developmental linguistics

A term occasionally used for the branch of LINGUISTICS concerned with the study of the ACQUISITION of LANGUAGE in children. The subject involves the application of linguistic theories and techniques of analysis to child language DATA, in order to provide a precise description of patterns of development and an explanation of the norms and variations encountered, both within individual languages and UNIVERSALLY. In relation to the task of explanation, particular attention is paid to the role of non-linguistic factors, such as cognition, social background, the nature of the experimental task, and so on, and as a consequence there has been an increasingly multidisciplinary approach to the problem. Because of the particular relevance of psychological factors, the subject is more commonly referred to as developmental psycholinguistics.