Quotations, Imitations, and Generalizations. Factual and Methodological Analyses

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Methodological and factual analyses are presented of children's use of imitative speech as a strategy in language acquisition. A new definition encompassing a greater variety of imitative speech is chosen and the manner in which model utterances are employed and restructured is followed over brief and longer time intervals. Speech samples of one girl between the ages of 20 and 32 months were recorded and related to the input she obtained in conversational interactions and through picture-story books. The impact of these two sources upon vocabulary, morphological, and syntactic development is described. Broad and profound effects of model-speech are demonstrated in all three domains of language. These impacts often become visible only after considerable intervals and can appear in extensively restructured utterances. Based upon the methodological complexities that were encountered in the present study and in the literature, four methodological problem areas are analyzed: pertaining to the definition of imitation, to the child's use of it, to the investigator's interpretation of its effects, and to the contrast between abstracting or 'generalized imitation' versus direct copying.

This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit: