Acquisition of Eegimaa (Atlantic family, Niger-Congo) in a polyadic environment: A commentary on Kidd and Garcia (2022)

Abstract

Research on lesser studied languages is vital for the advancement of theories of language acquisition. We discuss two areas where data from Eegimaa have the potential to produce innovative research: (1) language typology, with an overview of the complex demonstratives found in this language, and (2) learning environment and input speech. Here, we show that Eegimaa children learn to speak in a polyadic environment, where they receive input from multiple caregivers, siblings and other members of their community.

Where to from here? Increasing language coverage while building a more diverse discipline

“…But a theory is nothing without an adequate and representative set of observations, and it is here that we are still lacking (for a parallel discussion in the evolutionary social sciences, see Clark Barret, 2020a). Good descriptive data have always had a major role in child language research, with major initiatives like the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) (MacWhinney, 2000) allowing us, among other things, to directly observe the input data children have at their disposal to acquire language, and the range of unique problems they must solve along the way (as in the Eegima demonstrative system, Sagna et al, 2022). Further description better maps the problem space facing the child and gives us a first look at how they navigate it, providing crucial data for further refinement of theory, which is sorely needed in the psychological and cognitive sciences (see Scheel, 2022).…”

“…The commentaries by Berman (2022), Edward (2022), Hellwig (2022), de León (2022), Lillo-Martin and Hochgesang (2022), Sagna et al (2022) and Sultana (2022) all discussed specific issues concerning languages or language families they have worked on, revealing the rich insights we gain when we study what Pye (2022) calls ‘the dark matter of the linguistic universe’ (p. 799). Together these commentaries highlight two crucial variables we are in danger of taking for granted when we limit ourselves to English and a handful of other Indo-European languages: the language environment (see also Foushee & Casillas, 2022) and linguistic diversity.…”