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Phonology and the development of the lexicon: evidence from children's errors*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Marilyn May Vihman
Marilyn May Vihman
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Various kinds of children's lexical errors, mostly based on similarity in sound, are presented and classified. At the earliest stage some children are found to pursue a HOMONYM STRATEGY, actively seeking to combine adult word-patterns to limit their output repertoire. The associations between words underlying these productive homonyms, together with perception-based errors, blends, and other word-substitutions, are compared with malapropisms from a slightly older group of children as well as with data from adults. Analysis of these data makes it possible to chart developmental changes in the phonological links which form one substructure of the lexicon.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 239 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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