The systematic acquisition of word forms by a child during the first-fifty-word stage

This paper sets out to examine two findings reported in the literature: one, that during the one-word stage a child's word productions are highly phonetically variable, and two, that the one-word stage is qualitatively distinct from subsequent phonological development. The complete set of word forms produced by a child at the one-word stage were collected and analysed both cross-sectionally (month by month) and longitudinally (looking for changes over time). It was found that the data showed very little variability, and that phonological development during the period studied was qualitatively continuous with subsequent development. It is suggested that the phonologically principled development of this child's first words is related to his late onset of speech.