In this second joint seminar for Linguistics and Cognitive Semiotics (organized again by Mehdi Sabzevari) the eminent developmental linguistic Professor Eve Clark will present a talk on early language development, where cognition, semiosis and social interaction transpire in order to allow the "language system" to emerge! The seminar will be only on zoom, starting from 15:15 with ca. 60 minutes for presentation, followed for up to 45 minutes discussion. All are welcome, with cameras on at the start please!

Infants attend very early to motion, to angles, and to faces. With faces, they attend first to eyes, and then to mouths (moving), and also to hands in motion. These developments ready them for interaction, starting with locking gaze with another. But attention to the other is just a first step.

In this talk I consider how infants first try to express their interests and desires, initially with gestures like pointing and reaching; how they persist when not understood; how they add to early gestures with vocalizations and then words; how early gesture + word combinations are precursors to word + word combinations.  I will also look at the role of timing in early gesture + word forms, as well as timing in turn-taking from the earliest exchange games on.