On the fringes of the system: Children's acquisition of syntactically isolated forms at the onset of speech

Analysis of the utterances of 16 beginning speakers revealed that the great majority of linguistic forms they had acquired consisted of forms lacking syntactic combinatorial properties in adult language. The results support the hypothesis that young children are unable to learn linguistic signs which are integrated into the linguistic system by a complex network of interrelationships. Rather, they are limited to such forms which are sustained by their own individual and discrete ‘language games’, such as interjections, vocatives, moves in rituals and in games, as well as unmarked general forms for the expression of specific communicative intents. This restriction is attributable to the nature of the learning task facing a beginner attempting to master a complex system, rather than to the characteristics of the learners themselves. Thus, it is unnecessary to search for an explanation for the character of early utterances in terms of some prior limitations of young children, such as lack of object concepts, lack of internal representation and the like.