More adventures in language acquistion
Esther turned two recently. She’s come a long way in language acquisition since January. Now she is a rich source of linguistics grammaticality problem sets:
Me: Do you want a hug?
Esther: Yes.Me: Big hug or little hug?
Esther: None hug.
And, this morning:
Me: What’s better, music or rugula?
Esther: Rugula and music.
(Note that “rugula” is not actually the longest word in her vocabulary — that would probably be “arboretum.”)
Our household’s technology focus is also apparent: any small hook-like device is an “email.” For example, a bluetooth headset and a refrigerator hook magnet are both emails. Shorthand for “another book” is “i-book.”
Anonymous May 19
The second case doesn’t automatically represent a problem with *language*, so much as not answering the exact question you asked. :) I often answer an either-or question with “both”.
The first one seems odd, though. The first thing that popped into my head when reading it: “Well, if you make me *think* in order to get a hug, maybe I don’t want one!”. :)
Folkert van Heusden May 20
At first I thought you were writing about some really intelligent AI software untill I saw the pictures ;-)