Children and Language

Two years ago, when Joshua was a little older than Morgan is now, I was taking a Lingusitics class at BYU. This thought first occurred to me when studying topics related to that class. I wasn't blogging then, so now that I have been reminded of these fascinating little musings I offer them to the bloggers and blog readers out there.

Toddlers, by and large, communicate with two main types of words: nouns and imperatives (the distinction between these two word-types is sometimes blurred, as will be discussed below). Occasionally they will rattle out a complete sentence like, "There you go!" That's one of Morgan's favorites. But for the most part, as they are learning to speak, all they need are nouns and imperatives.

The nouns are the obvious ones. First words usually include such things as Mama, Dada, ball, or as in the case of both our little boys, kitty (or at least the wet-tongue rolling sound that means kitty).
Our little linguist

Morgan has a lot of nouns. He seems to learn a new noun frequently. Some favorites include wawa (water, of course), jayjay (his catch-all word that now means "cat" because his grandma has a cat named JJ), good-girl (that's our dog, Annie), kr-k (cracker or cookie), chshhh (cheese), etc. It makes sense that toddlers would learn nouns first since there is usually something concrete/physical to associate with the word.

Now for imperatives. I'm not sure how long it takes most kids, but it sure seems that Joshua and Morgan learned "NO!" really quick. Morgan says it all the time. "No! No! No! No! NO!" he will say if we pick him up and remove him from a mischievous situation (such as climbing on the computer desk to get Mommy's iPod Touch). He uses "no" frequently, but he has also figured out another imperative, just about as useful, "Go!" He uses this when he wants to go from one room to another, say from our bedroom where I am holding him and talking with Jessica (and where there's always the potential that he may be put to bed) upstairs where he can play or eat or whatever. He also says "Go!" when we are going somewhere in the car and waiting too long at a stoplight.

Joshua, at about the age Morgan is now

Sometimes, though, nouns serve as imperatives as well. Take, for example, when Morgan's thirsty. He communicates this to us by saying very emphatically, "Wawa! Wawa!" Which, being interpreted means, "I would like a drink of water, please." It's a noun that he's using, but he's using it to command, therefore it is an imperative.

Amazing that children understand the subtle nuances and implications of language from such a young age...