The Phenomenology of Language Acquisition

Abstract

In the preceding chapters the point of departure for language acquisition by the child was described psychologically, and the intuitive knowledge of the (adult) user of language, which is built up by acquiring language, was also partially described linguistically. We now want to present the steps and intermediate stages by means of which development proceeds from the starting point to the end (which the linguist rather unclearly calls linguistic competence) and to discuss the theoretical explanation for this progress from the infant without language to the child who is capable of using his language.

Children confronted with a problem that is slightly too complicated for them exhibit a complex variety of responses including direct attempts at attaining the goal, the use of tools, speech directed toward the person conducting the experiment or speech that simply accompanies the action, and direct, verbal appeals to the object of attention itself.

L. Vygotsky

The relation between thought and word is a living process; thought is born through words. A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow. The connection between them, however, is not a preformed and constant one. It emerges in the course of development, and itself evolves. To the Biblical “In the beginning was the Word,” Goethe makes Faust reply, “In the beginning was the deed.” The intent here is to detract from the value of the word, but we can accept this version if we emphasize it differently: In the beginning was the deed. The word was not the beginning—action was there first; it is the end of development, crowning the deed.

L. Vygotsky

Language as such is simply a process by means of which the individual who is engaged in co-operative activity can get the attitude of others involved in the same activity.

G. H. Mead