The Mind of the Child Part 28

-----------------------|----------------|-----------------|------------- Parts of Speech. | First child. | Second child. | Third child.

-----------------------|----------------|-----------------|------------- Nouns | 285 | 230 | 113 Verbs | 107 | 90 | 30 Adjectives | 34 | 37 | 13 Adverbs | 29 | 17 | 6 Other parts of speech | 28 | 25 | 11 |----------------|-----------------|------------- Total | 483 | 399 | 173 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fourth child, brother of the first and second, made use (according to the lists kindly communicated to me by the author), in his twenty-fourth month, of 227 nouns--some proper names among them--105 verbs, 22 adjectives, 10 adverbs, and 33 words of the remaining cla.s.ses (all these figures being taken from the notes of the child's mother).

From these four vocabularies of the twenty-fourth month it plainly results that the stock of words and the kinds of words depend primarily on the words most used in the neighborhood of the child, and the objects most frequently perceived; they can not, therefore, be alike in different children. The daughters of the astronomer, before their third year, name correctly a portrait of Galileo, and one of Struve. A local "tone," or peculiarity of this sort, attaches to every individual child, a general one to the children of a race. I may add that the third child (in England) seems to have been less accurately observed than the others (in Madison, Wisconsin). Great patience and attention are required to observe and note down every word used by a child in a month.

Without mentioning the name of Holden, but referring to his investigations, which, in spite of the defects mentioned, are of the very highest merit, M. W. Humphreys, Professor of Greek in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, has published a similar treatise, based on observations of his own ("A Contribution to Infantile Linguistic," in the "Transactions of the American Philological a.s.sociation," 1880, xi, pp. 6-17). He collected, with the help of a dictionary, all the words that a little girl of just two years "had full command of," whether correctly p.r.o.nounced or not, and whether they appeared exactly in the twenty-fourth month or earlier. He simply required to be convinced that every one of the words was understood and had been spontaneously used, and could still be used. He did not include proper names, or words (amounting to hundreds) from nursery-rhymes, or numerals, or names of the days of the week, because he was not sure that the child had a definite idea a.s.sociated with them. The vocabulary thus numbered 1,121 words: 592 nouns, 283 verbs, 114 adjectives, 56 adverbs, 35 p.r.o.nouns, 28 prepositions, 5 conjunctions, and 8 interjections. In this table irregular verb-and noun-forms are not counted as separate words, except in the case of defective verbs, as _am_, _was_, _been_. The author presents the 1,121 words according to their cla.s.sification as parts of speech, and according to initial _letters_, not according to initial _sounds_, although he himself declares this an erroneous proceeding, as I did in discussing Holden's paper. The only reason for it was convenience.

In the adoption of a word by the child, difficulty of utterance had some influence in the _first_ year; when the little girl was two years old, this had ceased to have any effect whatever. She had by that time adopted certain subst.i.tutes for letters that she could not p.r.o.nounce, and words containing these letters were employed by her as freely as if the subst.i.tutes had been the correct sounds. In regard to the meaning, and the frequency of use dependent upon it, it is to be observed that the simplest ideas are most frequently expressed. When two words are synonymous, one of them will be used exclusively by a child, because of the rarer employment of the other by persons speaking in the child's presence. Here, too, the local "tone" that has been mentioned made itself felt; thus, the little girl used the word "crinoid" every day, to designate sections of fossil crinoid stems which abounded in neighboring gravel walks.

As to parts of speech, nouns were most readily seized; then, in order, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, p.r.o.nouns. Prepositions and conjunctions the child began to employ early, but acquired them slowly. Natural interjections--_wah_, for instance--she used to some extent from the beginning; conventional ones came rather late.

The following observations by Humphreys are very remarkable, and are, in part, up to this time unique:

When about four months old the child began a curious and amusing mimicry of conversation, in which she so closely imitated the ordinary cadences that persons in an adjacent room would mistake it for actual conversation. The articulation, however, was indistinct, and the vowel-sounds obscure, and no attempt at separate words, whether real or imaginary, was made until she was six months old, _when she articulated most syllables distinctly_, without any apparent effort.

