LINGUIST List 13.2379

Thu Sep 19 2002

Books: Psycholinguistics: Hickmann, Clark

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Joyce Reid, Children's Discourse by Maya Hickmann
2. Joyce Reid, First Language Acquisition by Eve V. Clark

Cambridge University Press
 http://www.cup.org/language


Children's Discourse
Person, Space and Time across Languages
Maya Hickmann, University of Paris V, France

Psycholinguist Maya Hickmann presents an original comparative study of
discourse development in English, French, German, and
Chinese. Hickmann discusses the main theoretical issues in the study
of first language acquisition and provides a wide review of available
studies in three domains of child language: person, space and
time. Her findings concern the rhythm of language acquisition, its
formal and functional determinants, and its universal
vs. language-specific aspects. The conclusions stress the importance
of relating sentence and discourse determinants of acquisition in a
crosslinguistic perspective.

Contents:

1. Introduction; Part I. Available Theories and Data: 2. Theoretical
issues; 3. Crosslinguistic invariants and variations; 4. Coherence and
cohesion in discourse development; 5. Children's marking of
information status: referring expressions and clause structure; 6. The
acquisition of spatial and temporal-aspectual devices; Part II. A
Crosslinguistic Study of Children's Narratives: 7. Methodological
issues; 8. Animate entities; 9. Space; 10. Time; 11. Conclusions;
Appendix.

Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 98

2002/c. 350 pp./65 graphs/14 tables
052158441-8/Hb/List: $65.00*

Cambridge University Press
 http://www.cup.org/language


First Language Acquisition
Eve V. Clark, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

This study takes a comprehensive look at where and when children
acquire a first language. It integrates social and cognitive
approaches to how children analyze, understand, and produce sounds,
words, and sentences as they learn to use language to cooperate and
achieve goals. A usage-based approach to considering what children
learn emphasizes pragmatic factors in language use, and includes
research on word-formation, and on bilingualism and dialect-choice.

Contents:

1; Acquiring Languages: Issues and Questions; 2; In Conversation with
Children; 3; Starting on Language: Perception; 4; Early Words; 5;
Sounds in Words: Production; 6; Words and Meanings; 7; First Word
Combinations, First Constructions; 8; Modulating Word Meanings; 9;
Adding Complexity within Clauses; 10; Combining Clauses: More Complex
Constructions; 11; Constructing Words; 12; Honing Conversational
Skills; 13; Do Things with Language; 14; Language and Dialect; 15;
Specialization for Language; 16; Acquisition and Change; 17; Glossary;
Bibliography

2002/536 pp./4 line diagrams/106 tables
052162003-1/Hb/List: $90.00
052162997-7/Pb/List: $32.00