O'Shea—The Child's Linguistic Development. 205 
pantomine to the nominative stage, he gives its name to every¬ 
thing to which he alludes, including himself. If his elders ad¬ 
dress him as ‘'baby” then he always uses this term when refer¬ 
ring to himself in any way; or if his proper name is used, then 
he employs this on all occasions. So he says,—a phenomenon 
observed by every student of the matter, I think,—‘ ‘ Baby wants 
baby milk;” or “Baby hurt baby hand,” and so on ad libitum. 
In the same way he says, addressing his father, “Papa take 
baby,” usually, I may add, in the imperative mode. Similarly, 
when speaking of his brother, he will say, “Stanley is putting 
on Stanley coat.” V. continued in this nominative stage until 
he was past five years ol‘ age; then with great swiftness he went 
over into the pronominative stage. Within his linguistic range, 
he used pronouns with considerable freedom, accuracy, and 
efficiency by the time he was six and a half, though he still got 
the cases of his personal pronouns mixed at times, and he could 
not use the relatives according to the prevailing standard; his 
whats and his thats, for instance, gave him trouble. H. and S. 
were well into the pronominative stage by the time they were 
three and a half; and by six they had overcome all their diffi¬ 
culties. 
Why does the child pass through the nominative on his way 
to the pronominative stage in linguistic function? To begin 
with, the name of a person is far more definite and uniform than 
his pro-name, and so all persons in speaking to the child use the 
former and avoid the latter, as Preyer 1 has already pointed 
out. To illustrate: In addressing my child I say, (( Papa wants 
this or that;” or “Papa will do or did this or that,” and so on 
ad libitum. The mother speaking of the father in the presence 
of the babe says, “Papa loves baby;” or “Papa has come home,” 
and so on. Now, everyone who mentions the father when the 
babe is concerned uses this term invariably; and the same is 
true in principle of the baby himself, and the mother and broth¬ 
ers and sisters, and every object mentioned. If the pronoun were 
used, see what confusion (from the learner’s standpoint) would 
result. When I referred to myself I would designate myself 
iThe Development of the Intellect. (Trans, by Brown), p. 202. 
