Connie Lai Observation of Hau Hau's Language
Hau Hau,( a two-year-old Chinese boy, )
1* starts the (two-word) 2* stage in his
early language. The vocabulary he uses is about fifty words. The sum of
words he can speak out is few so very often he has to add gestures to
help him express what he wants and what events have happened to him.
Hau Hau's pronunciation is not so good as ours, but he will try to correct
his own pronunciation when we correct him. Maybe it is because his vocal
tract is not well-developed for him to pronounce the same sound as adults
pronounce, sometimes he will give up trying the sounds of words adults
pronounce after he tries many times but still fails to pronounce it. He
has good comprehension about space, names of objects and some questioning
sentences adults say to him, though sometimes he can not say the words
or the sentence. The following I am going to divide into two parts to
discuss my observation. One is how Hau Hau talks, and the other is how
his parents, his babysitter, and we talk to him.
1*(Teacher's comment:
In 5 reports, Hau-hau has 3 different ages--18 months, 2 years, and 26
months)
2*(Teacher's comment:
two-word or two-morpheme?)
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- How Hau Hau talks:
- Words : All the words Hau Hau can speak out are around fifty.
(Most of the words he says are the
name of objects around him and his environment like cars, buses,
balls, dogs, cats, Papa, Mama, and so on.)1* Look at the chart below, it is obvious
that he likes to pay attention to the ends of words and reduplicates
the sound of word ending like other children (Operation Principle
D). To my surprise, Hau Hau can pronounce words which are more than
one syllable well. For example, he can say( tzuo4 guo3 guo3 chi4 che1 (坐 (1) ||公共汽車
(2)), gueng1 yuan2 wan2 (公園 (1)
||玩 (2)))2*, (ji4 cheng2 che1 (計程車),)3* and wo3 yao4 he1 (我要喝) which consist of at least three syllables.
1*(Teacher's comment:
Mainly nouns?)
2*(Teacher's comment:
Good examples of two-word utterances.)
3*(Teacher's comment:
3 morphemes, but probably we should consider it one word)
|
A1
Words |
Hau Hau's utterance |
Words |
Hau Hau's utterance |
洗澡 |
tzau3 tzau2 |
拖鞋 |
tuo1 tuo1 |
汽車 |
che1 che1; je1
je1; ji4 che1 |
火車 |
huo3 je1 |
皮球 |
chiou3 chiou2 |
坐 |
jiou4 |
笨 |
bên4 bên4 |
養樂多 |
duo1 duo1 |
雞 |
ji1 ji1 |
有 |
yu3 |
魚 |
yu2 |
牛奶 |
ni1 ni1 ; nie1
nie1 |
狗 |
gou3 gou2 |
蟲 |
chueng3 chueng2 |
貓 |
mau1 |
打開 |
da3 ; kai1 kai1
; dai1 dai1 |
兔子 |
du4 bau3 bau2 |
那邊 |
bie1 bie1 |
雨 |
yü2 |
西瓜 |
ding1 ba1; ding1ding1 |
水 |
juei3 |
大象 |
da4 jiang4 |
叔叔 |
shu3 shu2 |
長頸鹿 |
lu4 |
阿姨 |
yi2 |
蜘蛛 |
de1 du1 |
錢 |
chian2 |
去公園玩 |
gueng1 yüan3 yüan2
; wan2 gueng1 yüan2 |
姊姊 |
jie3 jie2 |
坐公共汽車 |
tzuo4 gou3 gou3
chi4 che1 |
飛機 |
ji1 ji1 |
找洪媽媽 |
jau3 hueng2 ma3
ma1 |
這個 |
je4 ge5 |
坐高翹 |
tzuo4 gau1 gau1 |
一樣 |
yi2 yang4 |
畫圈圈 |
chiuan1 chiuan1 |
男娃娃 |
yüan3 yüan2 |
畫三角形 |
san1 shing2 |
女娃娃 |
mei3 mei2 |
溜滑梯 |
ti1 ti1 |
媽媽 |
ma1 ma1 |
畫汽車 |
hua4 ji4 che1 |
爸爸 |
ba1 ba1 |
上廁所 |
bian4 bian4 |
腳踏車 |
jiau3 da je1 |
救火車 |
jiou4 huo3 che1 |
椅子 |
yi3 yi2 ; ji3
ji2 |
計程車 |
ji4 cheng2 che1 |
鞋子 |
shie3 shie2 |
吃飯 |
fan4 fan4 |
- Sounds: Hau Hau's pronunciation of words is all right. The tone
he likes to use is the second and third tone. This situation is
especially obvious when he reduplicates the word endings which are
the second or the third tone in adults' utterances. ( Hau Hau tends to pronounce the third tone
in the first word of reduplication and the second tone in the second
word of reduplication such as shu3
shu2 (叔叔), gou3 gou2 (狗狗), chueng3 chueng2 (蟲蟲), tzau3 tzau2 (澡澡), chiou3 chiou2 (球球) and so on. ) 1*(Besides, Hau Hau will pronounce some
strange sounds which are not the pronunciation of words. For example,
when Hau Hau sees some objects he doesn't know or something he wants
to get but can't pronounce the name, he will utter a sound like
ge5 (個)
with a rising tone when asking a name and with a falling tone when
requiring for an object. ) 2* Other
creative sounds are shown below .
