A further
evidence of the increased ability to learn toward the end of the month
is the fact that the hands are raised in the attitude of begging not
only at the command "Please," but also at the question, "How does the
good child behave?" Thus, the experience is beginning to become a
conscious one that, in order to obtain anything, the begging attitude is
useful.
The fifteenth month brought no new definite independent utterances of
sound with the exception of _wa_. Sensations and emotions, however, are
indicated more and more definitely and variously by sounds that are
inarticulate and sometimes unintelligible. Thus, astonishment is
expressed by _h[=a]-[=a] [)e][=a]-[)e]_; joy by vigorous crowing in very
high tones and more prolonged than before; further, very strong desire
by repeated _haeoe_, _hae-[)e]_; pain, impatience, by screaming in vowels
which pass over into one another.
The only word that is unquestionably used of the child's own motion to
indicate a class of perceptions is still _atta_, _ha-atta_, which during
the following month also is uttered softly, for the most part, on going
out, and which signifies "away" or "gone" (weg), and still continues to
be used also as it was in the eleventh month, when a light is dimmed (by
a lamp-shade). Beyond this no syllable can be named that marked the dawn
of mental independence, none that testified to the voluntary use of
articulate sounds for the purpose of announcing perceptions.
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