AN ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, AND SEMANTIC ASPECTS IN THE FIRSTLANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS IN THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Abstract

Every child born into this world can acquire language. In language acquisition, not every child can immediately speak the language correctly. Language acquisition is a crucial phase in the cognitive growth and verbal interaction of young children. This study examines first language acquisition in 3-year-old children with an emphasis on phonology, morphology, and semantics. The objective of this research is to identify the types of errors involving phonology, morphology, and semantics. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method using observation techniques to analyze children's daily conversations within the home. The findings indicate that children often substitute sounds, such as replacing the phoneme /r/ with /l/, and begin to understand the formation of base words with affixes, although errors in their use still occur. These findings suggest that children's language skills develop gradually, starting from sound simplification to word formation processes, in line with the linguistic development phases of young children.