Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:24:39.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When is a word a word?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Marilyn May Vihman  and
Lorraine McCune
Marilyn May Vihman*
Affiliation:
Southeastern Louisiana University
Lorraine McCune
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
*
Department of Special Education, Southeastern Louisiana University, P.O. Box 879, Hammond, LA 70402, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although adult-based words co-occur in the period of transition to speech with a variety of non-word vocalizations, little attention has been given to the formidable problem of identifying these earliest words. This paper specifies explicit, maximally ‘inclusive’ identification procedures, with criteria based on both phonetic and contextual parameters. A formal system for evaluating phonetic match is suggested, as well as a set of child-derived functional categories reflecting use in context. Analysis of word use across two samples of 10 children each, followed from 0;9 to 1;4, provides evidence to suggest that context-bound words can be ‘trained’ by focusing on eliciting language, but that the timing of context-flexible word use remains independent of such training.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , October 1994 , pp. 517 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (BNS-8209695 and 85 20048). We would like to thank Fumiko Arao (Stanford University), Catherine Durand (C.N.R.S., Paris), and Liselotte Roug-Hellichius and Ingrid Landberg (Institute of Linguistics, Stockholm University) for their help in applying our criteria to crosslinguistic data; we also thank Charles A. Ferguson for his thoughtful and constructive comments.

References

REFERENCES

Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, L., Camaioni, L. & Volterra, V. (1979). The emergence of symbols: cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
de Boysson-Bardies, B., Vihman, M. M., Roug-Hellichius, L., Durand, C., Landberg, I. & Arao, F. (1991). Material evidence of infant selection from the target language: a cross-linguistic phonetic study. In Ferguson, C. A., Menn, L. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (eds), Phonological development: models, research, implications. Parkton, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Coulmas, F. (1979). On the sociolinguistic relevance of routine formulae. Journal of Pragmatics 3, 239–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dore, J. (1985). Holophrases revisited: their ‘logical’ development from dialog. In Barrett, M. D. (ed.), Children's single-word speech. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dore, J., Franklin, M. B., Miller, R. R. & Ramer, A. L. H. (1976). Transitional phenomena in early language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 3, 13–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. (1976). The structure and use of politeness formulas. Language in Society 5, 137–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. (1978). Learning to pronounce: the earliest stages of phonological development in the child. In Minifie, F. D. & Lloyd, L. L. (eds), Communicative and cognitive abilities – early behavioral assessment. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. & Farwell, C. B. (1975). Words and sounds in early language acquisition. Language 51, 419–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldfield, B. A. & Reznick, J. S. (1990). Early lexical acquisition: rate, content, and the vocabulary spurt. Journal of Child Language 17, 171–83.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P. M. & Smith, J. H. (1976). The structure of communication in early language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Griffiths, P. (1986). Early vocabulary. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds), Language acquisition: studies in first language development. (2nd edn.) Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). Learning how to mean – explorations in the development of language. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Harris, M., Barrett, M., Jones, D. & Brookes, S. (1988). Linguistic input and early word meaning. Journal of Child Language 15, 77–94.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J., Haight, W., Bryk, A., Seltzer, M. & Lyons, T. (1991). Early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender. Developmental Psychology 27, 236–48.Google Scholar
Labov, W. & Labov, T. (1978). The phonetics of cat and mama. Language 54, 816–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Laguna, G. A. (1927). Speech: its function and development. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Leopold, W. F. (1939). Speech development of a bilingual child: a linguist's record, I: vocabulary growth in the first two years. New York: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. M. (1936). Infant speech: a study of the beginnings of language. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. (1954). Language development in children. In Carmichael, L. (ed.), Manual of child psychology, (2nd edn.) New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
McCune, L. (1992). First words: a dynamic systems view. In Ferguson, C. A., Menn, L. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (eds), Phonological development: models, research, implications. Parkton, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
McCune-Nicolich, L. (1981). The cognitive bases of relational words in the single word period. Journal of Child Language 8, 15–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNeill, D. (1970). The development of language. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
McShane, J. (1979). The development of naming. Linguistics 17, 879–905.Google Scholar
Matthews, P. H. (1974). Morphology: an introduction to the theory of word structure. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Meier, R. P. & Newport, E. L. (1990). Out of the hands of babes: on a possible sign advantage. Language 66, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menn, L. (1978). Pattern, control, and contrast in beginning speech: a case study in the development of word form and word function. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 38.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1988). Constraints on word learning? Cognitive Development 3, 221–46.Google Scholar
Orlansky, M. D. & Bonvillian, J. D. (1988). Early sign language acquisition. In Smith, M. D. & Locke, J. L. (eds), The emergent lexicon: the child's development of a linguistic vocabulary. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Packer, M. J. (1985). Hermeneutic inquiry in the study of human conduct. American Psychologist 40, 1081–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petitto, L. A. (1988). ‘Language’ in the pre-linguistic child. In Kessel, F. S. (ed.), The development of language and language researchers. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Plunkett, K. (1993). Lexical segmentation and vocabulary growth in early language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 20, 43–60.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L. A. (1980). Overextension in early language development. Journal of Child Language 7, 321–35.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, D. (1985). Conversational coherence: the role of well. Language 61, 640–67.Google Scholar
Sinclair, H. (1970). The transition from sensory-motor behavior to symbolic activity. Interchange 1, 119–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veneziano, E. (1981). Early language and nonverbal representation: a reassessment. Journal of Child Language 8, 541–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vihman, M. M. (1992). Early syllables and the construction of phonology. In Ferguson, C. A., Menn, L. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (eds), Phonological development: models, research, implications. Parkton, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Vihman, M. M., Ferguson, C. A. & Elbert, M. (1986). Phonological development from babbling to speech: common tendencies and individual differences. Applied Psycholinguistics 7, 3–40.Google Scholar
Vihman, M. M., Macken, M. A., Miller, R., Simmons, H. & Miller, J. (1985). From babbling to speech: a re-assessment of the continuity issue. Language 61, 397–445.Google Scholar
Vihman, M. M. & Miller, R. (1988). Words and babble at the threshold of lexical acquisition. In Smith, M. D. & Locke, J. L. (eds), The emergent lexicon: the child's development of a linguistic vocabulary. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Vihman, M. M., Velleman, S. L. & McCune, L. (1994). How abstract is child phonology? Toward an integration of linguistic and psychological approaches. In Yavas, M. (ed.), First and second language phonology. San Diego: Singular Press.Google Scholar
Waterson, N. (1971). Child phonology: a prosodic view. Journal of Linguistics 7, 179–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, H. & Kaplan, B. (1963). Symbol formation: an organismic-developmental approach to language and the expression of thought. New York: Wiley. (Reprinted 1984. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.)Google Scholar