1*(Teacher's comment:
Good observing)
2*(Teacher's comment:
This is an interesting strategy.)
|
B1
Utterance |
The action Hau Hau is doing |
wu2 |
When he looks at wild beasts in
pictures |
ba4 da4 |
When he looks at a lion in a picture and
calls it |
kiang4 |
When cars crash * |
o3 yi1 o3
yi1 |
His toy ambulance is running |
*(Teacher's comments:
Could this be a Chinese baby talk word? Danny
learned something very similar for sword fighting from the boys at the
babysitter's house)
- Overextension and underextension : From Hau Hau's utterance, I can't
find any underextension, but only overextension. Hau Hau's overextension
is similar to what our textbooks have shown. Hau Hau calls all kinds
of coins “chian2” (錢),
all circular shapes “chiou3
chiou2” (球球). And when he sees a bee's abdomen in a picture,
he takes out his toy car, puts it besides the bee, points to the bee's
abdomen with his little finger and says “yi2 yang4" (一樣). These three utterances are the overextension
that I can find in his language.
(Teacher's comment:
One might expect to find more.)
- Gestures and meanings : The words Hau Hau can speak out are very
few, so he often adds gestures to help himself express the information
he wants to convey to his listeners.
D1: asserting and requesting with words
(Teacher's comment:
And gestures?)
|
Speech act |
Utterance |
Context |
Assertion |
ba4 ba1 (ma4
ma1) + look
tang2 + look
|
Looking at his father (mother)
Looking at chocolate
|
Request |
yi2, kei1 + pat
ma1 ma1 + reach
ge5 + reach
ge5 + point
ba4 ba5 + point
|
Patting a candy box
Reaching toward any object desired
Reaching toward any object desired
Pointing at some thing
Pointing at his toy ambulance
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“One major function of the adults' gestures, and of the child's,
is to capture the attention of the other —the 'listener' — and then focus
it on a particular object or event. . . .For example, a child will point
at something and then turn to check that his mother is looking in the
right direction. If she isn't he will try to attract her attention by
tugging at her hand, for example, and then point again. . . .Children
use other gestures besides pointing for communication. For instance, they
commonly use openhanded reaching or grasping gestures to signal that they
want something. These reaching gestures are often accompanied by the child's
looking alternatively at what he wants and his adult 'listener.'
Children also use more specific gestures or combinations of gestures to
show what they want . . . . children's gestures seem to fall into
two groups: first, they use pointing gestures that seem to communicate
'Look at X' or 'Tell me about X'. . . . Second, children use reaching
gestures that seem to communicate 'Give me X' or 'Let me see (touch, play
with) X'” (C&C 313).
When Hau Hau wants to get some object, first he will
call the name of a listener, looks at his/her face, and after he makes
sure that the listener is listening to him, then he will reach his hand
toward the object he desires. The openhanded reaching or grasping gestures
mean he wants the object he is reaching for. In other words, he conveys
to the listeners the information “Give me X” when he can not say the word.
"Ge5” (個)
is the word he uses in two different ways. When he says “ge5”
with grasping gesture, that means he wants to get “this” (這個) object. But when he says “ge5” in a rising tone and with pointing gesture,
that means he doesn't know the name of the object. After he tries many
times to open the candy box but still can't open it, he will tug any adult's
hand, pat the cover of the box and say “kei1”
(開).
