Hello, everyone!
I teach a course on early literacy and oral language development at Millersville and while I found the subject matter fascinating when I first started teaching the course, it has taken on a whole new level of interest for me now that I have two little people learning language and beginning their journeys as readers and writers. In fact, the babies—now toddlers, really—obligingly came to several of my classes as “guest speakers” so that my students could have real-life examples of early language to consider alongside the readings they had done for class.
It will come as a surprise to exactly no one who knows me that I am a nerd. If you haven’t spent any time with me and need proof of this, I will offer you this one fact which will, I trust, be sufficient: I have a favorite vocabulary word to teach my students. That’s right. It’s not enough for me to quietly enjoy some words in the privacy of my own brain. No, no. I am compelled to share these words in discipline-specific contexts, passing them on to the next generation in the hopes that they will love them too.
So, what, you are probably not asking, is my favorite vocabulary term from my emergent literacy and language course? One that has become extremely relevant for Sophie and Hazel:
Holophrase.
Holophrase can mean something slightly different when talking about adult speakers, but in the context of young language learners, it refers to a single word a baby or toddler says that carries the weight of a whole sentence (which they are not developmentally ready to say yet). Since they are at the stage where they can say only one word in an utterance, they choose the most important one to get their point across. For example, a baby might say, “Dog!” to mean, “Look, I see a dog!”
I love this phenomenon because it confirms my theory that very young children are poets; they instinctively know how to say a lot in an incredibly efficient way. Holo- means “whole” or “complete,” so a holophrase is a complete utterance in just one (often monosyllabic!) word. How incredible!
I also love that when babies and toddlers use a holophrase, the context matters even more than in other language events. For instance, when Hazel says “Dow!” (“down”) she might mean, “I want to go downstairs,” “Please put me down,” “I dropped a piece of apple off my highchair tray and it fell down,” “Sophie fell down and is crying,” or a number of other things.
Another example: Sophie might say, “Sh” (meaning “shoe”) and mean “Here is my shoe!” Or, “Here is Daddy’s shoe.” Or, “I have this shoe and I think Hazel should have it so I will
follow her around the living room until she takes it from me.” Or, “Look! I pulled all of the shoes off the shoe rack and now there is a small mountain of them on the floor! How wonderful!”
As with poetry, I have the best shot of understanding what the babies are saying when I am paying careful attention to the context of the utterance. Part of that context is situational (e.g., What happened immediately before they said their word? As they speak, how are they interacting with their environment in ways that relate to the word they are saying?). But part of that context is relational. Because Mike and I know the babies better than anyone else, we are most likely to be able to interpret any given holophrase because we know their personalities, the kinds of things they are currently interested in, how they have used that particular word in the past, etc. We don’t just know their circumstances, we know them.
Those of you who have been reading my writing for a while may pick up on the fact that it’s Christmas Eve and that is about the only time that I update this blog these days. So, you may be asking, what’s the connection to Advent/Christmas? [For those of you who aren’t Christian and/or just don’t feel like reading any further, here is an exit ramp; as you go, please take your complimentary vocab lesson, have a lovely weekend, and know there are no hard feelings. For everyone, else, here we go:]
Christians often read the first chapter of John during Advent, the season leading up to Christmas. As I’ve been thinking about holophrases even more than usual this year, I read John 1:1 a bit differently. Unlike the other accounts of Jesus’ life, John’s narrative begins with the metaphor of speech: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Not a word of God. The word. Christians believe that if God’s message could be summed up in only one word, it would be the person of Jesus; Jesus is God’s holophrase.
What happens if we think of Jesus in this (admittedly very obscure) way? At least two things, I think, and they relate to how we can prepare for Christmas.
First, I think we need to recognize that, unlike with children’s holophrases, in this instance, the messenger IS the message. This is different than if a baby says their name and points to themselves. In that case, the word would still be representing the phrase “I am [name].” But while we see God communicate with humanity using words throughout the Bible (e.g., through the words of the prophets, the commandments and laws, the divinely-inspired scriptures, etc.), Christians believe that the culminating divine message is not only verbal. God’s message comes in the form of a person. Unlike the prophets, Jesus came not just to ANNOUNCE good news but to BE good news.
This affects how I anticipate Christmas. There is a difference between expecting a particular event, significant—life-changing, even!—as it might be, and expecting a person with whom I will be in relationship. God doesn’t just send a message on nice letterhead telling us that there is good news; God sends Godself because being able to be with God is the good news. And if I believe, which I do, that one of the ways God chooses to work is through the people in our lives, then one way I can prepare for Christmas is to tend to my relationships, not just my beliefs. I can go into any given interaction with a colleague, a student, a family member, a friend, a stranger, with the expectation that it could affect my relationship with the divine. As a bonus, I’ve found that on the (very!) rare occasion when I remember to do this, my relationships with people become just a little better too.
The second way thinking about Jesus as a holophrase can help us prepare for Christmas is by reminding us that the context of God’s holy utterance is essential. Certainly, we must consider the historical and cultural context of Jesus’ birth (and of the human authors of Jesus’ story). But just as Mike and I can best understand the babies’ single-word exclamations when we have spent a lot of time with them, listening to how they have used sounds in the past and observing their personalities and interests, we also need to pay attention to the context of our relationship with God. Paradoxically, the way we prepare for God’s presence is by being with God. The way we prepare for God’s message to us is to remember God’s past messages to us. We need to know God’s character in order to best understand what God is saying.
So, in the hours that remain this Advent, let me be the first (and probably the only person ever) to wish you a Holy Holophrase, and to ask how you are preparing to hear and understand the Word in your current context?
To everyone who celebrates, Merry Christmas, and to everyone, a peaceful end of the year!
Sarah/Mouse
