Analysis of CLA

Analysis.

At the beginning of the transcript, the child shows evidence for the ‘Behaviourism’ theory. For example, her Mum says ‘you’re gonna show me what’, and Leah reformulates her words by saying ‘gonna show you what we what’s over here’. By saying the words ‘gonna show you what’ it shows that the child needed to repeat her Mum’s words in order to aid her into starting a statement. This could suggest that because Leah is only in the early stages of language, she has not yet learnt how to start off a conversation but has learnt how to take part in the adjacency pairs with her Mum.

Another element of grammar that Leah shows in the transcript is the use of her demonstratives. For example, she says ‘look at this’. By using the word ‘this’ it is an example of a demonstrative, suggesting that she wants her Mum to look at what she has in her hand. Her non-verbal communication of pointing to the mirror shows that she has used this demonstrative in the right way. Leah also uses personal possessive pronouns well. For example, ‘your special mirror’.

 The context of this interaction shows that Leah is speaking to her Mum so Leah knows exactly whose mirror it is. By using ‘your’ it shows that although Leah is only 2 years old, she may be already on the post-telegraphic stage of her language. This theory suggests that children in the telegraphic stage struggle to use pronouns, however, Leah shows evidence that she uses them comfortably.

Also, Leah uses determiners. An example would be ‘a mirror’ and ‘a wall’ and ‘a glass slipper’. By using the indefinite article of ‘a’ it shows that Leah is passed the stage of a one-word utterance where she would address the mirror as just ‘mirror’. Also, by saying the ‘it is your mirror’ rather than just ‘your mirror’ could be evidence that Leah is into the telegraphic leading into the post-telegraphic stage as she knows how to use grammar correctly.

Another element that Leah uses well is negatives. For example, ‘can’t get it til it’s mother’s day’ shows that she has used the negative auxiliary verb ‘can’t’. This shows that Leah has used a complex utterance involving a correct use of a negative. The telegraphic stage theory suggests that younger children have difficulty in understanding negatives and use ‘no’ in utterances instead. However, Leah shows evidence that she is already at stage 3 of negatives and confidently uses negatives which are attached to auxiliary verbs.

During the transcript Leah uses conjugated lexis. For example ‘it’s’. This could be an example of Chomsky’s theory that language it innate because it is unlikely that Leah has been taught to conjugate prepositions.