M. Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Children’s Speech Part Two

The paper continues a review of the issues of early speech ontogenesis based on M. Merleau-Ponty’s collection “Psychology and Pedagogy of the Child. Lectures at the Sorbonne 1949–1952” 2001. The text precedes the second fragment of translation of the collection from the section “Consciousness and Language Acquisition” and presents a short introductive overview of Merleau-Ponty’s approach to early speech ontogenesis. The author considers the linguistic studies that Merleau-Ponty relies on, linking them with the ideas of phenomenology, Gestalt psychology and structuralism. MerleauPonty aims to describe, as closely as possible, the main phenomenon of his research – the child, including how the child acquires his native language. The result of the synthesis of those research areas is an original concept, outlined in the article in the form the child language acquisition features, which correlate with his other well-known ideas, and a brief commentary on them is given. The article attempts to outline the philosophical foundations for the linguistics of child speech and child psychology by the example of M. Merleau-Ponty’s developments.