the distinction between appearance and reality; the humor is revealed as contingent upon subtle aspects of events.

LEVEL 6 (PHILOSOPHICAL): Involves the ability to see what is ridiculous in the nature of things and to generalize an outlook from humor examples.

A Child Prodigy:

7-YEAR-OLD PLAYING BEETHOVEN’S “RAGE OVER A LOST PENNY:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CED7cijODg

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