From Two to Five by Korney Chukovsky. Short summary

5 seconds

Studying and analyzing children’s speech, the author provides many examples of word creation, interpretation of expressions, reinterpretation, expressiveness, and flair for language.

1 minute

Studying children’s speech, the author discovers patterns of thought and the child’s psyche. He marvels at children’s word creativity, expressiveness, flair and ability to imitate. The author believes that a two-year-old baby is a talented linguist, and at the age of five this talent disappears. During this period, children are intensively acquiring language.

Reproducing adult speech, children unconsciously interpret it, make sense of incomprehensible words. The child is sensitive to generic endings, and the writer gives many examples of this. He also points to the ability of children to change the immutable words, to analyze the expressions of adults, surprise logic, a critical attitude to the forms and meanings of words, phonetics and morphology.

The author observes that all generations in childhood follow the same path in word creation. He points out the pedagogical value of shapeshifters, fairy tales, nebyvalshina, poetry. Chukovsky formulates several rules for children’s writers.