The second time when our group members went to visit
him, an interesting thing happened. While we were talking
to Hau Hau's mother, Hau Hau fell down in the kitchen and hurt his foot.
He didn't cry but tugged Adeline and me to the kitchen and pointed at
one spot on the floor of the kitchen. We didn't know what he tried to
say so we asked “Hau Hau, tze3 mou5 le5?” (Hau Hau, what is the matter?). Maybe he didn't know how to
describe his situation, so he left us alone and went to his room to find
something. After he took out a bottle of ointment, handed it to us, showed
us the wound on his foot, and said “je4
li3” (here), we understood the whole information
he wanted to convey to us. * That was he fell down at that spot in the
kitchen and he asked us to put ointment on for him. A cute guy!
Usually his gestures are accompanied by his one or
two-word utterance to convey his information he can not say in a complete
sentence. If we (the listeners) have basic knowledge about his gestures
and utterance, it won't be hard to understand what the meanings are that
Hau Hau tries to say. The following chart is a list of Hau Hau's other
combinations of gestures and meanings.
*(Teacher's comment:
Here we can see clearly what a hard
time small children have in communicating!)
|
D2
Utterance |
Gesture |
Meaning |
我要喝;爸爸,我 |
Pointing to himself |
Wants to drink water, tea, or coffee |
爸爸 |
Pointing to his father's clothes |
Those are Father's clothes |
媽媽 |
Pointing to his bike |
His mother bought him the bike |
怕怕 pa4
pa4 |
Smashes the animals on the picture and
turns to the next page |
He is afraid of those wild beasts and doesn't
want to see them |
|
With his hands cover his face and turn
the album to the next page |
He feels embarrassed when he looks at his
naked body in the photographs and doesn't want us to see them |
Bye-bye |
Waving his hand or giving us a flying kiss |
Means good-bye |
|
Tugging us hand when we are going to leave |
Doesn't want us to leave |
(Teacher's comment:
Good observation of gestures-This is something
we need to pay more attention to, beginning right from the earliest adult-child
interactions)
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- Comprehension : Hau Hau has good comprehension about locations,
some yes/no questions, some wh-questions, orders, and the difference
between objects in pictures and real things.
- *Location: Hau Hau seems to have
good comprehension about spatial concept. As we commanded him to
put a boy doll into/on a box, or asked him to take a boy doll out
of a box,( he could do as we said and
seldom made mistakes.) 1*To our group members’ surprise, he
could put things together and take them apart as we commanded, not
just put things together as our textbook said (C&C 504).( I think Hau Hau doesn't have a clear
concept about the spatial relationships of 前面
(in front of), 上方 (above) and 下面
(under) because he often put his object into a container when we
asked him to put his object in front of/above/under a container.) 2*
*(Teacher's comment:
For all these points, it's important to explain
just how you tested these things, so we can be sure he wasn't doing what
he would have done even if you hadn't said anything.)
1*(Teacher's comment:
Move one object toword another? Move two
objects apart, away from each other?)
2*(Teacher's comment:
So, probably he's relying on Rule 1 (C+C
503)? )
- Dimensional relations : Children like to have more and big objects,
and Hau Hau is no exception, too. As Hau Hau's mother requested
him to find us two small batteries, he took out one big battery
and said “da4 da4” (大大). We said we just
need small batteries, but he gave us a big battery. The same situation
also occurred when we asked him which was more, two or one;
he often took two batteries instead of one battery. His preference
for big and more matches the principle written in our textbook which
said that children seemed to understand the positive terms (C&C
505). To my observation, Hau Hau seemed that he didn't
know the words “high” and “low.” When I asked Hau Hau, “na3
yi2 ge5 ren2 bi3 jiau4 gau1, yi2 hai2 sh4 Hau4 Hau4?” (Which one is taller, Aunt
ot Hau Hau?), he stared at me puzzled. I gestured a high and low
position to him, but his reaction was the same —no reaction.
(Teacher's comments:
Maybe you should have asked him who was bigger (or even more).)
