Some Prelinguistic Aspects Of Language Development

Abstract

Most studies of language acquisition since Chomsky's break-through in linguistics have all utilized as a theoretical base various theories of cognitive development out of which words, phrases, and meanings are created. This study attempts to outline the underpinnings of language ontogenetically and to show the role of affective engagements with caretakers. Some of the prelinguistic aspects of language development are examined in relation to the volution of language function. The newborn infant engages and terminates visual, kinesthetic, oral, and sound reciprocity with the mother, as shown in the cough-smile game, thus providing the infant a significant measure of control over these reciprocal exchanges. The social smile, modulations thereof, and the face itself become organizers of meaningful vocalization, a focal point around which phonemes emerge from the mutuality of the mother-infant relationship. The evolution and meaning of the pointing gesture as it relates to language functioning and to the stages of separation-individuation is discussed. It is suggested that the child's capacity to evaluate the context of utterances in relation to dynamically integrated facial-vocal configurations with familiar caretakers provides the basis for the development of semantics and syntax in later language functioning.

Gestures, Vocalizations, and Memory in Language Origins

“…In this process, grasping ability and voluntary hand control may have been important elements to facilitate shared attention, and possibly led to the appearance of pointing behavior, which is critical for making reference to the world (Call, 1980). From pointing, other meaningful hand gestures may have evolved, especially in the context of a primitive tool-making and tool-using technology in which the emulation of tool use may have conveyed a ritualized semantics.…”

Contacting a 19 month‐old mute autistic girl: A clinical narrative

“…In what follows we shall do our best to amplify on the analyst's 'quality of attention' as it unfolded in Lila's treatment, taking support in Ren e Spitz's (1964) concept of the 'primal dialogue', which is missing in autism and needs be re-owned, as well as in Winnicott's (1967a) notion of maternal 'mirroring'. Additionally, this clinical material illustrates what Justin Call (1980) highlighted about the baby-mother interaction in the early stages: that the infant is the initiator and the primary architect of reciprocity, while the mother (and the analyst) is the follower. Meeting the child's spontaneities half-way gives due place to Winnicott's (1963, p. 181) notion that the object must be felt to be created by the infant in order to be discovered.…”

Moving from Within The Maternal

“…When we speak of the language of the body, we should, to be more accurate, refer to expressions of the bodily self. The artist and the musician express feelings and communicate with others without utilizing language [Call 1980, p. 260].…”