Can Toddy Give Me an Orange? Parent Input and Young Children's Production of I and You

• Published in: Language learning and development 2011-03, Vol.7 (2), p.77-106
• Main Authors: Smiley, Patricia A., Chang, Lillian Ku, Allhoff, Anne K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1547-5441; 1547-3341
• DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2010.499495

Learning personal pronouns is a challenging linguistic task because children must adopt words for self- and other-reference that parents use for other- and self-reference, respectively. We examined person-reference in action contexts by 11 first-born children and their parents from the CHILDES database, coding the extent to which parents mixed first- and second-person pronouns with third-person names as well as their children's production of I, you, and other self- and other-referring words. Children whose parents produced a mix of pronouns and names for self- and other-reference (i.e., I, me, my, and Mommy; you and child name) acquired I and you more readily compared with children whose parents mixed pronouns and names only for self-reference and children whose parents produced only I and you. Moreover, children in the latter two groups were more likely to spontaneously introduce forms other than I and you for self- and other-reference. We conclude that young children are conceptually prepared to acquire the conventional system of person-reference and that mixed input supports their learning of I and you.