Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:56:18.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acquisition of Pig Latin: a case study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Nelson Cowan
Nelson Cowan*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri, Columbia
*
Department of Psychology, 210 McAlester Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A boy's acquisition of Pig Latin was monitored throughout the year preceding first grade. Abilities underlying this game include the identification of words, deletion of the first syllabic onset (i.e. prevocalic consonants) of each word, blending of this onset and the suffix [e1] onto the word's end, and short-term memory for speech units. Performance improved over time as the underlying abilities developed. Meanwhile, various informative errors were made. Throughout most of the study, onsets that were correctly removed from a word's beginning were often added to its end incorrectly; unstressed function words were repeated intact and not transformed; and the first syllabic onset was overlooked when the syllable was unstressed. Because speech games like this one depend upon basic language skills, they can clarify aspects of ordinary language development.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1989 , pp. 365 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by NIH Grant 1–R23–HD21338–02 awarded to the author. I thank Zachary Ispa-Landa and Boris Landa for providing important information, and I thank Rebecca Treiman and Jean Ispa for helpful comments.

References

REFERENCES

Alegria, J., Pignot, E. & Morais, J. (1982). Phonetic analysis of speech and memory codes in beginning readers. Memory & Cognition 10. 451–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, L. & Bryant, P. E. (1983). Categorizing sounds and learning to read–a causal connection. Nature 301. 419–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, P. & Goswami, U. (1987). Phonological awareness and learning to read. In Beech, J. R. & Colley, A. M. (eds), Cognitive approaches to reading. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Case, R. (1974). Structures and strictures: some functional limitations on the course of cognitive growth. Cognitive Psychology 6. 544–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Case, R., Kurland, M. & Goldberg, J. (1982). Operational efficiency and the growth of short-term memory span. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 33. 386–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chrisman, O. (1893). Secret language of children. Science 22. 303–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, H. H. & Clark, E. V. (1977). Psychology and language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Content, A., Kolinsky, R., Morais, J. & Bertelson, P. (1986). Phonetic segmentation in pre-readers: effect of corrective information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 42. 49–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, N., Braine, M. D. S. & Leavitt, L. A. (1985). The phonological and metaphonological representation of speech: evidence from fluent backward talkers. Journal of Memory and Language 24. 679–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, N. & Leavitt, L. A. (1982). Talking backward: exceptional speech play in late childhood. Journal of Child Language 9. 481–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N. & Leavitt, L. A. (1987). The developmental course of two children who could talk backward five years ago. Journal of Child Language 14. 393–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downing, J. & Oliver, P. (1973–1974). The child's conception of ‘a word.’ Reading Research Quarterly 9. 568–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drewnowski, A. (1980). Attributes and priorities in short-term recall: a new model of memory span. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 109. 208–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (1975). Word consciousness in readers and prereaders. Journal of Educational Psychology 67. 204–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallows, D. (1981). Experimental evidence for English syllabification and syllable structure. Journal of Linguistics 17. 309–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C. A., & Macken, M. A. (1983). The role of play in phonological development. In Nelson, K. E. (ed.), Children's language. Vol. 4. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fox, B. & Routh, D. K. (1984). Phonemic analysis and synthesis as word attack skills: revisited. Journal of Educational Psychology 76. 1059–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, E. C. (1969). Syllables. Journal of Linguistics 5. 253–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleitman, L. R. & Wanner, E. (1982). Language acquisition: the state of the state of the art. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. R. (eds), Language acquisition: the state of the art. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Halle, M. (1962). Phonology in generative grammar. Word 18. 54–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halle, M. & Vergnaud, J. R. (1980). Three dimensional phonology. Journal of Linguistic Research 1. 83–105.Google Scholar
Hildreth, G. H., Griffiths, N. L. & McGauvran, M. E. (1964). Metropolitan Readiness Tests. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Hirschberg, L. K. (1913). ‘Dog Latin’ and sparrow-languages used by Baltimore children. Pedagogical Seminary 20. 257–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, M. H. & MacGinitie, W. H. (1972). Children's conceptions of word boundaries in speech and print. Journal of Educational Psychology 63. 551–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulme, C. (1987). Reading retardation. Phonological awareness and learning to read. In Beech, J. R. & Colley, A. M. (eds), Cognitive approaches to reading. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, Janellen (1964). Children's language: word-phrase relationship. Science 143. 264–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, B. (ed.) (1976). Speech play. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1982). A course in phonetics. Second edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Lenel, J. & Cantor, J. (1981). Rhyme recognition and phonemic perception in young children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 10. 57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewkowicz, N. K. (1980). Phonemic awareness training: what to teach and how to teach it. Journal of Educational Psychology 72. 686–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundberg, I. (1978). Aspects of linguistic awareness related to reading. In Sinclair, A., Jarvella, R. J. & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), The child's conception of language. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
MacKay, D. G. (1972). The structure of words and syllables: evidence from errors in speech. Cognitive Psychology 3. 210–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maclean, M., Bryant, P. & Bradley, L. (1987). Rhymes, nursery rhymes, and reading in early childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 33. 255–81.Google Scholar
Mann, V. A. & Liberman, I. Y. (1984). Phonological awareness and verbal short term memory. Journal of Learning Disabilities 17. 592–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, W. & Ervin, S. M. (1964). The development of grammar in child language. In U. Bellugi & R. Brown (eds), The acquisition of language. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 29. No. 92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morais, J., Carey, L., Alegria, J. & Bertelson, P. (1979). Does awareness of speech as a sequence of phones arise spontaneously? Cognition 7. 323–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, C. (1978). Children's awareness of language, with emphasis on sound systems. In Sinclair, A., Jarvella, R. J. & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), The child's conception of language. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Richardson, E., DiBenedetto, B. & Bradley, C. M. (1977). The relationship of sound blending to reading achievement. Review of Educational Research 47. 319–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherzer, J. (1970). Talking backwards in Cuna: the sociological reality of phonological descriptions. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26. 343–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherzer, J. (1982). Play languages: with a note on ritual languages. In Obler, L. & Menn, L. (eds), Exceptional language and linguistics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1966). Abstract of Soviet studies of child language. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds), The genesis of language. Cambridge MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Sorensen, J. M., Cooper, W. E. & Paccia, J. M. (1978). Speech timing of grammatical categories. Cognition 6. 135–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanovich, K. E., Cunningham, A. E. & Cramer, B. B. (1984). Assessing phonological awareness in kindergarten children: issues of task comparability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 38. 175–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torneus, M. (1984). Phonological awareness and reading: a chicken and egg problem? Journal of Educational Psychology 76. 1346–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treiman, R. (1983). The structure of spoken syllables: evidence from novel word games. Cognition 15. 49–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treiman, R. (1984). On the status of final consonant clusters in English syllables. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior 23. 343–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treiman, R. (1985). Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: evidence from children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 39. 161–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treiman, R. (1986). The division between onsets and rimes in English syllables. Journal of Memory & Language 25. 476–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treiman, R. & Danis, C. (1988). Syllabification of intervocalic consonants. Journalof Memory and Language 27. 87–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1974). WISC-R. New York: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar