LIBRARY 



PROCEEDINGS ^6wvol.K 



uutamcal 



OF THE UAKU&M. 



Delaware County Institute of Science 



Vol. IV, No. 3 April, 1909 



VOCAL IMITATION OF MOTION AND MASS. 



BY HENRY L. BROOM ALL. 



It has been said elsewhere* that imitation is the basis of 

 the acquisition and transmission of language. The child is 

 born into a community where he finds a language already 

 made and used, and his education largely consists in imitating 

 the vocal sounds he hears and their meanings. His effort is 

 properly to associate sound and meaning as he finds them 

 already associated in the community around him. At first he 

 stumbles over the articulation of the sounds and appreciates • 

 their meanings but vaguel5^ With vocal practice and mental 

 advancement he gradually perfects his articulation and grasps 

 the meanings more closely or thoroughly. By this process he 

 generally finds all the language he needs. Why particular 

 sounds and meanings are thus associated is a subject that 

 neither aids him in this acquisition of speech nor interests 

 him — if ever — until long after he has mastered the practical 

 use of his language. 



In some of the traditional forms of language thus imi- 

 tated, the learner sooner or later feels — rather than appreci- 

 ates — that he is also imitating sounds produced by the 

 iliiiif s (u actions named. He learns the words croak, crack and 



' * " Signiricance ol Errors in Speech," Proc. Dki<. Co. InsT. vSci., 

 Vol. I, No. 2, p. 30 



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