When she was eight months old it was discovered that she knew by name every person in the house, as well as most of the objects in her room, and the parts of the body, especially of the face. She also understood simple sentences, such as, "Where is the fire?" "Where is the baby in the gla.s.s?" to which she would reply by pointing. In the following months she named many things correctly, thus using words as words in the proper sense. The p.r.o.nunciation of some final consonants was indistinct, but all initial consonants were distinctly p.r.o.nounced, except _th_, _t_, _d_, _n_, _l_. These the child learned in the eleventh month. At this period she could imitate with accuracy any sound given her, and had a special preference for _ng_ (_ngang_, _ngeng_), beginning a mimicry of language again, this time using real or imaginary words, without reference to signification. But an obscurity of vowel-sounds had begun again. After the first year her facility of utterance seemed to have been lost, so that she watched the mouths of others closely when they were talking, and labored painfully after the sounds. Finally, she dropped her mimicry of language, and, at first very slowly, acquired words with the ordinary infant p.r.o.nunciation, showing a preference for l.a.b.i.als (_p_, _b_, _m_) and linguals (_t_, _d_, _n_, not _l_). Presently she subst.i.tuted easy sounds for difficult ones. In the period from eighteen months to two years of age, the following defects of articulation appeared regularly: _v_ was p.r.o.nounced like _b_, _th_ (_this_) like _d_, _th_ (_thin_) like _t_, _z_ like _d_, _s_ like _t_, _r_ like _w_, _j_ like _d_, _ch_ like _t_, _sh_ like _t_; further:

Initial. Final.

_f_ like _w_, _f_ like _p_, _l_ not at all, _l_ correctly, _g_ like _d_, _g_ correctly, _k_ like _t_, _k_ correctly,

and in general correctly, _m_, _b_, _p_, _n_, _d_, _t_, _h_, _ng_, _w_.

On the other hand, the initial sounds _bl_, _br_, _li_, _pr_, _fl_, _fr_, _dr_, _tr_, _thr_, _sp_, _st_, became _b_, _b_, _p_, _p_, _w_, _w_, _d_, _t_, _t_, _p_, _t_; and the initial sounds _sk_, _sw_, _sm_, _sn_, _sl_, _gl_, _gr_, _kw_, _kl_, _kr_, _hw_, became _t_, _w_, _m_, _n_, _t_ (for _s_), _d_, _w_, _w_, _t_, _w_, _hw_ (_h_ weak). The letter _y_ was not p.r.o.nounced at all, at first.

From this table, as Humphreys rightly observes, may be drawn the following conclusions in regard to the initial sounds of words:

When a letter which could be p.r.o.nounced correctly preceded another, the first was retained, but, if both were represented by subst.i.tutes, the second was retained. If, however, the second was one which the child made silent, then she p.r.o.nounced the first. Thus, _tr_ = _t_, _kr_ = _w_ (for _r_), _kl_ = _t_ (for _k_, _l_ being one of her silent letters).

With these results should be compared those presented in regard to German children, in the paper of Fritz Schultze (p. 239 above) (which likewise are not of universal application).

The accent was for the most part placed on the last syllable. Only one case of the invention of a new word could be established. When the child was about eighteen months old, a fly flew all about her plate when she was eating, and she exclaimed, "The old fly went wiggely-waggely." But at this time the child had already learned to speak; she knew, therefore, that perceptions are expressed by words. Notwithstanding, the original invention remains remarkable, unless there may be found in it a reminiscence of some expression out of nursery-talk (cf., p. 238). Until the eighteenth month, "no" signified both "yes" and "no."

At the end of two years subordinate propositions were correctly employed. This was the case also with a German girl in Jena, who, for instance, said, "The ball which Puck has" (P. Furbringer). In the case of my boy such sentences did not make their appearance till much later.

