The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.Preyer, William T.
Science
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.
Preyer, William T.
Child development; Child psychology
Another case is reported by Eduard Schulte: A boy of a year and three
quarters applied the joyous outcry _ei_ (which may be an imitated
interjection), modifying it first into _eiz_, into _aze_, and then into
_ass_, to his wooden goat on wheels, and covered with rough hide; _eiz_,
then, became exclusively a cry of joy; _ass_, the name for everything
that moved along--e. g., for animals and his own sister and the wagon;
also for everything that moved at all; finally, for everything that had
a rough surface. Now, as this child already called all coverings of the
head and covers of cans _huta_, when he saw, for the first time, a fur
cap, he at once christened it _ass-huta_. Here took place a decided
subordination of one concept to another, and therewith a new formation
of a word. How broad the comprehensiveness of the concept designated
_huta_ was, is perceived especially in this, that it was used to express
the wish to have objects at which the child pointed. He liked to put all
sorts of things that pleased him upon his head, calling them _huta_. Out
of the _huta_, for "I should like to have that as a hat" grew, then,
after frequent repetition, "I should like that." There was in this case
an extension of the narrower concept, after it had itself experienced
previously a differentiation, and so a limitation, by means of the
suffix _ass_. These examples show how independent of words the formation
of concepts is. With the smallest stock of words the concepts are yet
manifold, and are designated by the same word when there is a lack of
words for the composition of new words, and so for fresh
word-formation.
The formation of words out of interjections without imitation has not
been observed. Here belongs the _rollu_, _rollolo_, uttered by my boy,
of his own accord, on seeing rolling balls or wheels; and (in the
twentieth month) _rodi_, _otto_, _rojo_, where the rotation perceived by
the child occasions at once the one or the other exclamation containing
_l_ or _r_. In the case of Steinthal, it was _lu-lulu_; in the case of a
boy a year and a half old, observed by Kussmaul, it was _golloh_. In
these cases the first interjection is always occasioned by a _noise_,
not simply by the sight of things rolling without noise. The
interjection must accordingly be styled imitative. A combination of the
original--i. e., inborn--interjectional sounds into syllables and groups
of syllables, without the assistance of members of the family, and
without imitation, for the purpose of communicating an idea, is not
proved to exist.
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