COMMENTS: Mahmoud Hamdy Ahmed

Child Language Aphasia and Phonological Universals" Kindersprache" is one of the most representatives of Roman Jacobson's writings. The book provides a detailed explanation of phonological typology and the problems of language acquisition and phonemic regression. Child language aphasia imminently is the problems that confront the child in his early stages of language acquisition. The study of such branch of linguistics mainly paves the way to the gradual emergence of universal interest in such field which daily proves its importance in diagnosing and fixing many phonological disorders in child language and sometimes in the language of the adult. Consequently, the writer focuses on these problems in order to provide the convenient solution for them. Thus, Phonological universals are the sound changes, shared by different spoken communities. Try to break the following sentence into smaller ones. You can start with something like "In his book, Jackobson stresses three/four/five etc.. main points. The first point ...The second point ...etc" In this book, Jackobson mainly stresses on (delete) the phonological development of child language, starting from the early trials of sounds emergence (emmergence of sounds) till the complete acquisition of language, moving to the stratification of phonological system which is divided into relative and absolute chronology of phonological development and the identical laws of solidarity in the phonological development, and finally, the foundation of the structural laws which unconsciously control child phonological development in his journey to acquire language. Jackobson deliberately instigates the process of phonological development of child language in order to show many factors, involved in such process. First, Romanticism stressed the creativity of the child, whereas Wundt and Meringer sought to prove that the intellectual and linguistic activity of the child is merely a kind of imitation. Both points of views are correct(valid) because the child instinctively creates as he borrows. In other words, child acquisition of language is not a strict imitation but the process of selection which it follows, is the creative part .for instance, a kind of sound- change occasionally happens in child language. Children who do not possess any R- sound often pronounce the sequence (vowel +r) as lengthening of the vowel. In Russian, the child pronounces the word (marka As māka). Also, according to Alexandrov's observation of a two-years old Russian child, the sound /k/(see comment 2 below) is often replaced by t ,and g is regularly replaced by k such as (as in) (ogon which is pronounced as akan) . additionally, an English girl , as sully reports, used to avoid the use of (y).she pronounced yes as esh .she used the same sound regularly as a substitute for L . therefore, she said yook for look .hence, the child may contain elements which remain foreign to his/her language. Furthermore, the great Genevan scholar characterizes the "particularist spirit" and the "unifying force" which not only affects the child language directed to the adult, but also affects the language of the adult directed to the child, as the most important factors in child's acquisition of language. Thus, one talks in child-fashion to the child , and attempts to imitate his phonological, lexical , and grammatical peculiarities in speech. Infantile instinct occasionally appears in adult life, as psychoanalysis has stressed. For example, the two-courting lovers frequently talks in child language, claiming the matter of convention. Their infantile-language is sometimes used through replacing the liquids R and L With j . Hence, the child is both an imitator who himself is imitated. consequently, the phonological changes in language properly result from the adaptation of the old generation to the language of children which may involve in the historical development of the languages of the world. This also depends upon the readiness of linguistic system for such mutat. Worthy of mentioning is that researches have also established that nearly all mutilations of ordinary language observed in children have close parallels with the sound changes of different languages of the world. for example, one may claim that the British dialect is a kind of change in the phonological level, caused by children. in British English ( vowel +r) is pronounced through lengthening the vowel without pronouncing the liquid R such as the word (car) is pronounced as (ka:) . Another example, in the American dialect, the alveolar(T) is pronounced as (d), which might back to the child language which intermingle between the voiced (d) and the voiceless(t).thus, child language might be a major agent in the mutilation of the phonological system of the languages of the world.Jackobson intensively stresses the beginnings in the child's journey of the acquisition of language .Jackobson regards the efforts and success , accomplished by the Belgian linguist ,Antoine Gregoire, who skillfully witnessed the emergence of the linguistic structure in child's beginnings in acquiring language through his rigorous system to live moment by moment in the society of infants. according to many researches , concerning that field, a fixed order must be inherent in language acquisition. In other words, there are some principles, involved in such process of acquiring language. First, Fritz argued that the least effort principle(define) is required first by children in their linguistic production. But this hypothesis is completely refuted by child's linguistic development and the hypothesis of the arbitrary nature of the criteria for determining the degree of the effort required for producing the sound. Moreover, the actual beginning stages in language acquisition starts with the babbling period in which there is an apathy of articulating sounds. The child is able to produce sounds of any place of articulation palatalized and rounded consonants, sibilants, affricates..etc. As Gregoire stated " in the babbling period, the child is capable of producing all conceivable sounds". Surprisingly, the child nearly loses his ability to produce sound in passing over from the pre-language period to his first acquisition of language. And the sounds that are strange to the child's mother language begin to gradually vanish from his inventory. Secondly, the acoustic impression of the child plays a vital role in his acquisition of language. It is proved that the child is completely aware