I had hoped to find trustworthy observations in several other works besides those mentioned. Their t.i.tles led one to expect statements concerning the acquirement of speech by little children; thus, "Das Kind, Tagebuch eines Vaters" ("The Child, A Father's Diary"), by H.

Semmig (second edition, Leipsic, 1876), and the book of B. Perez, already named (p. 239). But inasmuch as for the former of these writers the first cry of the newly-born is a "triumphal song of everlasting life," and for the second author "the glance" is a.s.sociated with "the magnetic effluvia of the will," I must leave both of these works out of consideration. The second contains many statements concerning the doings and sayings of little children in France; but these can not easily be turned to account.

The same author has issued a new edition, in abridged form, of the "Memoirs," written, according to him, by Dietrich Tiedemann, of a son of Tiedemann two years of age (the biologist, Friedrich Tiedemann, born in 1781). (_Thierri Tiedemann et la science de l'enfant. Mes deux chats.

Fragment de psychologie comparee par Bernard Perez._ Paris, 1881, pp.

7-38; Tiedemann, 39-78. "The First Six Weeks of Two Cats.") But it is merely on account of its historical interest that the book is mentioned here, as the scanty (and by no means objective) notes of the diary were made a hundred years ago. The treatises of Pollock and Egger, mentioned in the periodical "Mind" (London, July, 1881, No. 23), I am not acquainted with, and the same is true of the work of Schwarz (mentioned above, p. 224).

Very good general statements concerning the child's acquisition of speech are to be found in Degerando ("L'education des sourds-muets de naissance," 1 vol., Paris, 1827, pp. 32-57). He rightly maintains that the child learns to speak through his own observation, without attention from other persons, far more than through systematic instruction; the looks and gestures of the members of the family when talking with one another are especially observed by the child, who avails himself of them in divining the meaning of the words he hears. This divining, or guessing, plays in fact a chief part in the learning of speech, as I have several times remarked.

New comprehensive diaries concerning the actions of children in the first years of life are urgently to be desired. They should contain nothing but well-established _facts_, no hypotheses, and no repet.i.tions of the statements of others.

Among the very friendly notes that have been sent to me, the following particularly conform to the above requirements. They were most kindly placed at my disposal by the Baroness von Taube, of Esthonia, daughter of the very widely and honorably known Count Keyserling. They relate to her first-born child, and come all of them from the mother herself:

In the first five months I heard from my son, when he cried, all the vowels. The sound _a_ was the first and most frequent. Of the consonants, on the other hand, I heard only _g_, which appeared after seven weeks. When the child was fretful he often cried _gege_; when in good humor he often repeated the syllables _agu_, _ago_, _aou_, _ogo_, _eia_; then _l_ came in, _ul_.

The same sounds in the case of my daughter; but from her I heard, up to her tenth month, in spite of all my observation, no other consonants than _g_, _b_, _w_, rarely _l_, and finally _m_-sounds. With my son at the beginning of the seventh month an R-sound appeared--_grr_, _grrr_, plainly a.s.sociated with _d_ in _dirr dirr_. These sounds were decidedly sounds of discomfort, which expressed dissatisfaction, violent excitement, sleepiness; and they are made even now by the boy at four years of age when, e. g., he is in pain. In the ninth month _dada_ and _b_, _bab-a_, _bab-a_ are added. _Ago_ also is often said, and _o_ still more often. This _o_ is already a kind of conscious attempt at speaking, for he uses it when he sees anything new, e. g., the dog Caro, which he observes with eager attention, as he does the cat, uttering aloud meanwhile _o, o_.

If any one is called, the child calls in a very loud voice, _o, oe!_ First imitation. (Gestures have been imitated since the eighth month, and the making of grimaces in the child's presence had to be strictly forbidden.) Understanding for what is said is also present, for when one calls "Caro, Caro," in his hearing, he looks about him as if he were looking for the dog. In the tenth month he often repeats _Pap-ba_, but it has no significance.

