3V0728.2

3V0728.01 CAUSE – toilet training; cause, agent, effect (1/20/80) We have tried to interest Peggy in using a small toilet. She plays with it, pushing around the house, chasing the dog with it, and so forth – investigating the removable pot and peering at it every which way. Now she knows the clothes come off …

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3V0728.1

3V0728.01 [Robby…lookit] vocative + verb example (plus others) (1/20/80) Another example of a vocative-verb to element structure. Peggy, just now, (1/29/80) came out with another, more directly comparable to ‘Mimi…did-it’), she carried a book to Robby and said ‘Robby, do-it.’

3V0720.2

3V0720.02 [joke… knock-knock]: verbally formulated classification based on a single exemplar. 1/12/80) We all sat at table this evening. Either Gretchen and I teased and all of us laughed, Peggy too. I believe I asked her what she laughs about (the joke was one she could not comprehend). Peggy responded, “joke…” and then continued “knock-knock.” …

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3V0720.1

3V0720.01 [fork…hurts…arm…me]: Peggy’s most complex phrase construction before the upsurge of pause deletion and appearance of anchoring with variation in her verbal productions (1/12/80) Peggy stabbed herself with the tines of a fork. I can’t recall whether she was in her high chair or helping unload the dishwasher, but her words and pauses are certain. …

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3V0718.1

3V0718.01 Who’s there ? (Original notes on homely binding and lonely discovery) (1/10/80) Peggy’s use of the knock-knock joke script has been monolithic — ie. she would not respond in the victim’s role, nor would she continue in any way no matter what response her victim made. This morning, when I brought some coffee to …

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3V0709.2

3V0709.02 [Mimi did it…Peggy’s] Good example; issues important; developing a vocabulary to describe observed phenomena. (1/1/80) The situation to which the locution applies was Miriam’s making a wrapped package, a present, and giving it to Peg. Peggy brought it to me to show. what is significant here is the pause/connected structure of the phrasing. There …

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3V0706.2

3V0706.02 Puppy in Boston: default location of “gone” animate things (12/29/79) Over the past several weeks, Peggy has often given evidence of distinguishing between the sound of a bark and the word as the name of the sound. One of the puzzles Peggy received for Christmas was a five piece Puppy puzzle. Peggy came crawling …

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3V0706.1

3V0706.01 Knock knock jokes: story used in ACR chapter of CECD. (12/29/79) Jokes have been much in the air lately. I’ve worked on OCL: Inventing Jokes. Miriam made me a joke book as a Christmas present. Peggy has begun telling knock-knock jokes, apparently in imitation (without instruction): Peggy: knock-knock ? Victim: Who’s there ? Peggy: …

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3V0696.1

3V0696.01 [run…running]: effect of variant form in parent expression; interpreted by Peggy as correction. (12/19/79) Peter Spier’s “London Bridge is Falling Down” is one of Peggy’s favorite books. She really likes the page on which is “Iron and steel will bend and bow.” Inevitably she points to the figure in the middle. “Run.” (Gretchen responds:) …

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3V0690.1

3V0690.01 Harp and Guitar: naming shows assimilation of a new object to a familiar schema with spontaneous naming, social differentiation of relations, and her locking in the relationship. (12/13/79) We were all watching the Marx Brothers movie “Monkey Business.” (Note also that bob Despain recently gave Miriam an old Guitar of his.) At one point, …

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3V0689.1

3V0689.01 Conversation: adverbial phrase sans pause assembled from fragments of Gretchen’s phrases. (12/12/79) Today Peggy inquired of me “Daddy ?” G: “Daddy’s coming home… probably tonight.” P: Back ?” G: “Yes, Daddy’s coming back.” “Soon.” Later on, I said something about Daddy, and Peggy responded, “Back soon.” In one of our conversations, Peggy said something …

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3V0683.1

3V0683.01 CHIN: word learning and private review in play. (12/6-7/79) Peggy found an old doll of Gretchen’s in the basement. She brought it to Miriam (who was sitting in my lap) and me and began pointing to and naming what struck her — the dress, the hair, face parts — eyes, nose. I realized that …

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3V0670.1

3V0670.01 UP & DOWN: symmetrical relations; very IMPORTANT DATA on word-thing relations: she relates words and their structures of meaning through reversibility as actions. (11/23/79) Peggy wandered into the living room today with her “Bear Hug” in hand. She held it high “Up” and put it on the ground “Down.” She repeated this exercise several …

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3V0622.1

3V0622.01 [mama got eye]: MAJOR NOTE on cognitive structures behind speech; topic and comment at “discourse” level, not a word level. 10/6/79 Gretchen long ago began instructing Peggy in the names of body parts, especially of the face. Recently, Peggy has surprised me by making comments about the commonality of the body parts. For example, …

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3V0594.2

3V0594.02 ONE, TWO: [one, two]: note on standardization of Peggy’s counting 09/08/79; You can’t avoid counting, and it’s hard to avoid instructing those who don’t know what you know — but we’ve been trying to avoid instructing Peggy. The children are persistent, at odd moments that we can’t witness. So Peggy’s idiosyncratic counting [one, one, …

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3V0593.1

3V0593.01 [maemae take bath]: CENTRAL NOTE: first complex follow up to /cul’/du/vae/vae’/ 9/7/79 This morning, as Peggy and I played on the bed, Gretchen asked if I were going to take a bath, and we agreed she should do so first. Peggy played with her bear, picked up a book, called out “Mama !” and …

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3V0587.1

3V0587.01 /cul’/du/vae/vae’/: CENTRAL INCIDENT;major insight ascribed on basis of incident. 9/1/79 Over the past several weeks, our house has suffered a greater than usual density and flux of Tintin cartoon books. As do the older kids, Peggy enjoys them. She brings a magazine, says /aen//aen/ and convinces one to hold her in his lap while …

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3V0581.1

3V0581.01 Increased Specificity: 8/26/79; By now it is clear that Peggy is trying to communicate (orally) on a wider scale. “Dat, dat, dat” lacked any specificity and soon outran its usefulness. She then developed a remarkable range by merely varying the pitch on a neutral syllable [***], repeated several times. Now she seems to be …

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3V0575.1

3V0575.01 “Duff”: 08/20/79; Peggy has been imitating words we speak (usually the last one of an utterance) for quite some time. If I note anything special about this imitation now, it is its becoming so pervasive as to be the norm in her response now. When offered some cake this evening, Peggy responded /***/ to …

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3V0574.2

3V0574.02 “One” : 08/19/79; Peggy has begun using the sound “one” to indicate that she wants some particular thing. The use may have come from my giving her one cookie for one hand and one cookie for the other (cf. VT P82 for her counting 3 bean bags as one…one…SZBTFG[?]). Today, requesting a cookie, she …

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3V0550.1

3V0550.01 [is a stairs] (7/26/79) Recently Peggy has been using the phrase “Is a X”. This use has been in a context we would interpret as declaring the identification of a thing. It may not mean that to Peggy. It may mean that and other things as well, as this observation suggests. I recently refinished …

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3V0545.1

3V0545.01 VERBAL LABELS: 07/21/79; Peggy frequently points to or touches things saying “that” with an intonation not signifying interrogation. I would say she uses the standard declarative intonation except that it might imply an intention — but that is precisely what we don’t know. Does she mean “Look at that” ? “I recognize that” ? …

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3V0531.1

3V0531.01 COUNTING: beginning of notes. Cookies, hands, and counting (7/7/79) During interviews at IBM, Moshe Zloof raised the question of whether or not, in effect, counting is innate. I told him the question was a big one about which I felt no one could speak with authority but that I had very strong prejudices. As …

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3V0516.2

3V0516.02 Concrete pipe: putting in (6/22/79) Peggy often rides with Miriam and me down to the Cox school to pick up Robby after soccer practice. Beside the soccer field is a play area for the older children.. One object is an 8 foot long concrete pipe of 4 foot diameter. Peggy was obvious(ly) fascinated by …

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3V0516.1

3V0516.01 Naming cars; relation of teaching and exploration (6/22/79) Riding Back from graduation at MIT, Peggy frequently pointed at trucks passing in the opposite direction with her squeals of delight. We named them for [her] “truck,” “van.” We all over subsequent days continued this on local trips where the distinction was often made between trucks …

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3V0503.1

3V0503.01 [Who have that?] role of pragmatics; example for analysis (6/9/79) Miriam, sitting at the table, had left a pair of shoes across the kitchen despite my asking her to pick them up. When I called them to her attention and we talked about the shoes, Peggy picked up one and carried it over to …

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3V0502.3

3V0502.03 TIRADES; issue: forming technical terms for phenomena appearing in observations (6/8/79) Tirades — I am introducing this word as a technical term in the sense in which it appears in French and Italian drama. The tirade is a long speech or declamatory passage by a single actor directed to an audience but not to …

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3V0502.2

3V0502.02 Pure verbal interpretation overwhelms context: 6/08/79 Pick up Foxy The older children have a bad habit (likely picked up from me) of dropping wherever they are whatever they have no further need of. when I try to get them to pick up after themselves they complain “I didn’t have that” or “Shouldn’t (the other …

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3V0502.1

3V0502.01 Trash can: comprehension and generalization Peggy comes to pick at the contents of my writing table whenever she is in my bedroom. (Just now she took a box of chalk and complained vociferously when I retrieved it from her). Today she found the cap of a beer bottle and picked it up. I asked …

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3V0495.3

3V0495.03 Putting herself into things: hats and more (6/01/79) Peggy has played with Robby’s Boston Red Sox protective helmet. The children or I place it on her head when she brings it to us – and replace it when it falls off, as it always does. Peggy extracted a large colander from those low shelves, …

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3V0495.2

3V0495.02 Pretending; incorrect choice as a joke (6/01/79) Late in the afternoon I found myself waiting at home for two telephone calls while Gretchen took the cub scouts on a trip. Peggy played in my care and during the hour and more the following incidents occurred: Pretending: Peggy of pulls dishes and other utensils from …

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3V0493.1

3V0493.01 Fragmentary sound knowledge contrast to prosodics (5/30/79) Diaper = /dai/ — Peggy needed changing this morning — so I believed — and Gretchen upstairs agreed to do it. Peggy was complaining loudly, toddling around and smacking her plastic pants. To make certain, I asked, “What do you want, Peggy?” She replied [die] (/dai/) and …

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3V0491.1

3V0491.01 Peggy hiding by closing her eyes; no sense of how others see her (5/28/79) Peggy likes to hide and play chase. The way she hides is reminiscent of playing peek-a-book [sic]. She will run to the corner of a wall and its perpendicular projection and put her head in the corner. When I cry …

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3V0485.3

3V0485.03 Napping and Symbolic Play (5/22/79) Napping — Sometimes when Peggy is playing in my lap, she will stop for a while and lay her head down on my chest. She keeps her eyes open. Peggy does this in other situations, not on people. For example, yesterday she was bouncing on Miriam’s bed (she stands …

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3V0485.2

3V0485.02 Game-agent flexibility precursor to language (5/22/79) Toe grabbing — We grownups tickle Peggy (so do the older children) and she enjoys it. She has begun to try tickling us in return. Her attempts are good imitations although not very effective. (She holds her hand over a patch of skin and scratches [with] all her …

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3V0485.1

3V0485.01 Action initiation; observations of symbolic ‘up’ from discussions with Mimi Sinclair (5/22/79) I discussed Peggy’s development with Mimi Sinclair and we reviewed a video tape or two. She encouraged me to continue with the study till Peggy is at least two years old. We discussed several topics. Peggy and shoes — Peggy has no …

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3V0432.3

3V0432.03 Problem solving: bad bugs; insensitivity to the “obvious” (3/30/79) Problem solving: bad bugs; insensitivity to the “obvious” (3/30/79) | One of those many times she has sat in my lap, Peggy began trying to uncap pens. (She has seen me put the cap on firmly many times, so that when she put them in …

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3V0432.1

3V0432.01 First example of symbolic thought: “doll-up” for herself (3/30/79) Miriam has been making fantastic figures by cutting out paper. She displays them by taping them up below my mantle motto at the second story fireplace. Peggy caught sight of them and wanted to ‘see’ them. She indicates this by a high pitched noise of …

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3V0415.1

3V0415.01 Functional classification: two examples, one in error (3/13/79) Peggy has begun to classify objects by what she knows their use to be. Some examples are equivocal, though I remain convinced of their interpretation. For example, Peggy has been “brushing” her hair. This could be from having her hair brushed, from seeing Miriam brush her …

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3V0387.1

3V0387.01 Peggy varying elements of a transient game; like phrases 2/13/79 Wooba wooba — Peggy hates to have her face washed or her nose wiped. But she does like to take things out of my shirt pockets. Her usual pocket-picking targets are pens or pipe stems. Today, with my having two shirt pockets, she discovered …

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3V0385.1

3V0385.01 Peggy’s nose; two element phrase from idiom variation 2/11/79 Peggy sat on my lap, and Miriam, feeling left out, demanded the same privilege. Gretchen has been naming face parts with Peggy for months and Peggy cooperates by reaching out to touch her nose when Gretchen asks, “Where’s my nose?” Miriam asked, “Peggy, where’s my …

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3V0384.1

3V0384.01 More verbal specificity; productive uses of signifiers 2/10/79 Returning from a three day trip to Boston, I have Peggy in my lap more than usual. At one point, she indicated she wanted Miriam’s belt which lay near by on the floor: /zIt//zIt/. I gave it to her. Peggy chewed it over, and because I …

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