Semantic iconicity in plural acquisition: Extending the argument to include normal children

Abstract

Suprasegmental marking of plural has been noted in language-and phonologically-impaired children. Additionally, such marking has been interpreted within the iconicity model of language acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to extend this model of iconic influences on plural acquisition to the normal population. An analysis of the convergence of phonological, morphological and semantic factors within plural acquisition reveals that normal children are confronted with the identical factors that resulted in suprasegmental plural marking in phonologically impaired children. The above arguments are augmented by a case study of a linguistically normal female child (age 2 years 7 months) who used an increase in fundamental frequency (F,,) and duration to signal plural.

The Application of Naturalistic Conversation Training to Speech Production in Children With Speech Disabilities

“…These structures are often the focus of communication training, yet each requires accurate speech production by the child (e.g., the final "s" sound for plural, possessive, and third-person singular forms as well as for contracted versions of the copula and auxiliary). Clearly, training on morphological targets is less likely to succeed with a child who is unable to produce an accurate "s" (Camarata, 1990;Camarata & Erwin, 1988). In addition, studies of language acquisition and data from studies of mother-child interaction reveal that speech production skills systematically improve without extensive analogue practice; instead, mothers present accurate models of words and sentences (including accurate speech sound models) within natural conversational interactions (e.g., Cross, 1978;Malsheen, 1980).…”