"We assume that since words are the shortest and simplest elements of language, when we learn language we learn words first. But it is far more likely that we learn words last. First we learn the large idea of communication by speech, that all those noises that come out of people's mouths mean something and make something happen. Then, from the tones of people's voices and the contexts in which they speak, we get a very general idea of what they are saying, just as I can tell, in a country of whose language I do not speak a word, that a parent is scolding a child or people are joking or arguing or that someone is giving someone else an explanation or an order. Then they begin to intuit a rough outline of the grammar—i.e., the structure—of the language. Finally, they begin to learn words, and to pit those words into their proper slots in the very rough models of grammar which they have invented." John Holt

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