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Chapter 9
1. Baby talk. Individual answers will vary. The following are some suggestions for English.
a. Semantic categories:
Animals: horsey, kitty, piggy, bunny, doggie
b. Rules:
i. A consonant cluster may be reduced: for example, stomach [stʌmək] becomes tummy [tʌmi]; final
iv. Reduplicated syllables may also replace existing syllables, as in bye-bye for good-bye.
2. Question formation. In this stage, the child appears to be able to correctly form questions from positive
statements, evidenced by Can I go? Why do you have one tooth? and so on. However, the child is not
3. A child’s grammar. Answers will vary according to the child, the language, the age, and the circum-
stances.
4. “Two-word stage” grammar.
• *a celery: celery is a noncount noun. You cannot say *one celery, *five celeries in English. One
would have to say one stalk or a bunch of -celery or five stalks. The determiner a can only be fol-
5. Holophrastic stage phonology.
a. (Data given in phonetic transcription)
(1) dõnt
dot
the final cluster [nt] reduced to single [t]; vowel not nasalized
(2) skɪp
kʰɪp
initial cluster [sk] reduced to single consonant; [k] aspirated
(3) ʃu
su
a palatal fricative is replaced by an alveolar fricative
(4) ðæt
dæt
an interdental fricative is replaced by an alveolar stop
(5) pʰle
pʰe
the initial cluster [phl] is replaced by a single -aspirated stop
(6) θʌm
̃p
dʌp
an initial voiceless interdental fricative is replaced by a voiced alveolar stop; the final
[mp] cluster is replaced by the single [p]; the vowel is not nasalized
(7) bæθ
bæt
a final interdental fricative is replaced by a -voiceless alveolar stop
(8) ʧap
tʰap
a palatal affricate is replaced by an alveolar stop; [t] is aspirated
(9) kɪɾi
kɪdi
flap replaced by alveolar stop
(10) laɪt
waɪt
lateral liquid replaced by (labio)velar glide
(11) dali
dawi
lateral liquid replaced by (labio)velar glide
(12) gro
go
initial cluster [gr] reduced to single consonant
b. General rules for children’s pronunciation. Sample answer:
• In consonant clusters consisting of a stop and a fricative, liquid, or nasal, delete the fricative, liquid,
or nasal.
6. Acquisition of deixis. As discussed in Chapter 4, these words are deictic words. Their meaning is de-
7. Overgeneralization.
a. children—childs
b. went—goed
8. Child phonology.
a. Child 1 deletes final voiced stops (exemplified by bib, slide, and dog), but retains final voiceless stops
b. Child 1 has one minimal pair: [daɪ] “slide” and [da] “dog,” which show that /aɪ/ and /a/ contrast in his
9. Wug tests. Answers will vary but should be along the lines of the following:
The child’s knowledge of the comparative -er could be tested by showing her a picture of a boy with
spotted skin. The researcher would say “Look at this boy. His skin is really wug.” Then the child
10. Overgeneralized argument structures.
a. In each of these five examples, the child has created a novel causative verb. In the first three exam-
ples, verbs that are intransitive in the sense intended have been used as if they were transitive, and in
11. Egyptian and Iraqi Arabic.
a. Egyptian Arabic speakers insert a high front vowel [i]. It is inserted between two consonants that start
a syllable (i.e., comprise the onset of the syllable).
13. MLU.
a. Answers may vary here, but consistency is important. Hyphens have been inserted in the sentences
below to make clear which morphemes are being counted in this sample answer. Morpheme count:
= 3. MLU in words is 66 divided by 25 = 2.64.
Challenge question. Allgone is probably not analyzed as two morphemes (or words), but is a fixed ex-
pression, so one morpheme.
14. Challenge exercise: Telegraphic stage. Answers will vary. Hypothesis 1 is that children drop subjects be-
cause they have limited processing resources, for example, limited memory capacity. Another possibility
A possible objection to Hypothesis 1 is that children drop subjects but not objects. Why would sub-
jects be favored if this were just the effect of an overload in processing? A possible objection to Hypoth-
15. Overextensions.
a. shape: all items in column B are round.
16. Sentence types.
a. coordinations: (1) No, ’cause there’s a monster and the monster can [s]care you. [2;7—earliest]; (2) I
