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A production limitation in syllable number: a longitudinal study of one child's early vocabulary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1997

JACQUELINE S. JOHNSON
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
LAWRENCE B. LEWIS
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
JAY C. HOGAN
Affiliation:
University of Virginia

Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was supported by NIH Grant HD30785-01. The authors would like to thank Katherine Demuth, Mazen I. Saah, Joanna Salidis and two anonymous reviewers for useful advice and comments, and Caroline Hunt for help in transcribing audio and videotapes.