Abstract: We have traced and made research on the process of acquiring early words of two children. The results show that (1) In the development of the child's early pronunciation, syllables grew in quantity, uttered with increa- sing discriminability, producing continuous syllables, gradually developing voluntariness and meaning. (2) The process of acquiring early words is a process in which continuous syllables are gradually substituted by meaningful words. According to the changes of percentages and functions in communi- cation of both continuous syllables and meaningful words, the child's process of acquiring early words may be divided into three stages, each of which is characterized by distinctive properties. (3) The early words of two children have had great accordance in the composition of parts of speech and in 0heir functioning. Besides, on the basis of the above results, in combination of individual differences in children, we also discussed tentatively the factors affecting the child's acquisition of early words and the possible relationships between these factors in such a process.

Key words: acquisition of first words, the process of language acquisition, continuous syllable, speech center, cognitive development