Model-and-replica phonological grammar of a child's first words

Abstract

This study presents a generative phonological grammar of a child's productive competence in terms of adult model and child replica. The inventory of monoremes produced by the child at 0 ; 11 and the mother's models for them are described in terms of syllables, a set of distinctive features, and the process of reduplication. The grammar proper consist of a set of rules characterizing both the set of possible words which the child at that stage was able to use as models and the set of possible monoremes which were ‘pronounceable’ by the child at that stage. The possible models and replicas generated include those actually attested as well as additional items assumed to be ‘accidentally’ absent from the data. Observations are made on the kind of evidence which would confirm or disconfirm the grammar, and further observations are made on the validity of this kind of grammar and the nature of its rules.