If "Backe backe kuchen" ("bake cakes," corresponding to our

"pat-a-cake") is said to him, he immediately pats his hands as if preparing bread for baking. In the eleventh month _Pap-ba_ is dropped. He now says often _dadadada_, and, when he is dull or excited (_erregt_) or sleepy, _drin, drin_. These _r_-sounds do not occur with my daughter; but since her tenth month she uses _m_-sounds, _mamma_ when she is sleepy or dull. The boy now stretches out his hand and beckons when he sees any one at a distance. At sight of anything new, he no longer says _o_, but _ada_ (twelfth month). He likes to imitate gestures with his arms and mouth; he observes attentively the _movements of the lips of one who is speaking_, sometimes _touching_ at the same time the _mouth of the speaker with his finger_.

At ten months the first teeth came. In the eleventh month the child was for the first time taken out into the open air. Now the _g_-sounds again become prominent--_aga_, _ga_, _gugag_. The child begins to creep, but often falls, and while making his toilsome efforts keeps crying out in a very comical manner, _ach, ach, ach!_

At eleven and a half months a great advance. The child is now much out of doors, and enjoys seeing horses, cows, hens, and ducks. When he sees the hens he says _gog, gog_, and even utters some croaking sounds. He can also imitate at once the sound _prrr_ when it is p.r.o.nounced to him. If _papa_ is p.r.o.nounced for him (he has lost this word), he responds regularly _wawa_ or _wawawa_. I have only once heard _wauwau_ from him. If he hears anybody cough, he immediately gives a little imitative cough in fun (vol. i, p. 288), and this sounds very comical.

He makes much use of _od_, _ado_, and _ad_, and this also when he sees pictures. When the boy had reached the age of a year, he was weaned; from that time his mental development was very rapid. If any one sings to him gi ga gack, he responds invariably _gack_.

He begins to adapt sounds to objects: imitation of sound is the chief basis of this adaptation. He calls the ducks with _gak, gak_, and imitates the c.o.c.k, after a fas.h.i.+on, names the dog _aua_ (this he got from his nurse), not only when he sees the animal, but also when he hears him bark. E. g., the child is playing busily with pasteboard boxes; the dog begins to bark outside of the house; the child listens and says _aua_. I roll his little carriage back and forth; he immediately says _brrr_, pointing to it with his hand; he wants to ride, and I have to put him in (he had heard _burra_, as a name for riding, from his nurse). When he sees a horse, he says _prr_ (this has likewise been said for him).

I remark here that the notion that the child thinks out its own language--a notion I have often met with, held by people not well informed in regard to this matter--rests on defective observation. The child has part of his language given to him by others; part is the result of his own sound-imitations--of animals, e. g.--and part rests on mutilations of our language.

At the beginning of the thirteenth month he suddenly names all objects and pictures, for some days, _dodo_, _toto_, which takes the place of his former _o_; then he calls them _niana_, which he heard frequently, as it means "nurse" in Russian. Everything now is called _niana_: _dirr_ continues to be the sign of extreme discomfort.

_Papba_ is no more said, ever; on the other hand, _mamma_ appears for the first time, but without any significance, still less with any application to the mother.

The word _niana_ becomes now the expression of desire, whether of his food or of going to somebody or somewhere. Sometimes, also, under the same circ.u.mstances, he cries _mamma_ and _mamma_; the dog is now decidedly called _aua_, the horse _prr_.

_14th Month._--He now names also single objects in his picture-book: the dog, _aua_, the cats, _t.i.th_ (p.r.o.nounced as in English), _kiss kiss_ having been said for him; horses, _prr_, all birds, _gock_ or _gack_. In the house of a neighbor he observes at once the picture, although it hangs high up on the wall, of the emperor driving in a sleigh, and cries _prrr_.

Animals that he does not know he calls, whether in the book or the real animals, _aua_ or _ua_, e. g. cows.

His nurse, to whom he is much attached, he now calls decidedly _niania_, although he continues to use this word in another sense also. If she is absent for some time, he calls, longingly, _niania_, _niania_. He sometimes calls me _mamma_; but not quite surely yet. He babbles a good deal to himself; says over all his words, and makes variations in his repertory, e. g., _niana_, _kanna_, _danna_; repeats syllables and words, producing also quite strange and unusual sounds, and acc.u.mulations of consonants, like _mba_, _mpta_. As soon as he wakes in the morning he takes up these meaningless language-exercises, and I hear him then going on in an endless babble.

When he does not want a thing, he shakes his head as a sign of refusal; this no one has taught him. Nodding the head as a sign of a.s.sent or affirmation he is not yet acquainted with, and learns it much later.

The nurse speaks with me of Caro; the child attends and says _aua_; he knows what we were talking about. If his grandmother says, "Give the little hand," he at once stretches it out toward her. He understands what is said, and begins consciously to repeat it. His efforts to p.r.o.nounce the word Grossmama (grandmamma) are comical; in spite of all his pains, he can not get beyond the _gr_; says _Gr-mama_, and finally _Goo-mama_, and makes this utterance every time he sees his grandmother. At this time he learns also from his nurse the word _koppa_ as a name for horse, instead of _prr_, _burra_, which, from this time forth, denotes only going in a carriage. _Koppa_ is probably a formation from "hoppa koppati," an imitation of the sound of the hoofs.

At the end of the fourteenth month, his stock of words is much enlarged. The child plays much in the open air, sees much, and advances in his development; words and sounds are more and more suited to conceptions. He wakes in the night and says _appa_, which means "Give me some drink." The ball he calls _Ball_; flower, _b.u.me_ (for Blume); cat, _katz_ and _kotz_ (Katze)--what _kalla_, _kanna_, _kotta_ signify we do not know. He imitates the barking of the dog with _auauauau_. He says _teine_ for Steine (stones); calls Braten (roast meat) _paati_ and _paa_, and Brod (bread) the same. If he hits against anything in creeping, he immediately says _ba_ (it hurts). If he comes near a dangerous object, and some one says to him, _ba_, he is on his guard at once.

A decided step in advance, at the end of the fourteenth month, is his calling me _Mama_. At sight of me he often cries out, in a loud voice and in a coaxing tone, _ei-mamma!_ just as he calls the nurse _ei-niana_. His father he now calls _Papa_, too, but not until now, although this sound, _papba_, made its appearance in the tenth month, after which time it was completely forgotten. His grandmother, as he can not get beyond the _gr_, is now called simply _grrru_; not until later, _Go-mamma_.

_15th Month._--He now says _Guten Tag_ (good-day), but not always at the right time; also _Guttag_. He likes to see pictures, and calls picture-books _ga_ or _gock_, probably because a good many birds are represented in them. He likes to have stories told to him, and to have pictures explained or rather named.

"Hinauf" (up) he calls _uppa_, e. g., when he is to be lifted into his chair. For "unten, hinab" (below, down), he says _patz_. Not long ago he repeated unweariedly _pka, pta_ (pp.

139, 144), _mba, mbwa_.

At this period he begins to raise himself erect, holding on by chairs and such things.

Of horses he is pa.s.sionately fond; but he begins to use the word _koppa_, as the Chinese do their words, in various meanings. He calls my large gold hair-pins _koppa_. Perhaps in his imagination they represent horses, as do many other objects also with which he plays. Berries he now calls _mamma_. He has a sharp eye for insects, and calls them all _putika_, from the Esthonian _puttukas_ (beetle), which he has got from the maid.

All large birds in the picture-book he now calls _papa_, the word being probably derived from _Papagei_ (parrot), which he also p.r.o.nounces _papagoi_. The smaller birds are called _gog_ and _gack_.

His image in the gla.s.s he calls _t.i.tta_ (Esthonian designation for child, doll). Does he recognize himself in it (p. 196, _et seq._)?

Once he heard me in the garden calling some one in a loud voice.

He immediately imitated me, and afterward when he was asked "What does mamma do?" he understood the question at once, put out his lips, and made the same sound. He is very uneasy in strange surroundings, in strange places, or among strangers.