Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle Eastern Languages
San Diego State University

Why are we interested in child language?

Infants comprehend a great deal even before they start to produce language. These children acquire language easily without direct instruction from the parents.

How do they do this?

In order to provide answers, we need to ask the following questions:

• Which words and which meanings do they comprehend first?
• What are the similarities and differences between children learning English and other languages?
• What relationship do children's early words have with their knowledge of the environment?