PANOPTICON: Journal of English Studies
Vol. 3 No. 3 (2025): PANOPTICON: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES

Constructing Meaning Through Speech: A Linguistic Case Study of an Indonesian Child’s Language Acquisition




Article Info

Publish Date
07 Jul 2025

Abstract

This case study investigates early language acquisition in a four-year-old Indonesian child by analyzing her spontaneous speech within a psycholinguistic framework. Utilizing naturalistic data collected from two audio recordings of child–adult interaction, the study focuses on three core linguistic domains: phonology, morphology, and semantics. Through a qualitative descriptive approach and content analysis, the research identifies systematic phonological processes such as substitution (e.g., /r/ realized as /l/), productive morphological usage including compound numerals and possessive affixation, and emergent semantic constructions involving narrative structure, emotional vocabulary, and abstract concepts like time, negation, and causality. The findings reveal that the child's speech patterns reflect age-appropriate developmental milestones and align with established psycholinguistic norms. Furthermore, the study highlights the critical role of social interaction and contextual conversation in facilitating language growth. By documenting linguistic behaviors in an Indonesian context, this research offers culturally specific insights that enrich the global understanding of language development. The study underscores the importance of naturalistic observation in capturing children’s cognitive strategies and supports its continued use in early language research

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Journal Info

Abbrev

PNP

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

PANOPTICON: Journal of English Studies is a scholarly journal published by English Letter of Universitas Pamulang. It was founded in 2024, with registered number E-ISSN: 3047-8693. PANOPTICON has commitment to exchange and share ideas as well as research findings from researchers. Also, it provides ...