More new words

Between class prep, dissertation work, and James-play I haven't had much time to blog lately but thought I'd take a moment tonight to reflect on the acquisition of language. James continues to show an amazing rate of adding new words to his vocabulary. Each evening he tells me three new words which we then write out on his blackboard. Most of these are everyday English words or clearly recognizable variants but some of the best appear to be entirely of his own creation. Some recent favorites include sanzen, which he says mean big, powerful, and/or expensive (think SUV!); solt which is 'a different kind of accordian'; shivlewise which apparently refers to 'sword-fighting' or 'fencing'; and krotzen which means 'if monsters were real monsters they would be scary.'

Speaking of monsters, James also has an 'imaginary companion' named Monster, as well as one that goes by Killee (and don't try to convince him the name should be Kelly!), and another called Hermie (presumably from last year's video favorite 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'). James calls these his 'shadow friends' and they have persisted for months now and exhibit fairly stable and interesting characteristics. Killee is our most frequent visitor and other than the fact that he likes beer and ages kind of fast -- he started at six and at last check he was twenty-nine -- he seems to be a good influence. For example, "Killee says be careful" or "Killee told me to slow down." Hermie has lived at a particular house on the way to Grandma's since last spring. Turns out there is some interesting work on imaginary companions in the developmental psychology literature. Not a problem. Pretty common, especially among first-born (and only) male children. Interestingly enough, male children typically have male imaginary companions while females have invisible friends of both sexes. Lenore had a companion called Tony until she was six. Later tonight James and I are going to try to tape an "interview" about these three guys. G'night for now. /dps