This book presents a summary of the author's research on the acquisition and development of language by children at various stages of their development. The techniques employed in studying sentences children use were those of experimental psychology within a framework of a generative model of grammar. After describing what a child acquires and uses linguistically, the author examines the ways in which children develop and apply language.
The goals of the research behind language acquisition and development, and the experimental approaches to its study are discussed in the opening chapter. The results of experiments which describe the structure of sentences children from ages 2 to 7 comprehend and use are presented in subsequent chapters. The major part of the research reported is concerned with the acquisition and development of synthetic rules; the child's comprehension of phonological and semantic rules is only touched upon, indicating, primarily, the scanty research that has been done in those areas of grammar acquisition. Doctor Menyuk also includes the results of a number of new studies comparing the linguistic behavior of children who develop language in a normal manner and those who develop language in a deviant manner, indicating how a comparison can provide a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms and physiological functions underlying language usage. Wider aspects of the correlation between language and the psychophysiological functions underlying its use are outlined by the author as possibilities for further study in that area.
The psychologist will find this work an important study providing valuable data about the structural aspects of language the child uses as he matures. This research will also be important to the linguist in providing an understanding of the way in which language is acquired and develops, and the sentences used by children will give further evidence of the validity of a theory about the structure of language.