Over the Thanksgiving holiday I got another chance to eavesdrop at leisure on grandboy J’s language development. (I did part 1 in April when he turned 2.)
The tl;dr is that he’s progressing quickly, as one would expect from a kid who’s 2-1/2 years old. He talks up a storm, and he’s reached a point where you interact naturally with him using language—that is, you talk to him assuming that he’ll understand you, and virtually everything he says makes sense. Of course, he makes errors, but they're interesting because they seem to tell us something about language development.
Phonology
J has trouble with unvoiced th (/θ/), which he often pronounces as an /f/ (“wif,” “I’m firsty”). I thought I detected that he can produce soft th sounds (/ð/), as in the and this. This would not entirely make sense, and it's possible that for /ð/ he's producing /v/ sounds and I just wasn't hearing it.
He also has issues with /r/, which he sometimes pronounces as /w/ (“weally” for really). I didn’t pay close enough attention to determine whether he always does this.
J has trouble with some other clusters as well. The one that struck me was “code” for cold. There must be something systematic about that one, because I’ve heard some adults do something similar, like “woof” for wolf.
Other
Those are Triceratopses.
Generalization of -s/-es as plural.
Guys, look!
Imperative; second-person plural vocative (guys).
Opa, knock down!
Used to mean both “I am knocking you down!” and “Knock me down!”
Can you take[ ]apart it?
Not yet recognizing take apart as a phrasal verb, or just a mistake in moving the particle to the end.
I don't know what happened.
Do-negation (don’t), subordinate clause.
Can I have it back?
Yes/no question inversion, have back as phrasal verb
George wants to go on a walk by himself.
Auxiliary (wants) with infinitive (to go) that’s part of an idiom (go on a walk); adverbial prepositional phrase with reflexive (by himself).
[Adult]: Do you want some almond croissant?
[J]: I want so much.
[Adult]: How many cashews do you want?
[J]: I want so many.
Distinguishing mass and count nouns (so much/so many == “a lot”)
I ate it all gone.
all gone == all up, presumably a generalization of something like It's all gone.
I want to go see who is that.
Auxiliary (wants) with infinitive (to go see), subordinate clause. J used wh-question syntax for the subordinate clause where who is the predicate nominative—interesting error.
[Adult]: He’s going to eat you!
[J]: I don’t want to be eaten!
Passive transformation in a clause with an auxiliary verb. This one impressed me.
She did a good job giving my hair a cut.
Possibly a generalization of indirect object (give [indirect-object] a [direct-object], e.g. give me a toy). But correct use of a gerund phrase (giving) following "good job [of]."
Irregular verbs
I bit it
The dragon flew away
I ate it
Correct use of ablaut in irregular verbs. But …
I drawed it
I breaked it
Generalized -t/-d applied to irregular verbs. And …
We camed over here
Blend—ablaut and dental.
Semantics
J is still learning the semantic space for different words. We mostly noticed this because he seems insistent on using (and having others use) specific terms.
[J]: This is my digger.
[Adult]: Is that a backhoe?
[J]: No, it’s a digger.
But the next day …
[J]: This is my digger.
[Adult]: Oh, that’s a front loader.
[J]: This is my front loader!
J is going to another room.
[Adult]: Bye-bye!
[J]: I'm not leaving!
Bye-bye is reserved for going home or an otherwise more permanent parting.
[Adult]: Can you help me undo the Velcro on your shoes?
[J]: Those are straps!
Polite speech
J wields a number of phrases and sentences that seem to derive from adults’ corrections for tone and politeness. He's in preschool, which is probably the source for some of these.
Can I borrow that real quick?
i.e. Can I have that?
No, thanks! No, thanks!
Asking someone to stop tickling him
How's your day going so far?
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