To Eric Miller's homepage “Verbal Play and Language Acquisition”
Eric Miller (February 2003) This essay asks and begins to answer
the question, "How might verbal play assist in the child's
language acquisition process?" In preparing to answer this
question, I will first explore definitions of play, and of the
language acquisition process. I will then discuss some issues
relating to play and phonetics (sounds), semantics (words), and
syntax (sentence formation) in the experience of the growing
child, and I will present and comment upon some examples of
verbal play. The examples of children's verbal play herein do
not come from a single culture, nor are they based on original
fieldwork. Rather, they are drawn primarily from published texts
of verbal play of children in the USA and the United Kingdom
(all of these examples were performed and are presented in
English). A purpose of researching and composing this essay has
been to acquaint myself with practices and issues I may
encounter in the course of my upcomi