LBT 279-281宜嬅

III. EVOLVEMENT OF LANGUAGE IN THE HEALTHY CHILD

健康兒童的語言發展

(1) Phonology 音韻學

The first feature of natural language to be discernible in a child’s babbling is contour of intonation. Short sound sequences are produced that may have neither any determinable meaning nor definable phoneme structure, but they can be proffered with recognizable intonation such as occurs in questions, exclamations, or affirmations. The linguistic development of utterances does not seem to begin by a composition of individual, independently movable items but as a whole tonal pattern. With further development, this whole becomes differentiated into component parts; primitive phonemes appear which consist of very large classes of sounds that contrast with each other. R. Jakobson (1942) was the first to point this out clearly.

自然語言第一特徵是可識別的在兒童的嘮叨是語調等高。一系列短聲的產生既不是可決定的意義也不是可限定的音素結構，但他們可能與可辨認的語調一起出現像是問題、驚叫或肯定。言語的語言發展看起來似乎不是從個別地組成、獨立可移動的項目開始，而是整體上音調模式的構成。更進一步發展, 這整體成為區分組成成分；包括非常聲音階級大且互相對比的原始音素出現。R. Jakobson (1942) 是第一個這樣清楚地指出。

Such development seems reasonable enough if we consider the mechanisms of sound-making in man. The vocal tract is an instrument in which a dozen or more (the number is somewhat arbitrary) different adjustments may be made. A given speech sound results from selecting just one set of adjustment. During the prelanguage stage, movements are made erratically, and thus the ever-changing quality of the sounds is like the flux of patterns in a kaleidoscope. Gradually the child gains control over the fine execution of these movements, apparently over the laryngeal adjustments first, although there seems to be considerable individual variation in the order of these developmental events.

如果我們考慮一個男人產生聲音的機制，這樣的發展看起來似乎足夠合理。聲道是一個十二或更多的儀器(數字是任意的) 也許被做不同的調整。一個被給予的說話聲音從一套調整選擇產生。在前語言階段期間，變動不定，如此聲音的每個改變的質就像萬花筒裡樣式的改變。孩子逐漸取得對這些動作較好的控制，明顯地先在喉的調整，雖然看起來似乎在這些發展事件上相當多的的單獨變化。

Perceptually, the child reacts also to whole patterns rather than to small segments, and so the intonation pattern of a sentence is the more immediate input rather than individual phonemes. Order is introduced into the uncontrolled variation of sound-producing movements by a succession of refinements in skills in making various adjustments and combinations of adjustments. The mass of random sounds begin to be lined up into some fundamental classes that contrast with one another in terms of articulatory mechanisms, roughly corresponding to some of the distinctive features described by Jakobson, Fant and Halle (1963). If the baby has control over glottal and labial adjustments, he might go through a stage of four primitive phonemes as illustrated in Table 7.1.

感知地，孩子也對整體形式而不是對一小部分有反應，而且一個句子的語調形式也比個別因素更加直接地輸入。Jakobson、Fant 和哈雷(1963) 描述，命令被引入聲音產生動作的非控制振動經由一系列精密的能力去做不同各式各樣的調節和調整組合。根據一些基本原則，任意的聲音的聚集開始與其他發音有關的裝置對比，大致對應於一些不同的特徵。如果嬰兒能掌握聲門和唇的調整, 他可能會經歷一個像在表7.1裡說明的4個原始音素的階段 。

There is little regularity from child to child in the order of emergence of specific functional phoneme-units. The example of Table 7.1 is quite academic; in fact, it is doubtful whether the distinction between voiced and unvoiced labials is

有一點規律性是從孩子到孩子間按具體功能音素單位的順序誕生。表7.1的例子是相當理論的；事實上，它是否能在濁音和清音的唇音的區分上是令人懷疑的。

actually ever made at the first stage. The two cells to the right may, at first, be merged or, conversely some tongue movements may add a third dimension right from the beginning of the development of language-like phonology. The important point is that the first words are not composed of acoustically invariant speech sounds. Instead there are equivalence classes of sounds, and each class functions as a primitive phoneme. The actual sound that is uttered at a specific instant is merely one of many possible sounds out of its given class.

實際上曾經在第一階段產生。二個細胞在右邊也許。起初，被合併或一些舌頭運動也許相反可能增加第三個維度從一開始語言像音韻學的發展的。重要的是第一個詞不是由不變地講話的聲音組成，而是由相等階的聲音所替代，每一階的功能就像一個原始音素。 立即特定被說出的實際聲音是僅僅從許多可能的聲音的當中一個。

The structure of contrasting sound-classes becomes more and more complex, and the differentiation takes place along articulatory dimensions until the complete distinctive feature matrix is established. Although it is true that the development is one of gradual phoneme-differentiation, it does not follow that the child only learns the distinctions that are phonemic in the language surrounding him. There are many phonetic niceties, styles, or mannerisms that are also acquired and that are irrelevant to the phonemic structure. Interestingly enough, these are usually late developments and may still be in a process of formation at eight or ten years of age.