of the sounds he hears, although he can not pronounce these sounds. For instance, the Serbian linguist Pavlovic argued that his one-years old son could faultlessly distinguish the words tata and kaka when spoken to him ,but consistently said tata instead of kaka. There are two styles of language for the child, one he controls actively, the other of the adult, only passively. In other words, the child speaks one language and understands the other one. For example, a French girl said "tosson" for both garçon and coshon, but she repeatedly protested when someone called a boy a coshon and a pig a garçon. Hence, the child can not produce some sounds , and frequently generalizes a sound for another sound. Notwithstanding, the child 's inability to produce sounds, his desire for communication plays an important role in his frequent trials to speak. These trials are represented in his egocentric soliloquy which witnesses the emergence of speech sounds. In this transitional period, the child is a very talented imitator who adapts himself to the sounds , he hears, effectively trying to imitate the speaker by reacting to whispering by whispering , and with the raising or lowering of the voice with similar raising or lowering in ?. Also he tries to retain and reproduce the sounds that he lose in his babbling period.Moreover, interjectional sounds have nothing to do with the sound's selection of the child. In other words, exclamation and onomatopoetic formations take no account of this selection. Indeed, the child is unable to produce some sounds of ordinary speech, while he can imitate some sounds which include this sound. For example, child expresses pleasure by producing the sound Ga Ga , although his original language does not have the velar phoneme or he can not produce this sound in normal speech, and fricatives are often replaced by stops in the " objective denoting language". The liquid r can still be lacking in the words which the child borrows from the adults , but he efficiently produce s such liquid when he imitates the sound of the bird , (start a new sentence)and children who do not make use of I , imitate the barking of the dog didi. Finally, an onomatopoetic sound can prepare and facilitate the emergence of the corresponding phoneme, although this incidental vocal gestures do not need to be part of the child's vocabulary. Many phoneticians have tried so hard to find a regular order of phonological development of child language. Unfortunately, there is no absolute right(correct) order of phonological development. If a law is dedicated(established), there will be some oppositions. For example, Shultz argued that O and Y belong to the child's latest phonological acquisition, whereas Preyer's reference to the very early pre-language proves the appearance of rounded palatal vowels during the babbling period, which weakened the observation of Schultz. In the language of the son of Gregoire (Gregoire's son), the vowels O and Y were being lacked(lacking) until the end of his second year, whereas he spontaneously produced babbling sounds of similar articulation in the middle of his first year. Hence, there is no order in the phonological development of the child who unconsciously has the ability to produce many sounds during the babbling period but he gradually looses the ability to produce the same sounds in the stages of language acquisition. Dissolution of the phonological system in child language is the third stage after acquiring many different and various sounds. The child is as a play or a story which has beginning , rising actions ,climax, and falling actions and resolution. As the preceding words have explained that the child acquires language instinctively by its arbitrary and natural meanings ,but he reaches the climax of his journey to acquire language in which he unwillingly witnesses the dissolution of his phonological system and aphasic speech disturbances. In (on) one hand, in the aphasic speech disturbances neither the articulatory nor the auditory organs are injured, but the most important factor for children who are learning their language is not the ability to produce or perceive a particular sound , but the distinctive linguistic value of the sound in question. In other words, the most important way is to acquire the ability to distinguish functionally significant sounds. In some cases, children are able to produce sounds in question, and often preserve them in sound gestures, but unfortunately their distinctive phonemic value is lost. Consequently, the sound disappears without being replaced, resulting in aphasia. For example, the loss of the Czech phoneme R makes the distinction between R and Ø very difficult. Also, the distinction between R and L is lost so that either R falls together with l( hrad "city" > hlad ), or R and L function as free variants ( hrad "city" as well as hlad "hunger" can be pronounced by aphasics with either r or L ). Further more (furthermore), the same phenomena(phenomenon) happens in Arabic. For example, the child can not differentiate between k and t in his phonological system and phonemic level. He replaces k with t so he says ( Talb for Kalb ),despite the fact that he deliberately critics(criticizes) you if you substitute both (the two sounds) sounds with each other.Moreover, the child reaches that stage of what can be called sound-meaning disturbances in which the child is unable to differentiate between words and its meanings. According to transformational generative grammar, meaning is the weakest unit in the word, and sound is the strongest unit in it. On the other hand, K.(delete) Goldstein argues that there is no distinction between words and sounds. Phonemes and words are firmly related to achieve the function of the language.(vague, rephrase it) Meanwhile, every word has its own grammatical form and constant meaning(Do you mean, word meaning does not change? Which is not true.), and phoneme performs(check a dictionary to see how this verb is used) only to distinguish between meanings.