Chat 2

Dr. Melinda PragueWilmington University

MRD 7801

Halliday’sFunctions of Language

Pragmatics (rules for social language)

Reflection Paper – due 6/14◦ Research a current topic in the field of Language

Development. Write a summary of the article and analyze its relationship to the theories presented in this class. Your summary should include a clear connection to one or more of the theories presented and should include your own reflection and experiences. Finally it should connect to further studies or plans for you personally.  Go to the Library link in BB and use Academic Search Premiere or one of the other search engines to find a topic on Language that interests you. Be sure to include in text citations and a reference list. 

Upcoming Assignments

Content◦ Content refers to the meaning of language. Usually, in

terms of Speech and Language disorders, this refers to vocabulary, or the knowledge of words that a child has.

Form◦ Form refers to the rule-based aspects of language, such as

the rules that define how words go together in a sentence to make it ‘correct’ or ‘grammatical’. Those kinds of rules are called ‘syntax’.

Use◦ Use refers to the social conventions of language.

I.e. turn taking, staying on topic

Content, Form and USE

Brown’s Stages of Development

MLU 1-2, understands about 50 wordsage 12-28 months (typically)labeling --> actions--> social wordsextensive use of free morphemescomments, greetings, protestsresponds to yes/no questions

Stage 1

Morphemes can be divided into two general classes. Free morphemes are those which can stand alone as words of a language, whereas bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes.

"A word like 'house' or 'dog' is called a free morpheme because it can occur in isolation and cannot be divided into smaller meaning units. . . . The word 'quickest' . . . is composed of two morphemes, one bound and one free. The word 'quick' is the free morpheme and carries the basic meaning of the word. The 'est' makes the word a superlative and is a bound morpheme because it cannot stand alone and be meaningful."

Kinds of morphemes

"Free morphemes can be further subdivided into content words and function words. Content words, as their name suggests, carry most of the content of a sentence. Function words generally perform some kind of grammatical role, carrying little meaning of their own.

Free Morphemes

MLU: 2-2.5 27-30 months2 word phrasesquestions using intonationno morphemesunderstands simple directions

Stage II

MLU 2.5-3 31-34 months3-4 words phrasesmorphological endings ---ing, s, 'sirregular past tenseomits "is" uses words rather than gesture/actionlarge increase in vocalunderstands negation

Stage III

MLU 3-3.75 35-40 months3-5 word sentencesembeds one sentence into anothercan sustain topic of interestword pairssongs

Stage IV

MLU 3.75-4.5 knowledge of rules of grammar are developingsome errors on irregular formschild knows who can say what to whom and when

Stage V

MLU 4.5+47 monthschild is able to converse about a variety of topics both in the here and now and in the there and then

Beyond Stage V

Transcribe everything- what you say, what the child says, mazes (i.e., false starts, revisions, repetitions), incomplete utterances, etc.

Identify "countable utterances," (i.e., those that contain a subject and a verb).

1. There are two types of utterances that do not contain a subject and verb, yet are still countable for MLU calculation:

a) Utterances in which the verb is omitted ("She nice to me.")

b) Commands in which the "you" is understood ("Sit down and eat your dinner.")

Rules for Counting Morphemes

Elliptical utterances (those that omit information that's included in a previous utterance. For example, "pancakes and toast" in response to "What did you have for breakfast?") are usually not counted because they don't contain a subject and verb. If one did include a subject and verb, it would be counted.

Rules…

If an utterance contains more than TWO clauses (i.e., subject and verb) connected by the conjunctions and, but, or, divide it into two separate utterances. The rule is that you should have no more than two independent clauses in each utterance. This is done so that a child's MLU wouldn't be inflated by the following, "My mom fed me breakfast and she washed my hair and she made my bed and she read me a story and she gave me a dog and she….”

Your sample should contain 100 countable utterances. Since you've transcribed everything, your sample will include far more than that. Number every utterance. Then go back and circle (or otherwise mark) the utterances that you'll be using for the MLU count (i.e., the "countable" ones).

Omit unintelligible utterances, but count unclear words as one word/one morpheme if the rest of the sentence is clear.

Rules..

Exclude any utterance which is an exact repetition of another.

Do not count spontaneous imitations of the examiner (or mother) unless the child alters forms.

Rules..

Tallying the Morphemes

Tallying Morphemes A. Tally the morphemes included in each "countable" or

circled utterance, using the following guidelines B. Mazes (i.e., false starts, interjections such as uh, oh;

repetitions) are not counted as additional morphemes. C. All compound words, proper names, and ritualized

reduplications count as single words and single morphemes. E.g. "moo-cow, choo-choo, night-night, see-saw".

D. Count as one morpheme all diminutives, e.g., "doggie".

E. All irregular past tensed verbs and irregular plurals are counted as one morpheme.

Tallying the Morphemes

F. All modals, auxiliaries, and (hafta, wanna, gonna) count as one word, one morpheme each.

G. All inflections count as separate morphemes (e.g. -ed, -s, -en, -ing).

H. In stuttering, count the word once in the most complete form produced.

I. Contractions count as "base + morpheme", i.e., two morphemes, one word.

J. For self-corrections and false starts, count the final version.

K. Contracted forms typically count as separate morphemes (e.g., don’t, isn’t, etc. count as two.)

Tallying the Morphemes

A. Count the morphemes in each countable utterance.

B. Sum the talleys of each utterance C. Divide by the number of countable

utterances (this should be 100).

IV. Reference Data (taken from Miller and Leadholm, 1992)

Calculating the Mean Length of Utterance

Exclude from your count Imitations Elliptical answers Partial utterances Unintelligible utterances Rote passages False starts and

Reformulations within utterances

Noises Discourse markers Identical utterances Counting or other

sequences of enumeration Single words or phrases

Calculating MLU Do’s and don’ts

Lund and Dunchan (1993)

Count as one morpheme• Uninflected lexical morphemes• Contractions• Inseparable linguistic units• Irregular past tense• Plurals which do not occur in

singular form • Gerunds and participles that

are not part of the verb phrase• Inflectional forms

• Contractions

• You need at least 50 utterances to calculate MLU

• 100 is recommended

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDYJcCsNOlOBF1zvOZN5nKsZoZIYirxqZ

You Tube Language Samplings

Use this only if you don’t have a child available for this assignment!

http://quizlet.com/11219213/browns-stages-of-development-flash-cards/

Quizlet demo