Ap English Grammar Essay

In terms of grammar, Ruby seems to be very competent at understanding rules such as how to modify words in order to make them past tense. She has shown to understand how to use bound morphemes in order to change irregular verbs into past tense, for example in ‘took’, she uses the past tense irregular bound morpheme instead of the past tense regular bound morpheme ‘ed’. Another example is in the verb ‘slept’, where again she is able to use the past tense irregular rather than the regular ‘ed’. However, there is one example of a virtuous error in terms of this rule, where she says ‘bitted’ instead of ‘bitten’, using the past tense regular bound morpheme ‘ed’ instead of the irregular ‘en’. This shows that perhaps she has no quite fully developed this rule, and therefore is only at the beginnings of the post telegraphic stage in terms of grammar. The use of virtuous errors supports Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition, as it suggests that children produce language that they have never heard an adult say, as in this situation, it is unlikely that Ruby has heard anyone say ‘bitted’, as adults understand irregular verbs in the past

For example, she often uses a questioning intonation when asking questions in order to help Ruby recognise that this is a question. Adding on to this, she also makes use of questions in order to help and support Ruby’s speech, for example ‘is he better now (.) the vet looked after him [questioning intonation]’. Here she uses a question to carry along the conversation and give Ruby new topics to discuss, thus supporting her. Other ways of making speech easier to understand include Lou’s use of simple adjectives like ‘big’, ‘little’ and ‘clever’. She may well use only simple adjectives because Ruby herself doesn’t recognise or use more complex adjectives herself, as there are no examples of her using such words in the