response 26 of 44:

Sep 6 14:16 UTC 1992

indigo has been saying 'ca'
i believe she is trying to say 'cat'
since she gets very excited
every time she sees one
and says 'ca!' over and over.
does this count as a first word
even if she is missing the 't'?

response 28 of 44:

Sep 7 02:24 UTC 1992

I believe Jonathan's first word was also "cat" pronounced "ca" (short "a").
Somewhat later this caused him confusion with "car" pronounced similarly.

In other words, I second mta.

(Otherwise, many or most children would be in the anomalous position of
talking for weeks or months before they said their first words!  Even now,
at 2, Paul has only a few complete, clear, correct words.  Peanut butter
is "ahmbur" (for almond butter, which was originally preferred).)

response 30 of 44:

Sep 7 19:21 UTC 1992

... hmm ...
What do you mean, "mean"?  In a case like this?  (I'm not denying, only
questioning.)  If you look at a lot of recent work (my real acquaintance
being 15 years ago) in epistemology & philosophy of language, you find
some people seriously questioning whether statements like "The dog knows its
master is on the other side of the door" (or substitute "thinks" for "knows")
can ever be true, because thinking requires concepts which requires language.
(That's rough - sorry.)  I think that the same arguments would apply equally
well (or equally badly) to pre-linguistic children.

Mind you, I always kind of thought these people were wrong ... but I never
got my hands dirty at the level of detail necessary to say I could prove it.

On recalling some more, I think I oversimplified the position I describe a
bit too much to be fair.  Let me try again: knowledge & belief *that*
something (not "knowing how") require something like a proposition as the
object of belief.  For propositions to have content of a sort that can be
expressed in language requires something like a language on the part of the
subject.  I think that at issue would be (partly) whether we could pick out
THIS proposition as the content of the belief as opposed to a myriad of other
significantly-different propositions.

I think I'm still not being fair - a sign that I disagree and that my weed-
grown memory isn't cooperating.  The whole line of argument requires drawing
a line between conceptual equivalence between different languages & concep-
tual equivalence between language & non-linguistic-but-simple concepts.
Sigh.  If anyone finds my rambling interesting or even comprehensible I could
probably dig up a couple of references in the literature.  (Or more likely
someone else can jump in & clear me up - Jennie, don't sociolinguists haave
to study this stuff too?)

What I think I should have said is:  You're right, but there are complicated
& important issues lurking just under the surface.  (And you *did* say this
was a rule of thumb.)
p

response 32 of 44:

Aug 25 21:07 UTC 1998

My first word was "duuh!", apparently meaning "duck!"

response 34 of 44:

Aug 26 16:27 UTC 1998

Jeez, 6 years between responses, that must be a record!  :-)

response 36 of 44:

Aug 27 05:25 UTC 1998

(Hmmm... then "clock" seems to be a really appropriate first word after a
6-year time lapse in the conversation!)

response 38 of 44:

Aug 27 21:14 UTC 1998

That's impressive.

response 40 of 44:

Aug 30 03:33 UTC 1998

Well, that's just establishing the cat as the most important member of the
household. Everything is as it should be.

response 42 of 44:

Jan 12 14:15 UTC 2004

"dada", which annoyed my mother greatly, apparently.

response 44 of 44:

Jan 12 16:40 UTC 2004

UYEAH.