How children first acquire language is one of the central issues in linguistics. This book draws on a wide range of research, including work in developmental psychology, anthropology and sociology, to explore the processes behind child language acquisition to the preschool period.

Authored by Foster-Cohen, Susan

Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Background Concepts. 2. Foundations of early communication. 3. Prelinguistic communicative competence and the early lexicon. 4. Communicating with language. 5. Explaining the development of communicative competence. 6. Studying child language. Further reading. Bibliography. Index.