(not accurate, rephrase) For example, in English, the word (breath) has two pronunciations or phonemic forms. If the word is used as a verb , it should be pronounced as (bri:θ), whereas, if it is used as a noun , it should be pronounced as(briθ) this what is called(paronyms) or phonologically similar words. . Also the aphasics' inability to distinguish the liquids L and R in( lippe and rippe) is another aspect of sound-meaning disturbances. words could be comprehended since the child's meaning comprehension is preserved. But if his phoneme comprehension is damaged, he will mix(another verb) between words. Hence, meanings and phonemes are easily associated , and mainly result in aphasia for children and patients. Both sound and meaning disturbances, therefore, result in the expansion of homonym. in other words, the phonological unit corresponds to a multiplicity of interlinked meanings, resulting in homophony. The more extensive the sound disturbance, the more difficult the distinguish(use the noun) of words is. Indeed, every aphasic disturbance is characterized with the loss of some linguistic value. An analogy can be drawn between both aphasic sound -deafness and sound-muteness. Both phenomena are linguistically problems. Sound- deafness is argued (who argues) to be "sensory aphasia". Pierre Marie explains that this problem does not have its roots in the acoustic apparatus but rather in the "semiotic sphere" or ( the intellectual deficiency relating specifically to language). For instance, a Chinese child can not differentiate between the liquids (r and L), Arabic speaker can not distinguish between the English sound ( θ and s) . Notably, it can be argued that the Chinese can successfully imitate the liquid (r), which is not found in his language. But ,in the same time , he exerts much effort to do and preserve that sound. So do the Arab speaker who finds difficulty in producing the sound (θ). Hence, what is more difficult to the foreigner is not to grasp the sound but to use it correctly.On the other hand, aphemic disorders or sound -muteness is relatively related to sound –deafness. In other word, the production of a sound is a goal-directed activity, in which the sound may be felt strange or foreign to be imitated by the speaker . This dual-fate sound is either preserved in special situation ,or avoided in normal unaffected speech. This sound-dumbness can be disappeared(disappear is an intransitive verb) in the existence of correction(rephrase), but it reappears with its absence(what do you mean), returning to the speaker's usual sound poverty. For example, one-and- a half year old English girl constantly says (mudder instead of mother) but under correction ,she pronounces it correctly. Unfortunately, she backs(find another verb, check dictionary) to her state of sound-poverty. Also any English- Egyptian(rephrase) learner tends to pronounce the sound (θ) correctly under supervision. (I STOP HERE) But he unconsciously backs to his sound poverty state, in which his dialect does not contain this sound. Accordingly, sound dumbness mainly depends upon the speaker's possession of sound- productivity, in which sound-deafness plays a major role.The phonological system of any language consists of many related stratifications which directly affect the daily use of language in a particular spoken community. indeed, Jacobson interestingly tackles these stratifications in several points. Imminently, the phonological system of the child is frequently hindered by many different factors which gradually result in aphasia. According to Gutzmann's Berlin experience "almost half of the children just starting school, who are about six years old, do not have normal pronunciation". At first, child's phonological development has two orders, the relative and absolute chronology. Regardless of the different languages, the relative chronological order of phonological acquisition remains at all time and everywhere the same. For example, in many different languages that belong to many different cultures and countries, children tend to substitute T for K . in English, as Axel Kock has observed, children say " tut" for " cut ", also in German, children says "topf " for "Kopf ". Hence, it is believed that velar stops are acquired shortly after dental sounds. Also , it is believed that palatovelar sounds develop in child language after dental sounds. Consequently, the child tends to replace all velars with corresponding dental until his sixth year in which he intentionally exerts an invincible effort to distinguish between them. Any language consists of two categories of sounds, consonants and vowels, that mainly contribute in the foundation of child phonological system. It has been stated that child , in his early stages of language acquisition , is able to produce all sounds that may not belong to his language . in other words, he speaks neither English nor German . the child possesses in the beginning only those sounds which are common to all languages , while these phonemes which distinguish his mother language from the languages of the world are acquired later . Vowels are acquired stealthily by the child in his babbling period. In other words, the child tends to produce sounds that have no meaningful existence. For instance, child pronounces the vowel "a " during his babbling period, although his phonemic system has not completed. After a short time, the child opposes the wide vowel "a" with a narrower vowel "I" ( papa- pipi ). Child tends to use the wide vowel "a" after labials, whereas he usually uses " I " after dentals. This can be exemplified in one-year- old Czech girl who frequently uses (e and I ) after dentals, and consistently uses the vowels (a and u ) after labials. On the other hand, the consonantal system of the child begins with the emergence of labials. For example, the words " papa and mama" are of the first words to be pronounced by the child, who gradually follows them with nasal and oral stops ( papa- tata and mama- nana) . many children are not able to produce a labial sound before a front vowel (Feyeux 281). Therefore, the minimal vocalic system and minimal consonantal system of child are characterized by the presence of phonemes which combine two distinctive qualities. In the minimal vocalic system , ( u ) is a narrow vowel compared to ( a ) and velar or rounded compared to ( I ) . also in the minimal consonantal system which contain M ,P , and t, P is oral in opposition to the nasal ( M ) and at the same time labial in opposition to the dental ( T ) . . COMMENTS: 1. Try to use shorter sentences whenevery possible. 2. When you rever to a given sound, make sure that you write it in some kind of phonetic representation instead of using the letter. For example, when you refer to the sound t, write it /t/, so I know it is the sound. This makes it more technical. 3. Make sure that you define all your terminology. Do not assume that your reader has your same background and knowledge of the topic. Be nice to the reader!