Word Stages

HOLOPHRASTIC/ONE-WORD STAGE:

  • Holophrases are single words that express a complete idea.

  • Contextual clues are often needed at this stage and non-verbal communication from the child.

  • First words usually tend to relate to their immediate surroundings.

    • Connected to things children can sense or that have a social function.

  • About 60% of holophrastic words have a naming function and about 20% express an action.

TWO-WORD STAGE:

  • Begins around 18 months.

  • Marks the beginning of the child using syntax.

  • Tend to come in certain common combinations:

    • Baby crying – Subject + verb

    • Catch ball – Verb + object

    • Daddy dinner (meaning daddy is cooking dinner) – Subject + object

    • Dolly dirty – Subject + complement

  • Show similar patterns to more complex grammatical constructions.

  • Words can be switched around to indicate different meaning; showing development of an awareness of the position of the subject and object in relation to the position of the verbs in the sentence.

  • Can be quite flexible: same sentence may be used to express a variety of meanings depending on context.

  • Ambiguity of many utterances arises partly because inflectional affixes are absent.

PIVOT GRAMMAR:

  • Researchers refer to connection between the two words as pivot grammar.

  • Point out children don’t say two unrelated words – always a connection.

  • There are pivot markers that help children to form sentences: allgone milk, more milk.

TELEGRAPHIC STAGE:

  • Combining 3+ words.

  • 2 years (around).

  • Focus on words that carry most meaning.

    • Omit functional words.

  • Show wider range of structures.

  • Progress made is rapid.

  • By age 3:

    • Use items that were previously omitted, e.g determiners.

  • Start using sentences with more than one clause, and co-ordinating conjunctions.

POST TELEGRAPHIC STAGE:

  • Co-ordinating conjunctions.

  • Subordinating conjunctions.

  • Longer noun phrases.

  • Function words.

  • Negatives involving the auxiliary ‘do’.

  • Questions formed with ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘what’.

  • Inflections like ‘-ed’ for past tense, ‘-ing’ for present participles and ‘-s’ for plurals.

  • Eventually children will be able to master the passive voice.