Production of object words and action words: evidence for a relationship between phonology and semantics

The purpose of this investigation was to examine a potential semantic-phonological interaction in children whose speech was limited to single-word utterances. The action word and object word productions of language-normal and language-impaired children were examined in two experiments. The results of the first revealed that the percentage of consonants produced correctly within the spontaneous speech of both subject groups was higher for object words. The second experiment involved examining the children's productions of unfamiliar object and action words that had been presented over 10 experimental sessions. The findings indicated the production advantage for object words was maintained even when certain input factors were controlled. The greater semantic complexity of action words as compared to object words may account for the difference in production accuracy.