- Yes/no questions: When we asked Hau Hau yes/no questions
like “yu3 mei2 yu3 chiou3 chiou2 ?” (Do you have a ball?), he
would utter yu3 (有) if the answer was positive. He will utter
positive answers like hau3 (好), sh4 (是), guai1 (乖), and so on, but he won't utter a word if
the answer is negative, like bu2
yiau4 (不要) and mei2 yiou3 (沒有). The way he denied and refused was shaking
his head, running away, or slapping you angrily. When the listener
said wrong names of objects or said something bad about him, he
would slap the listener as a expression of rejection. Sometimes
Hau Hau also didn't answer the positive answers but did what he
wanted to do. For example, Hau Hau stretched out his foot to let
his mother put on shoes for him when his mother asked “你要不要穿鞋鞋?”
(Teacher's comment:
Any possible explanation here?)
- Wh-questions : Hau Hau understood the meaning of what, where and
who questions, though he often couldn't say it. But he didn't understand
what the questioner was asking when the questioner asked when, why
and how questions. It seemed Hau Hau still needed time *
to learn when, why and how questions. Although Hau Hau could answer
what, where, who questions well, sometimes he also made mistakes.
For instance, when Hau Hau's mother asked him, “你的鞋鞋呢?” (Where are your shoes?), Hau Hau answered
an unrelated answer, “我拖拖.”
*(Teacher's comment:
Why would when, why, how require more
time?)
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E1
The questioner |
Hau Hau's action/utterance |
這是什麼? (pointing)
你的腳呢?
你在找什麼?
你的牙齒在那裡?
車車誰買的?
|
車車
pointing to his feet
searching in his toy box
biting his mother
Mama, pointing to his mother
|
- Order: Hau Hau understands most of our commands and does them
well. Usually he can do as we command him to do such as 坐下, 站起來, 去尿尿, 吃飯, 穿鞋鞋, 拿糖糖給阿姨吃, and so on.
- Hypothetical sentences : Hau Hau's comprehension about the hypothetical
sentences which adults assert to him limits on the present time.
From the chart below, we see Hau Hau's reaction to his mother's
hypothetical sentences is uttering the main words he desires to
do now.
E2
Hypothetical sentences |
Hau Hau's reaction |
假如浩浩把飯吃完,姨就帶你到公園玩 |
Puts on his shoes and says 玩公園 |
浩浩乖!等一下Danny就會來 |
Running to the door+saying Danny |
把飯吃完,我們再去找洪媽媽 |
Says 找洪媽媽 |
- Distinguishing ability: I am not sure how well Hau
Hau can distinguish the real things from objects in pictures. Our
group members showed him some pictures of fruit and vehicles, and
he took out his toy vehicles, and put his toys beside the picture.
Then he told us yi2 yang4 (一樣; the same). But when he saw the pictures
of fruit, he wouldn't take the real fruit to match the fruit in
the picture. He just used his mouth to touch the picture or used
his teeth to bite it, so I am not sure if he knew the fruit in the
pictures could not be eaten. Maybe his action just wanted to tell
us the fruit he saw in the pictures could be eaten.
(Teacher's comment:
Hard to interpret- some of the other observers
were more definite about this.)
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To sum up, Hau Hau's comprehension is far beyond his utterances.
He knows many names of objects, adults' order and many other
things, but he can not utter the sound and the words because of the
limitation of his vocal tract.
- Sentence structure: Hau Hau just begins with his two-word
stage and the sum of his two-word utterances is few, so it is easy
to analyze his sentence structure. As I can find his two-word utterances
in Chart A1 and D1, I divide Hau Hau's sentence structure in two ways.
One is Agentive + Verb, and the other Verb + Objective.
(Teacher's comment:
Good analysis)
Agentive + Verb
|
Yi2, kei1
(姨,開)
Mama1, kan4 (媽媽,看)
|
Verb + Objective |
Wan2 gueng1
yüan2 (玩公園)
Tzuo4 gou3 gou3 chi4 che1 (坐公共汽車)
Jau3 hueng2 ma3 ma1 (找洪媽媽)
Tzou4 gau1 gau1 (坐高高)
Hua4 ji4 che1 (畫汽車)
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- How Hau Hau's parents and other adults talk to Hau Hau
Hau Hau is a naughty boy. He is so active that it is not easy to catch
his attention. I noticed that when his mother wanted to talk to him, she
would call Hau Hau's name in high pitch at first until she made sure Hau
Hau was listening to her. Then she started to talk to Hau Hau. Most of
what she talked to Hau Hau was restricted to “here and now” like “穿上你的褲褲” (put on your pajamas), “把門關上”
(close the door) with pointing gesture, and so on.
