A production limitation in syllable number: a longitudinal study of one child's early vocabulary.
The present paper reports on the phonological form of one child's productive vocabulary from age 0;10 to 1;8 with primary focus on his production of multisyllabic targets. A large percentage of his multisyllabic vocabulary was produced as one syllable until the age of 1;6. This limitation was not due to a tendency to extract only single syllables from the speech stream, but rather due primarily to a limitation on production. While some portion of his one-syllable productions could be interpreted as the result of single syllable extraction, a sizeable portion affirmed that he extracted the target size correctly by his inclusion of first and final target phonemes in his productions (e.g. [po] for piano and [kiz] for candies). The resolution of this limitation coincides with his move toward two-word speech. We conclude that there is a developmental and perhaps maturational limitation in the capacity to carry out the processes underlying word and sentence production.
Johnson
J S
JS
University of Virginia, Department of Psychology, Charlottesville 22903, USA.
Lewis
L B
LB
Hogan
J C
JC
D002663:Child Language; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary