“An analytical review of the study of syntax development over the last half century with reference to relevant studies of children’s first language acquisition

Date

2023-6

Type

Article

Journal title

مجلة القلم المبين

Author(s)

Fatma Ramadan Ahmed Aboalhol

Pages

64 - 74

Abstract

Abstract: This piece of work is intended to investigate the syntactic aspect of language to explore first language acquisition and the arguments around it. Language acquisition, which is connected with childhood, has been deeply studied as one of the distinctive characteristics of human behaviour. It is widely believed that children learn their first language by imitating their parents or other people in their environment. Children’s ability to master the sophistication of human language within a short time has become one of the key objectives of conventional linguistic research. This paper gives a brief overview of the developments that have been made in this field. It is centred on arguments around two main first language acquisition studies and approaches. It exposes us to the naturalistic approach and the experimental approach, which examine the childhood period. This involves searching for these approaches’ advantages and disadvantages in their ability to manifest the early syntactic characteristics of children's speech. Then, it illustrates with examples the child’s stages of syntactic progress as his language develops because psychologists and linguists who analyse the acquisition of language frequently analyse the study of syntax, phonology, and some other elements of grammar to help in describing and identifying the grammatical processes that occur during their early life stages.

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