When words clearly comprehended are used in a different sense from that in which adults use them—incorrectly used, the latter would say—there is, however, no illogical employment of them on the part of the child. For it is always the fact, as in the last example, that the concept associated with the word is taken in a more extended sense. The very young child infers a law from a few, even from two observations, which present some agreement only in one respect, and that perhaps a quite subordinate respect. He makes inductions without deliberation. He has heard milk called "boiling hot," he feels its warmth, and then feels the warmth of the stove, consequently the stove also is "boiling hot"; and so in other cases. This logical activity, the inductive process, now prevails. The once favorite monologues, pure, meaningless exercises of articulation, of voice and of hearing, are, on the contrary, falling off. The frequent repetition of the same syllable, also of the same sentence (lampee aus), still survives particularly in animated expressions of wish, erst essen (first eat), viel milch (much milk), mag-e-nicht (don't like it). Desire for food and for playthings makes the child loquacious, much more than dislike does, the latter being more easily manifested by means of going away, turning around, turning away. The child can even beg on behalf of his carved figures of animals and men. Pointing out a puppet, he says tint aïn tikche apfl! Für das kind ein Stückchen Apfel! (A bit of apple for the child.)
Notwithstanding these manifold signs of a use of words that is beginning to be independent, the sound and word imitation continues to exist in enlarged measure. Echolalia has never, perhaps, been more marked, the final words of sentences heard being repeated with the regularity of a machine. If I say, "Leg die Feder hin" (Lay the pen down)! there sounds in response a feder hin. All sorts of tones and noises are imitated with varying success; even the whistle of the locomotive, an object in which a passionate interest is displayed; the voices of animals; so also German, French, Italian, and English words. The French nasal "n" (in bon, orange), however—even in the following months—as well as the English "th," in there (in spite of the existence of the right formation in the fifteenth month), is not attained. The child still laughs regularly when others laugh, and on his part excites merriment through exact reproduction of separate fragments of a dialogue that he does not understand, and that does not concern him; e. g., da hastn (da hast Du ihn) (there you have him), or aha sistĕ (siehst Du) (do you see)? or um Gottes willen (for God's sake), the accent in these cases being also imitated with precision. But in his independent use of words the accentuation varies in irregular fashion. Such an arbitrary variation is bitté and bi-tĕ. Beti no longer appears.
As a noteworthy deficiency at this period is to be mentioned the feeble memory for often-prescribed answers to certain questions. To the question of a stranger, "What is your name?" the child for the first time gave of his own accord the answer Attsell (Axel), on the eight hundred and tenth day of his life. On the other hand, improper answers that have been seriously censured remain fixed in his recollection. The impression is stronger here. The weakness of memory is still shown most plainly when we try to make intelligible to the child the numerals one to five. It is a failure. The sensuous impression that one ball makes is so different from that which two balls make, the given words one and two sound so differently, that we can not help wondering how one and two, and likewise three, four, five, are confounded with one another.
A question has not yet been uttered by the child. The frequent ist das signifies merely "das ist," or it is the echo of the oft-heard question, "Was ist das?" and is uttered without the tone of interrogation. The articles are not used at all yet; at any rate, if used, they are merely imitated without understanding.
The defects of articulation are now less striking, but only very slowly does the correct and distinct pronunciation take the place of the erroneous and indistinct. We still have regularly:
| bücher-rank | for | Bücherschrank (book-case). |
| fraï takkee | " | Fräulein Starke (Miss Starke). |
| ērĕ, tseer | " | Schere (shears). |
| raïbĕ, raiben | " | Schreiben (u. Zeichnen) (write or draw). |
| nur | " | Schnur (string). |
| neiderin | " | Schneiderin (tailoress). |
| dsön (also schön) | " | schön (pretty). |
| lafen | " | schlafen (sleep). |
| pucken | " | spucken (spit). |
| dsehen (also sehen) | " | sehen (see). |
The sounds "sch" and "sch" in the "st" as well as in the "sp" ("schneiden, Spiel") are often omitted without any substitute (naidă, taign, piel); more seldom their place is supplied by "s," as in swer = "schwer" for "müde." Yet ks, ts are often given with purity in bex, bux, Axl. The last word is often pronounced Atsĕl and Atsli (heard by him as "Axeli"), very rarely Akkl; in "Aufziehen" the "z" is almost always correctly reproduced. Further, we still have
| locotiwe | for | Locomotive. | ann-nepf | for | anknöpfen. |
| nepf | " | Knöpfe (buttons). | nits | " | nichts (nothing). |
"Milch" is now permanently named correctly; no longer mimi, mich; Wasser, wassa, no longer watja. But "gefährlich" is called fährlich; "getrunken," trunken.
The twenty-eighth month is characterized by a rapid increase of activity in the formation of ideas, on the one hand, and by considerably greater certainty in the use of words, on the other. Ambition is developed and makes itself known by a frequent laïnee (allein, alone). The child wants to undertake all sorts of things without help. He asks for various objects interesting to him, with the words Ding haben (have the thing). That the faculty of observation and of combination is becoming perfected, is indicated by the following: The child sees an ox at the slaughter-house and says mumu (moo-moo); I add "todt" (dead); thereupon comes the response mumu todt, and after a pause the child says, of his own accord, lachtett (geschlachtet, slaughtered); then Blut heraus (blood out). The beginning of self-control is perceived in this, that the child often recollects, of himself, the strict commands he has received to refrain from this and that. Thus, he had been accustomed to strike members of the family in fun, and this had been forbidden him. Now, when the inclination seizes him still to strike, he says emphatically nicht lagen (schlagen,—not strike), Axel brav (good). In general the child names himself only by his name, which he also tells to strangers without being asked. His parents, and these alone, are mostly named Papa and Mama, but often also by their names.