Weird English

My oldest son is trying to figure out why some people speak in different words than others, and what words like "Spanish," "Russian," "Hebrew," and "English" mean. I think this question is in his mind because he has some Hebrew lessons at his school these days. For example, he spoke a nonsense word and then said, "that's how you say cat in English, mom," until I explained that no, the words we use all the time are English. Then he pointed at his mouth while he talked and said, "you mean this is English in here, this is English?" It was funny and also pretty cool the way he imagined the language as something he could almost touch, as it came out of his mouth.

So I've been thinking again about the ways that kids' language does not quite map onto regular adult language. One of the interesting things is the way they work out grammar rules. For instance, just like I'd read about in my linguistic classes back in college, my son early on was better with irregular verb endings than he is right now. When he was 2 and for a while at 3, he seemed to just memorize verbs, and the ones he knew, he'd say correctly. Then at some point his brain picked up on the fact that usually you add -ed to words to make the past tense, and he started doing that for all verbs. The best link I could find about this process is here: http://www.fathom.com/course/10701036/session3.html. Basically, kids seem to pretty much ignore your grammar corrections unless they are at a moment in development when their brains are working out that piece of grammar. An example you can find at that link:

"'My teacher holded the baby rabbits, and we patted them', said the child.
'Would you say she held them tightly?' asked mother.
'Oh no, she holded them loosely', replied her daughter."

I have had almost exactly the same type of useless exchange with my son.

So, for today, some "weird English" examples:

1. Right now my son thinks the word "army" is a collective noun. So he'll say things like, "Mom, this ship has army on it." Or, "they are having a big fight because the spaceship has army on it." Or, "this side has good army but this spaceship has bad army and that's why they are killing each other." When I speak back, I do say, "Oh, the spaceship has an army on it?" But he just nods and totally ignores me, saying, "yeah, they have a lot of army!"

Probably his interest in army began because he's picked up on the fact that "mom doesn't like army." Although he is quick to point out that "some army are good and protect us from bad army."

2. In my friend's "fruit stick" story, which I blogged about separately, the post just before this one, his daughter uses "he" as the pronoun for a girl. (Maybe she'll grow up to favor using masculine pronouns when gender isn't specific, though somehow knowing this friend, I doubt it!)

3. And another example from the same friend. His daughter is using "because" to mean "and" sometimes. So, for example, when her mom took away a piece of orange that she had stopped eating, she started screaming. Dad asked he what happened, and she said, “Mommy took my orange because I’m upset.”

Right, because that's what parents like to do, take things from their children to make them scream even more! :)

UPDATE: Coincidentally, shortly after I posted this, while discussing how to make panther stew (panther meat, broth, marshmallows, carrots, salt, and spices, in case you wondered), we had the following, more productive, exchange:

"See, I brung some spices for the meat. They will make it taste spicy."
"Oh, you brought some spices?"
"Yeah, and I bron...brought some salt, too."

I guess his brain was finally ready for that one!