LIN2430

Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition

(ART)

6 points + 2 hours per week + First semester + Clayton + Prerequisites: A first-year sequence in Linguistics, English and Communication or a language + Prohibition: LIN3430

Synopsis: The first part of the subject traces the development of child language from pre-speech to the later stages of acquisition, including the development of communicative competence. It examines the development of the child's phonological, syntactic, morphological and semantic system and attempts to account for this development by considering various linguistic models and theories. The second part of the subject focuses on the comprehension and production of speech. Experimental evidence are examined in order to determine the psychological validity of the various models and theories which have been proposed to describe the process involved in comprehending and producing speech.

Assessment: Written research assignment (2750 words) 50% + Class test (2 hours): 40% + Class participation (equivalent 250 words): 10%