Bye-Bye Bunny: Place and Manner Sequences in Children's C₁VC₂V-Shaped Words

Place and manner of articulation in American English-learning children's salient consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (C₁VC₂V) target words (e.g., baby, bunny, and cookie) were compared with their actual productions of these words. We hypothesized that target words with repeated place and/or manner characteristics in C₁VC₂V consonant sequences would be matched in children's actual productions more frequently than target words with variegated place and manner sequences. This hypothesis was based on a proposal that children use available production system capacities to produce salient word forms derived from perceptual input on those word forms.

Place and manner sequences were analyzed in 2,092 tokens of C₁VC₂V target words produced by 18 typically developing children in the single-word period. All data were from these children's spontaneous functional speech in a familiar speaking context. Both target word forms and actual child productions of those targets were analyzed.

Results indicated that C₁VC₂V word target sequences predominantly consisted of repetitions in both place and manner of articulation (e.g., labial-labial, stop-stop). Targets with repetitions of consonant sequences were matched more frequently than targets with variegated sequences for both place and manner (e.g., labial-coronal, stop-nasal) in these children's actual productions. Results also indicated that C₁VC₂V target words beginning with a labial consonant (e.g., baby, bunny, and piggy) were matched in children's actual productions more frequently than words with coronal or dorsal consonant onsets (e.g., daddy and cookie).

In C₁VC₂V word forms, occurring in early output, children's actual productions matched their target word sequences when the words consisted of repeated sequences in both place and manner. These results suggest that salient target words with repeated sequences may help children support increases in their repertoire of meaningful vocalizations during the transition from babbling to meaningful speech.