| Basic units of language are single words. |
Basic Units |
Basic units of language may be words, multiword utterances, phrases, and/or clauses, and all possibilities may co-occur as units during one period of time. |
| Early language acquisition involves movement from single words to two and three-words utterances encoding early semantic functions and relations. |
Early |
Early language acquisition involves acquisition of multiword utterances functioning as single units. May involve utterances which appear grammatically sophisticated. |
| Further growth in language is achieved through acquisition of grammatical morphemes and functions allowing for noun phrase and verb phrase elaboration. |
Growth |
Further growth in language involves analysis and segmentation of unanalyzed chunks into constituent components and/or movement to analytic mode. |
| Language is productive and generative from early stages of acquisition with rule induction allowing for increased complexity. |
Increased Complexity |
Language is relatively inflexible in early stages with limited generative use. Increased complexity is achieved through recombinations of prefabricated patterns and further movement to an analytic mode. |
| Language use is generalized to relevant objects and events after short periods of situationally specific usage. |
Generalization |
Language use may remain specific to situational contexts for extended periods. |
| Analytic Processors may be more focused on internal structure (semantic and/or grammatical relationships) and referential use of utterances.. |
Focus |
Gestalt processors may be more focused on intonation and use of language in the structure of social interaction. |
