The emergence process: Conceptual and linguistic influences on morphological development

This paper extends prior research on the links between cognition and semantic/pragmatic aspects of language to the more formal area of morphology, and highlights the importance of studying process in development, rather than merely looking at end products. An analysis of early morphology in three children with varying degrees of vision illustrates how acquisition is mediated by the unique circumstances of a child\u27s language learning environment and reveals a relationship between cognition and language in which either may lead the way for advances in the other. For example, we find blind children differ from their sighted peers in acquiring time morphology before space morphology and discuss this in terms of adaptive strategies and saliency of information. © 1992, Sage Publications. All rights reserved