Patterns of early lexical and phonological development

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a detailed analysis of early lexical and phonological development in three children. The study covers the period from late babbling through the acquisition of 50 conventional words and focuses on: (1) the relationship between prelinguistic and linguistic vocalizations; (2) phonological development after the onset of speech; (3) patterns of lexical selection; (4) rate of lexical acquisition; and (5) use of invented words. The findings reveal that while the prelinguistic utterances of the children were similar, there was extensive inter-subject variation after the onset of meaningful speech, particularly in the segmental and syllabic forms of word productions, patterns of lexical selection, rate of lexical acquisition, and use of invented words.