Single Word Utterances

Single Word Period

 * the single word period is not a discrete stage but a period in which children learn to produce larger and larger numbers of intelligible vocalizations (Clark, Eve 2003:83)
 * Non word : Word = steady 1:1 from 1;1 to 1;9
 * 1:2 as vocabulary gets larger
 * 1:3 50 word mark


 * Identifying the first vocabulary spurt = difficult (Clark, Eve 2003:83)
 * Holophrasic speech: why it lasts almost a year/up until they’re 2 years old: Geoffrey Rush, it’s a mystery! (Lust, 2006)
 * Plenty going on w/r/t syntax, though.
 * One and one half: two distinct speech modes: fairly intelligible one word utterances but low intelligibility longer utterances (Peters, 1977) (Goodluck, H. 2001:34)
 * Longer utterances: preserved intonation contour of the target but omitted or severely distorted the segmental consonant
 * [á lər ri g`ʊ mu nyai] -> I like to read Good moon Night’ (Good Night Moon)
 * *An early version of “Work” used this for beginning to drive
 * A child may have quite a solid command of vocabulary, syntax, and prosody, but calling up those features of their knowledge in a single utterance may simply be beyond their capacities. So they may paln a fully-fledged utterance, complete with syntax, words, and appropriate intonation, but they may be able to execute only one part of that plan—either one or two individual words one carefully articulated or the overall intonation and a few features of the words one realized at the expense of intelligibility (1 ½ - 2 years old)
 * Children’s first sentences over the next two years seem to demonstrate slow development (Lust, B. 2006:195)
 * o   For months, speech is often short and may omit subjects and other arguments as well as minimal and verbal inflection. Functional categories are frequently absent or diminished
 * o   Even the single word period appears to involve several developmental steps between 12 and 28 months (Bloom 1973)
 * o   Grammatical knowledge greatly exceeds their seemingly simple productions
 * §  Sensitiveies to syntactic foundations of order and consitituent structure, as well as to functional categories, appear to be contstantly at work during this time
 * o   Holophrastic speech: true explanation remains a mystery: neither lack of motor control, lack of vocabulary, nor lack of cognitive complexity can explain it (Bloom 1973)