Reduplication as a strategy of phonological development

Abstract

ABSTRACT Five hypotheses are explored about the role of REDUPLICATION in phonological development. Specifically, it was postulated that children who frequently reduplicate would ( a ) use more multisyllables, ( b ) be better at maintaining adult syllable structure, and ( c ) show limited ability at final consonant production. For all children, it was further proposed that reduplication would ( d ) be used predominantly as a means to maintain a nonreduplicated adult syllable, and ( e ) characterize the speech of the youngest subjects. Data were analysed for 24 children between 1; 1 and 2; 8, and compared when possible to results reported in Schwartz, Leonard, Wilcox & Folger (1980). The results confirmed the above hypotheses, revealing reduplication to be a general pattern during the earliest stages of phonological development that is used most frequently by children preferring to follow a multisyllabic rather than monosyllabic course of development.