PvT Assignments 1-6
Assignment 1 (week 3)
1. Look at the transcripts of child speech below. What are the most important grammatical
properties of this child’s utterances in the ‘telegraphic stage’ (and give examples)? Do these
properties correspond to the ones mentioned in the book for telegraphic speech? Now look at the
child’s sentences in the so-called ‘differentiation phase’. Describe what aspects are new in this
phase in the repertoire of this child.
When I look transcript of the telegraphic stage, the first thing I notice is that the child does not
conjugate verbs (you could say the sentence is nog inflicted by time). For example: the child says
“there go (another) one”. Also I noticed that the child uses a lot of sentences made out of only a verb
and a noun, like “hear tractor”, “see truck”, “put truck”. Only once does the child say “I see”, but
besides that it is unclear who sees/hears/puts the tractor/truck. What I do find interesting is that the
child does put the verb before the noun, so uses the right grammatical word order, and doesn’t say
for example “truck see” or “window truck put”.
The book states that with telegraphic speech, a child uses short grammatical words and word
endings that “grammatically modify nouns and verbs are scarce” (p.63). I think this corresponds to
what you can see in the transcript, as the child mainly produces two-word sentences (although there
are some longer ones) and does not modify nouns and verbs as I mentioned earlier. The book also
mentions that these early sentences are about what’s in front of the child and generally make
positive statements. I think this is very clear in the transcript example, as the child only talks about
the thing(s) he can see (the truck).
When I look at the sentences in the differentiation phase transcript I clearly see that the child can
make longer and correct sentences. The child uses articles (“a kid”, “a stairs”, “the slide”) instead of
only a noun like in the telegraphic phase. Also the child uses a subject as well as conjugation of the
verb for example “I’m going on the slide”. This is a big difference compared to the telegraphic
phase where the child would’ve said something like “(I) (go) slide”. Another new aspect in this phase
is that the child is able to talk about more than what is right in front of him/her, like in the
telegraphic phase the child can talk about another park he knows and that he likes.
2. What are the two explanations that Harley proposes for the ‘telegraphic stage’ in child speech?
How could you determine which one is the correct one?
The two explanations he proposes are:
1. Children simplify language because their memory capacity is not fully developed yet and so they
leave out the words that aren’t as important to convey meaning. (This depends on the important
grammatical elements of a certain language).
2. Children do not understand exactly what grammatical elements do (they don’t understand the
meaning which is why they don’t use it) and how they work. They do seem to know syntax because
they use correct word order.
To determine which one is correct you could compare children with less and more developed
memory capacity and you will expect that the more developed children will produce fuller sentences.
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Assignment 1 (week 3)
1. Look at the transcripts of child speech below. What are the most important grammatical
properties of this child’s utterances in the ‘telegraphic stage’ (and give examples)? Do these
properties correspond to the ones mentioned in the book for telegraphic speech? Now look at the
child’s sentences in the so-called ‘differentiation phase’. Describe what aspects are new in this
phase in the repertoire of this child.
When I look transcript of the telegraphic stage, the first thing I notice is that the child does not
conjugate verbs (you could say the sentence is nog inflicted by time). For example: the child says
“there go (another) one”. Also I noticed that the child uses a lot of sentences made out of only a verb
and a noun, like “hear tractor”, “see truck”, “put truck”. Only once does the child say “I see”, but
besides that it is unclear who sees/hears/puts the tractor/truck. What I do find interesting is that the
child does put the verb before the noun, so uses the right grammatical word order, and doesn’t say
for example “truck see” or “window truck put”.
The book states that with telegraphic speech, a child uses short grammatical words and word
endings that “grammatically modify nouns and verbs are scarce” (p.63). I think this corresponds to
what you can see in the transcript, as the child mainly produces two-word sentences (although there
are some longer ones) and does not modify nouns and verbs as I mentioned earlier. The book also
mentions that these early sentences are about what’s in front of the child and generally make
positive statements. I think this is very clear in the transcript example, as the child only talks about
the thing(s) he can see (the truck).
When I look at the sentences in the differentiation phase transcript I clearly see that the child can
make longer and correct sentences. The child uses articles (“a kid”, “a stairs”, “the slide”) instead of
only a noun like in the telegraphic phase. Also the child uses a subject as well as conjugation of the
verb for example “I’m going on the slide”. This is a big difference compared to the telegraphic
phase where the child would’ve said something like “(I) (go) slide”. Another new aspect in this phase
is that the child is able to talk about more than what is right in front of him/her, like in the
telegraphic phase the child can talk about another park he knows and that he likes.
2. What are the two explanations that Harley proposes for the ‘telegraphic stage’ in child speech?
How could you determine which one is the correct one?
The two explanations he proposes are:
1. Children simplify language because their memory capacity is not fully developed yet and so they
leave out the words that aren’t as important to convey meaning. (This depends on the important
grammatical elements of a certain language).
2. Children do not understand exactly what grammatical elements do (they don’t understand the
meaning which is why they don’t use it) and how they work. They do seem to know syntax because
they use correct word order.
To determine which one is correct you could compare children with less and more developed
memory capacity and you will expect that the more developed children will produce fuller sentences.
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