Production as a source of input for analysis: evidence from the developmental course of a word-blend.
Theoretical arguments for considering production as a source of input for analysis (the output-as-input hypothesis) are reviewed, and empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is presented. The evidence consists of a longitudinal study of the developmental course of a self-created form, produced by one Dutch child. This form is the product of blending two words, wat and iets, to yield unitary wat-iets. In Dutch, independent wat and iets may each mean 'some' and/or 'something'. Though wat-iets is not permitted by the language, and so does not occur in environmental input, the form stays in the child's repertoire for about 10 months (between 3;8 and 4;7) and is apparently subjected to processes of generalization: first the child treats wat-iets as a two-word frame that may be regularized, later as a unitary word that may be semantically extended. After the extension of wat-iets, independent synonymous wat and iets appear for the first time in the child's speech. It is argued that the child actually analysed his own creation.
Elbers
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Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009426:Netherlands; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary