March 24, 2010
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Eating an Orange
Our granddaughter, Liza, brings us much joy and laughter in a great many ways, but one of the things I find most interesting is observing her acquire language. At four years old she’s able to carry on a conversation, but she’s still having trouble with certain sounds and with the past tense of irregular verbs. I know from my study of linguistics, and especially of language acquisition in children, that she’s on target (or even a little ahead) for her age, but some of the stuff she says is hilarious.
For example, last Saturday she spied a bowlful of tangerines that we had in the kitchen. She wanted one, and she knew she had to peel it before she could eat it. When I gave it to her, she said, “Grandpa, would you help me get the crust off?” I’d be willing to bet money that she’s never heard anybody refer to an orange peel as the crust, but somehow she decided that’s what it is–the crust. I corrected her and told her it’s called the peel, but that didn’t “take.” She’ll figure it out eventually, but for right now I think calling the peel the crust is pretty inventive.
ED
Comments (1)
that is pretty funny and honestly, before you said it i never knew that the crust of an orange was called a peel. hell, I’ve always referred to the act of removing the crust as peeling an orange, but now I know why its referred to as peeling an orange.