Not just an outfielder

Sometimes it's difficult communicating with a toddler. For example, yesterday Amelia starting getting very irritated and fussy and kept repeating "Dye, dye."

It's possible that Amelia felt bad that I had not played Jermaine Dye last week in fantasy baseball. After reading reports about his infected spider bites I thought it wise to keep the former "A" out of the line up. He then proceeded to kick ass - of course.

After giving it some more thought I decided it was unlikely Amelia knew about my fiasco with Jermaine Dye. I tried putting her to bed and she became hopping mad saying, "Dye, dye, dye" and pointing to the door. I picked her up and asked her to show me what she wanted. She pointed out the door, down the stairs and out into the hot August sun. I was pretty surprised such a sick girl would want to go outside, but I obliged.

Once Amelia was outside (in the shade) she seemed pretty happy. She loves exploring: picking up rocks, pulling grass, patting bushes. And I'm glad that I finally figured out that "dye" is Amelia talk for "outside."

The linguist in me wonders what it is about the diphthong + /d/ combination that makes it stand out in the mind of a baby girl. Is it simply easier to say than "out," for example, or more sonorous and more memorable? This might be a good research paper for next semester's course in first language acquisition...

Lisa