ABSTRACT
This chapter must begin with a caveat. Although the purposes of this volume are to investigate the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication and to ascertain the relationship (if any) of developments in the pre-language period to language acquisition, this chapter fulfills neither purpose. Only prelinguistic communication is investigated and its investigation as described here, in no way permits a conclusion about the relationship of prelinguistic communication to language. The rather nebulous description used in the title, “Setting the Stage.” reflects this limitation. Communicative developments during the first year do set the stage for language acquisition, but so do other events and probably in even more critical ways, for example, as in conception and birth. The question that I think we would like to answer goes beyond setting the stage. This question is whether or not the development of prelinguistic communication provides the necessary and/or sufficient conditions for linguistic communication. Although in this chapter I will describe achievements of the prelanguage period and make some speculations about how these achievements may culminate in the acquisition of the first words, my caveat remains: Do not expect too much. The infants I have observed were only beginning to use their first word-like vocalizations at the last observation. Although the use of these first words seemed to derive from earlier non-verbal communicative patterns, the findings reported do not eliminate the possibility that: (1) other sources of language learning were present (e.g., innate language structures), as posited by Chomsky (in Piattelli-Palmarini. 1980); or that (2) these first words would have been used even without the earlier communications. In either case, prelinguistic communication might be neither necessary nor sufficient to explain linguistic communication.