不同形式的聲音類別結構變得愈來愈複雜，並沿著發音的維度分化產生直到建立完全不同特徵的矩陣。雖然他是一個逐漸音素分化的真實發展，他不隨著兒童只學習分辨在環繞他身邊的語言的音素而發展。這裡有很多被獲取並與音素結構式不恰當的語音細微的區別、類型或方式。有趣的是足夠，這些通常是較晚發展, 也仍然是在8或10歲的過程中形成。

(2) Primitive one-word utterances 原始一字詞

Between the twelfth and eighteenth months the toddler is heard to utter unmistakable single words. There is evidence that at first these words serve quite a different function from that of mature speech. The difference is on all levels: phonological, syntactic, and semantic. The acoustic shape is merely a crude replica of the adult word, and it is only by means of our capacity to see pattern similarities that we can recognize the child’s word. This is common enough knowledge. But perhaps it has not been stressed sufficiently that it is not merely the adult who must be able to equate the child’s utterance to an English word; the child must have similar skills in pattern recognition and equation. For almost a whole year children are satisfied with general pattern similarity and dispense. so to speak, with segment by segment phonetic identity. Surely this has to do with their initial clumsiness and thus with maturational factors.

在第十二個和第十八個月之間，學步兒童可說出無誤的單詞。有證據證明起初這些詞從成熟講話發揮一個另外作用。區別是在所有水平上：音韻、語法、和語義。聲學形狀僅僅是成人詞的一件粗糙的複製品，並且它是只通過我們的理解力看樣式相似性我們能否認可兒童的詞。這是足夠共同的知識。但或許它充足地未被注重, 這不僅僅是必須能視同兒童的話語對英國詞的成人；孩子必須有相似的技能在形式識別和平衡。幾乎一整年孩子滿意對一般樣式相似性和分配。所謂，以段由音段本身。這肯定必須處理以他們最初的粗笨因而成熟的因素。

If this were not so, we might expect that many children would choose a different strategy toward language acquisition, namely, first to perfect their phonetic skills and only when they can reproduce a word with phonetic perfection, go on with syntax and semantics. This is what parrots do and, in fact, it is the usual strategy if teachers who want to train nonspeaking children (the related or the deaf) or animals to speak. It is also the strategy that most adults adopt in learning or teaching a second language. Therefore, the infant’s initial lack of concern for phonetic accuracy is by no means a trivial or logically necessary phenomenon. It points to a fundamental principle in language acquisition: what is acquired are patterns and structure, not constituent elements.

如果這不是，我們也許期望許多孩子會選擇一個另外取得語言的戰略，即首先完善他們的語音技能並且只當他們能再以完美語音生產一個詞，連同句法和語意。這是鸚鵡式做法，實際上，如果想要訓練不能說話的孩子的老師(相關或聾)或動物講話，這是通常策略。這也是多數成人在學會或教第二種語言時採取的戰略。所以，嬰兒最初缺乏對語音準確性的關心絕非一種瑣細或邏輯上必要的現象。它指向在獲得語言的一個根本原則：被獲取的是樣式和結構，不是組成成分。

There are also dramatic deviations in the realm of semantics during the firs t stage of single words. This is true of reference as well as of meaning. At the beginning, a word such as daddy covers a different and wider range of objects than later. There is overgeneralization. However, ay no time does the multitude of reference relationships and the multilevel overlap of synonymy, homonymy, metonymy or the names of particulars as against the names of generalities, of aspects, qualities or objects to which the language-learning child is exposed from the beginning cause a chaotic se of words. The reference classes of objects in the beginner’s language are merely less differentiated than in adult language, but from the start there is something which we might call an “understandable logic” to the word-object relationship. It is as if the child did in principle the same as adults do, only on a more general level.

在語意學領土還有劇烈的偏差在單詞的第一個階段。這對參考和意思都是正確的。在一開始，一個詞譬如爸爸包括個別和大範圍對象比照以後，有過度概括。然而，要時刻不做許多參考關係和同義、同音異義、換喻或特殊性的名字多重交疊與語言學習的孩子從一開始因詞混亂，普遍性的方面，質量或對象比較的名字。對象參考組在初學者的語言僅僅被區分比用成人語言，但從一開始有某事我們也許可對詞對象關係稱為“可理解的邏輯”。它是好像孩子做了與成人同一樣原則，只在更加一般的水平上。

It has already been pointed out that meaning is intimately related to syntax, because the meaning of the sentence is never equivalent to an unordered summation of the reference of words contained in the sentence.

它已經被指出意思密切與句法相關, 因為句子的意思與詞參考的一個無秩序的總和從來沒有等效的包含在句子裡。

A short elaboration on a certain aspect of the grammatical structure of adult utterances is necessary here. Is it correct to say that the unit of discourse is the sentence? Two objections are often raised in this connection. First, in adult speech we frequently hear single words uttered; in what respect are these sentences? Second, the transcripts of conversations always show drastic infringements upon grammar; can we call these distortions “sentences”?

一種短的闡述在成人話語語法結構的某一方面是必要的。它正確地說，會話的單位是句子？二異議經常在這與這關係提出。首先，在成人講話我們頻繁地聽見單詞被說出；這些句子是在什麼方面？其次，交談抄本總顯示猛烈地違反語法；我們可以叫這些變形“句子”嗎？