I forgot to mention previously that V has a lot of adjectives--at least in English, possibly in her other languages: big, little, hot, cold, soft, hard, etc. She also seems to have a couple of adverbials: over there, up there, down there, etc.
Today she surprised me by counting out loud in Finnish. No kidding. She was looking at a page from a book, and all of the sudden she said, "Seitsemän (seven)." Then she said, "Seven." OK, I really don't think she knows that seitsemän and seven mean the same thing in different languages; it's probably just a coincidence that she said both things back-to-back. (Really, I may be a proud mamma, but I'm not delusional.) She then started from the beginning: "Yksi, kaksi, kolme ..." Then her pappa came in, and she said, "Sex!" Now, in case you might think that this is a really weird thing for her to say to her father, keep in mind that sex means 'six' in Swedish. It also means the same thing that sex means in English, so rest assured there are plenty of puns in Swedish about the number 6.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
21 months and counting
There have been a lot of changes in the past month or so. Sentences are coming out like crazy! Most of the sentences are quite basic, with just copular verbs (she often deletes the copula, but that's hardly surprising): "Cava sleeping." "Pappa drinking." That kind of thing. This morning I heard her use her first successful prepositional phrase in English, which excited me (remember, I am dorky linguist; things like this excite me): "Juice is on the table."
Her use of one language over another has always seemed to depend on to whom she was talking. Lately, though, there seems to be more mixing of codes, which I can only speculate has to do with what she learns in what context, or what she is thinking about. This morning, for example, I was dressing her to get her ready for her babysitter, and she started saying, "Mekko," which means 'dress' in Finnish. She knows the word dress in English, but I guess because she was thinking about her babysitter, the word came out in Finnish.
She has been using quite a few words in Finnish, actually, which makes me think that she probably has a rather large vocabulary in Finnish already. Again, it seems to depend on the context, if a situation makes her think of her babysitter, then she'll say the word in Finnish. For example, she says apina 'monkey' when she is hanging or goofing around, and if she stands on something that is maybe a bit precarious, she says, "Seiso!" ('Stand!')
She has also been throwing a fair amount of Swedish into the mixture lately. For example, she seems to know andra 'other' in Swedish more than in English--even though I do think I have heard her say other in English, too. I guess this is just a case of competing forms.
She is quite adept now at mimicking entire sentences or phrases, and it's quite funny that if she doesn't know all the words -- a string with a lot of short words, for example -- she'll babble part of the sentence. So, for example, if I say, "Do you want some more blueberries, or is that enough?" she might repeat, "Na na want more blueberries, do do dat enough?" And the final word is always emphasized. Oh, and the intonation is always right on target. It cracks me up when she does that!
Another thing she has been saying a lot in English lately is "My goodness!" I know she can only get this from one obvious source, and I am quite embarrassed that I would say this enough for her to catch it ...
One thing V does, and I am uncertain if this is common or not, is to pay close attention to people's names. In a large group of people she is very careful about noting who is there, what their names are, and she always notices if someone has left the room. She points to a person and repeats their first name over and over. She also remembers names. Yesterday, for example, she surprised me when we were looking at a magazine, and she pointed to some ads and said the names of several people we met when we were on vacation a few weeks ago. I didn't think she would have such a repository of names after so much time.
Her use of one language over another has always seemed to depend on to whom she was talking. Lately, though, there seems to be more mixing of codes, which I can only speculate has to do with what she learns in what context, or what she is thinking about. This morning, for example, I was dressing her to get her ready for her babysitter, and she started saying, "Mekko," which means 'dress' in Finnish. She knows the word dress in English, but I guess because she was thinking about her babysitter, the word came out in Finnish.
She has been using quite a few words in Finnish, actually, which makes me think that she probably has a rather large vocabulary in Finnish already. Again, it seems to depend on the context, if a situation makes her think of her babysitter, then she'll say the word in Finnish. For example, she says apina 'monkey' when she is hanging or goofing around, and if she stands on something that is maybe a bit precarious, she says, "Seiso!" ('Stand!')
She has also been throwing a fair amount of Swedish into the mixture lately. For example, she seems to know andra 'other' in Swedish more than in English--even though I do think I have heard her say other in English, too. I guess this is just a case of competing forms.
She is quite adept now at mimicking entire sentences or phrases, and it's quite funny that if she doesn't know all the words -- a string with a lot of short words, for example -- she'll babble part of the sentence. So, for example, if I say, "Do you want some more blueberries, or is that enough?" she might repeat, "Na na want more blueberries, do do dat enough?" And the final word is always emphasized. Oh, and the intonation is always right on target. It cracks me up when she does that!
Another thing she has been saying a lot in English lately is "My goodness!" I know she can only get this from one obvious source, and I am quite embarrassed that I would say this enough for her to catch it ...
One thing V does, and I am uncertain if this is common or not, is to pay close attention to people's names. In a large group of people she is very careful about noting who is there, what their names are, and she always notices if someone has left the room. She points to a person and repeats their first name over and over. She also remembers names. Yesterday, for example, she surprised me when we were looking at a magazine, and she pointed to some ads and said the names of several people we met when we were on vacation a few weeks ago. I didn't think she would have such a repository of names after so much time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)