Jennifer Smith, Professor of Sociolinguistics at Glasgow University: From imitators to innovators: children and language change.

Language is uniquely human. We are the only species that can talk about the weather, what we will eat for dinner tonight, and why we did not like the film we saw at the weekend. Language is also constantly changing – a granny sounds very different to a grandchild – and children are at the centre of driving language change. How exactly does this happen?

In this talk, I examine the speech of children from the north-east of Scotland in the key years of language development: first in preschool (aged 3-4) with their caregivers, and then in preadolescence (12-13) with their peers. In doing so, we can track the dynamics of language change as the children move from imitation in the caregiver-dominated speech of the home to innovation in the community-dominated speech of the wider world.

Booking for Highlight Talks at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum is recommended to guarantee entry. Due to limited capacity in the venue, any available seats will be allocated to attendees on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning that entry cannot be guaranteed without a booking.

Doors open at 2.15pm