Hau Hau's parents and other adults (we) also used baby talk to him. For
example, we said “wo3 men5
lai2 tzuo4 che1 che1" (我們來坐車車) instead of “wo3
men5 lai2 tzuo4 chi4 che1 (我們來坐汽車) when we talked to Hau Hau.
As we talked to Hau Hau, we tended to select easy and useful words. For
instance, we would say 狗狗 for all kinds of dogs, 蘋果, 橘子 instead of 水果.
Of course, Chinese parents also ask their children whether they want to
eat fruit, like “你要不要吃水果?” Baby talk, easy and
useful words are often used by Hau Hau's parents, his babysitter and other
adults when they talk to him *, so Hau Hau may imitate adults’ sound. Or maybe it's
adults who imitate his baby talk.
*( Teacher's comment:
Whose imitation comes first?)
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"Just as adults select what they say to young children by restricting
it to the 'here and now,' so they alter the way they say what they
say when talking to children. They do this in three ways: they slow down,
they use short, simple sentences, and they repeat themselves frequently”
(C&C 326). When Hau Hau showed a puzzled expression on his face to
tell his parents that he didn't understand what they said, then his parents
would slow down their speaking speed, change another simple sentence,
or repeat their words to him. Usually Hau Hau could understand what his
parents said to him in these three ways.
As our group members were talking to Hau Hau, sometimes we encouraged
Hau Hau to take his turn when one of our group member had conversation
with him. The purposes of taking turns are for continuing conversation,
correcting information and for teaching him new words. The following conversation
is between Hau Hau and me. I tried to teach him to say 電視機
but he only uttered 機.
Connie: Hau Hau, 這是什麼? (pointing to a car)
Hau Hau: 汽車
Connie: 浩浩好厲害喔!告訴姨,車車誰買給你的?
Hau Hau: (pointing to his mother)
Connie: 媽媽買的對不對?
Hau Hau: 媽媽
Connie: 浩浩,再告訴姨,那是什麼? (pointing to the television
set)
Hau Hau: (no reaction)
Connie: 浩浩,說「電視機」
Hau Hau: 機
In the way of taking turns, Hau Hau knew what the television set was,
though he just could utter 機 instead of 電視機.
I have mentioned that one of the purposes of taking
turns in conversation is to make correction. When the conversation between
Hau Hau and one of our group members continued by turns, we sometimes
corrected his pronunciation and the names of objects he named wrong. The
following conversation occurred when Jennifer showed Hau Hau pictures.
Jennifer (pointing to a car): 這是什麼?
Hau Hau: ji4 je1
Jennifer: 好棒喔!浩浩,再說一遍chi4 che 1
Hau Hau: chi4 je1
Jennifer: chi4 che1
Hau Hau gave up trying and turned to the next page.
Jennifer (pointing to a tiger): 這是什麼?浩浩
Hau Hau: mau1 (貓)
Jennifer: 這不是貓,這是老虎
Hau Hau: wu2 (slapping the tiger
on the picture and turning to the next page)
Although Hau Hau did not repeat 老虎 or 虎
after Jennifer, we could tell that Hau Hau knew a tiger was a wild animal
from the sound of wu2 he usually
uttered when he saw wild beasts and we also knew Hau Hau was afraid of
wild beasts by his action of slapping the picture and turning it to the
next page. During my observation of how Hau Hau's mother talked to Hau
Hau, I found that Hau Hau's mother seldom corrected Hau Hau's pronunciation.
As we asked what Hau Hau was saying when we heard Hau Hau's unclear utterance
and didn't understand him, Hau Hau's mother would explain to us what Hau
Hau uttered rather than correcting his pronunciation.
(Teacher's comment:
Interesting point!)
Comparing the result of my observation with what our textbooks say, I
find children from different countries seem to experience a similar process
of language acquisition and have similar phenomenon of uttering in their
early language.
Teacher's comment: Very thorough, intereting, and informative observation report!
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