STRUCTURE IN THE SPEECH OF A 2½-YEAR-OLD

Summary. The structure of the speech of a young child was shown to be more closely related to his activity in an episode and to his immature cerebral processing ability, than to the hierarchical structure of sentences described in linguistic theory. The negative, interrogative and imperative forms were more particularly related to dialogue and shared activity. The groupings of words in remarks, and of remarks in sequences were shown to be like the complexive organisations of children's collections. It is, therefore, proposed that the structure described in linguistic theory does not represent the young child's competence, but is a patterning imposed by adult intelligence, towards which the child's performance develops as he matures and gains experience.