A STUDY OF JAPANESE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS AND ITS STANDARD MODEL

1985 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 58450052
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 言語学(含音声学)
• Research Institution: HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: NISHIHORI YURI ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE STUDIES, 言語文化部, 助教授 (70109403)
• Project Period (FY): 1983 – 1985
• Keywords: Language Acquisition / Language Acquisition Mechanism / Language Development / Language Acquisition Model / 言語獲得

Research Abstract

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT WAS TO MAKE A FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS IN JAPANESE ON THE BASIS OF SYNTAX FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRESENTING ITS STANDARD MODEL.THE INVESTIGATION WAS CONDUCTED IN THREE STAGES. FIRST, LANGUAGE DATA WERE COLLECTED FROM CHILDREN AGED 0 TO 4 FOR 5 MONTHS. UTTERANCES WERE RECORDED BY TAPE RECORDER, AND THEN INPUTTED INTO A COMPUTER. SECOND, AN ANALYSIS TABLE WAS MADE USING A MODIFIED LARSP : LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT, REMEDIATION OF SCREENING PROCEDURE. THE MODIFICATION WAS MADE IN THE ORDER OF COMPONENTS ON THE CLAUSE LEVEL AND IN A NEW LEVEL OF WORDS, I.E.,JAPANESE PARTICLES. THIRD, 100 UTTERANCES EACH MONTH FROM EACH OF THREE CHILDREN, AGE 2 TO 4, WERE ANALYZED MONTHLY USING THE ABOVE-MENTIONED COMPUTERIZED TABLE. ALTOGETHER 15 PROFILE CHARTS WERE PREPARED TO BE COMPARED. THE ANALYSIS SHOWED PRECISELY HOW A CHILD GRADUALLY PROGRESSES IN EACH LEVEL AND MADE IT POSSIBLE TO COMPARE THE ACQUISITION PROCESS OF VARIOUS CHILDREN. THE CONCLUSION REACHED WAS THAT THIS METHOD OF ANALYSIS IS EFFECTIVE TO ELUCIDATE IMPORTANT FEATURES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND ITS STANDARD MODEL.