Genie

A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day Wild Child

1st Edition - October 28, 1977
Author: Susan Curtiss
Editor: Harry A Whitaker
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 1 7 6 1 - 1

Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day “Wild Child” reports on the linguistic research carried out through studying and working with Genie, a deprived and isolated, to an… Read more

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Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day “Wild Child” reports on the linguistic research carried out through studying and working with Genie, a deprived and isolated, to an unprecedented degree, girl who was not discovered until she was an adolescent. An inhuman childhood had prevented Genie from learning language, and she knew little about the world in any respect save abuse, neglect, isolation, and deprivation. This book is organized into three parts encompassing 11 chapters. Part I provides a case history and background material on Genie's personality and language behavior. This part describes the interaction between the authors and this remarkable girl. Part II details Genie's linguistic development and overall language abilities, specifically her phonological development, as well as receptive knowledge and productive grammatical abilities of syntax, morphology, and semantics. This part also provides a comparison between her linguistic development and the language acquisition of other children. Part III presents a full description of the neurolinguistic work carried out on Genie and discusses the implications of this aspect of the case. This book will prove useful to neurolinguistics and pyscholinguistics.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I Case History

1 Family Background and Early Childhood

2 November 1970-January 1971

3 January 1971-June 1971

4 June 1971-August 1971

5 September 1971-June 1975

5.1. Delayed Responses

5.2. Lazy Behavior

5.3. Hapologies

5.4. Ritualistic Speech

5.5. "Tuning in" to Language

5.6. New Uses for Language

5.7. Sound Production

5.8. Gestures

5.9. Working with Genie

5.10. Affect and Social Development

Part II Linguistic Development

6 The Data

6.1. Interviews with Genie's Mother

6.2. Reports from the Division of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital

6.3. Videotapes

6.4. Tape Recordings

6.5. Observations of Genie's Speech

6.6. Psychological Testing

6.7. Language Tests

6.8. Neurolinguistic Tests

6.9. Work with Written Language

6.10. Sign Language

7 Phonology: Comprehension and Production

7.1. Receptive Phonology

7.2. Phonological Production

7.3. Suprasegmentals

7.4. Summary

8 Syntax, Morphology, Semantics: Comprehension

8.1. Videotapes

8.2. Comprehension Tests

8.3. Real-Life Comprehension

8.4. Conclusion

9 Syntax, Morphology, Semantics: Production

9.1. Syntax

9.2. Morphological Production

9.3. Semantics

10 Genie in Relation to Other Children

10.1. Phonology

10.2. Syntax

10.3. Morphology

10.4. Semantics

10.5. Comprehension/Production

10.6. Competence/Performance

10.7. Conclusion

Part III Neurolinguistic Aspects

11 Neurolinguistic Aspects

11.1. The Critical Period

11.2. Genie as a Right-Hemisphere Language Learner

11.3. Lateralization

11.4. Genie as a Right-Hemisphere Thinker

11.5. Right-Hemisphere Speech

11.6. Summary and Conclusions

Appendix I Comprehension Tests

1. Simple Negation

2. Simple Modification

3. Complex Modification

4. Prepositions In, On, Under

5. Prepositions Behind, In Front of, Beside, and Next to

6. Prepositions In, On, Next to, Under, Over, In Back of, In Front of, Behind, Beside

7. Singular versus Plural in Nouns

8. Conjunction/Disjunction

9. Possessive Pronouns

10. Comparative

11. Superlative I

12. Superlative II

13. Comparative and Superlative

14. Tense/Aspect

15. Before ana After

16. Some, One, All

17. Pronouns

18. Word Order

19. WH-Questioning of Subject Versus Object

20. Complex Sentence Processing

21. Complex Negation

22. Relative Terms

23. More Versus Less

24. Most, Many, Few, Fewest

25. Semantic Classification Tests

26. Receptive Phonology

Appendix II Dichotic Listening and Tachistoscopic Tests

I. Dichotic Listening Tests

II. Tachistoscopic Tests

Appendix III Excerpt from Kent (1972)

Excerpt from "Eight Months in the Hospital" by Dr. James Kent (1972)

Appendix IV Sketches by Genie

References

Index