First talk of the year, “First Words” by Michael Erard
On January 6th, 2023, MoBI started the year off with a bang hosting Michael Erard for breakfast with our PIs followed by an amazing talk about First Words.
We had a great turn out of students, researchers and fellow multilingualism researchers!
Abstract: How we pay attention to first words
Four different approaches to young children's first words have emerged in different places and eras. As part of a larger linguistic and cultural history of first words of babies and last words of the dying, I drew from historical and anthropological accounts to develop this taxonomy, to account for different modes of attention by adults, how these have changed, and factors that drive these changes. Interestingly, some of the changes in attention to first words parallel some changes in attention to dying utterances, which I will briefly discuss.