256 Animal Intelligence 



select from responses otherwise caused, or as a stimulus to 

 habits already existing. First it will be said that clear, in- 

 dubitable repetitions of words never practiced by the child, 

 either as totals or in their syllables separately, do occur, - 

 that children do respond by repeating a word in cases where 

 full knowledge of all their previous habits would give no 

 reason to expect them to make such a connection. To this 

 the only retort is that such observations should be based on 

 a very delicate and very elaborate record of a child's linguis- 

 tic history, and that until they are so made, it is wise to 

 withhold acceptance. 



The second objection is that the rapid acquisition of a 

 vocabulary such as occurs in the second and third year is 

 too great a task to be accomplished by the laws of exercise 

 and effect alone. This objection is based on an overestima- 

 tion of the variety of sounds which children of the ages in 

 question make. For example, a child who says 250 words, 

 including say 400 syllables, comprising say 300 syllables 

 which, when properly pronounced, are distinguishable, may 

 actually use less than 50 distinguishable syllables. Ba, may 

 stand for the first syllable of father, water, barn, park and 

 the like. Ki may stand for cry, climb, and even carry. 

 For a child to say a word commonly means that he makes 

 a sound which his intimate companions can recognize as his 

 version of that word. A child who can produce something 

 like each one of a thousand words upon hearing them, may 

 do so from actual control over less than a hundred sylla- 

 bles. If we suppose him to have acquired the habits, 

 first, of saying something in such a case, second, of respond- 

 ing to a certain hundred sounds when perceived or re- 

 membered by making, in each case, a similar sound, and, 

 third, of responding to any other sound when perceived or 

 remembered, by making that sound of his own repertory 



