ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Closed doors can be frustrating for toddlers. An adult might offer help by saying ‘Shall I open the door?’ or ‘(Do you) want me to open the door?’. A young child, registering mainly the final word door, could think that door means something like ‘do it’. This is a guess to try to explain how a girl aged 22½ months came to use the word door to ask an adult to unscrew the nuts on a construction toy, as in Example (1); R identifies the child, Ad the adult.
