Table Of ContentKIDS' SLIPS
What Young Children's Slips of the Tongue
Reveal About Language Development
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KIDS' SLIPS
What Young Children's Slips of the Tongue
Reveal About Language Development
Jeri J. Jaeger
Department of Linguistics and
Center for Cognitive Science
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2005 Mahwah, New Jersey London
Camera ready copy for this book was provided by the author.
Copyright © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form,
by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, with
out prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
www.erlbaum.com
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Copyrighted material used in chapter 6 by permission; Levelt, W.
(1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jaeger, Jeri J.
Kids's slips : what young children's slips of the tongue reveal about
language development / Jeri J. Jaeger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3579-2 (alk. paper)
1. Language acquisition. 2. Speech errors. I. Title.
P118.J26 2004
401' .93—dc22 2004050605
CIP
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-
free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of tables x
List of figures and diagrams xv
Preface xvii
Dedication xix
Chapter 1: Kids' Slips as Evidence for Language
Development
1.1. Slips of the Tongue and Language Development 1
1.1.1. Prologue 1
1.1.2. Slips of the Tongue: a New Methodology for the Study of
Language Development 1
1.1.3. Overview of SOT Research in Adults and Children 3
1.2. A Model of Speech Production Planning 6
1.3. The Current Study: Methodology 11
1.3.1. How Can We Tell a Child Has Made a Slip? 11
1.3.2. Subjects 15
1.3.3. Specific Methodological Issues Regarding Data Collection 16
1.4. Classification System 21
1.4.1. Linguistic Components Involved in Errors 22
1.4.2. Directionality of Errors 25
1.4.3. Form of Errors 31
1.4.4. Making Decisions in Ambiguous Cases 34
1.4.5. Relationship Between Error Types and Processing Model 40
1.5 General Issues Regarding Children's SOTs 46
1.5.1 At What Age Do Children Begin Making Slips? 46
1.5.2. Individual Differences 47
1.5.3. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Analysis 48
1.6 Summary 48
Chapter 2: Kids' Slips and Adults' Slips: General
Comparison
2.1. Overview 51
2.2. General Comparison to Adults 51
2.2.1. Children Produce Nearly All the Same Types of Errors as Adults 51
2.2.2. Children Make the Same General Proportion of Error Types
as Adults 56
2.2.3. Children Make the Same General Proportion of Error Types
as Each Other 57
2.3. Developmental Trends 61
2.3.1. Developmental Trends in Within-Word vs. Between-Word
Phonological Errors 61
v
vi KIDS' SLIPS
2.3.2. Developmental Trends in Directionality 68
2.3.3. Developmental Trends in Error Type 74
2.3.4. Developmental Trends in the Linguistic Units Involved in Errors 79
2.4. Corrections 80
2.4.1. Correction Types 80
2.4.2. The Use of Editing Expressions 84
2.4.3. Individual Differences in Self-Correction 88
2.5. Summary 90
Chapter 3: Phonetics and Phonology
3.1. Introduction 91
3.1.1. From Babbling to Phonology 91
3.1.2. Overview of Development of Phonological Units 91
3.2. Phonetic Features 93
3.2.1. Errors of Phonetic Features 94
3.2.2. Featural Similarity of Consonants Involved in Errors 97
3.2.3. Vowel Features 103
3.2.4. Summary of Features 108
3.3. Segments and Phonemes 109
3.3.1. Allowable Segments 109
3.3.2. Consonants vs. Vowels in Segmental Errors 110
3.3.3. Syllabic and Non-Syllabic Liquids 112
3.3.4. Phonemes and Allophones 115
3.3.5. Early Phonetically-Based Representations for Segments 122
3.3.6. Summary of Segments and Phonemes 124
3.4. Syllables 124
3.4.1. What Is a Syllable? 124
3.4.2. Syllables in Phonological Errors 127
3.4.3. Syllables in Lexical Substitution Errors 133
3.4.4. Syllables in Word Blends 137
3.4.5. Summary of Evidence Regarding Syllables 141
3.5. Internal Syllable Structure in Phonological Errors 142
3.5.1. Overview 142
3.5.2. Consonant Clusters 142
3.5.3. Phonological Errors: Evidence for Internal Syllable Structure 147
3.5.4. Comparison to Laubstein (1987): Word vs. Morpheme;
Body vs. Rhyme 158
3.5.5. Internal Syllable Structure in Telescoping Errors 164
3.5.6. Summary of Internal Syllable Structure in Phonological Errors 169
3.6. Internal Syllable Structure in Paradigmatic Lexical Errors 170
3.6.1. Overview 170
3.6.2. Internal Syllable Structure in Lexical Substitution Errors 171
3.6.3. Internal Syllable Structure in Lexical Blend Errors 173
CONTENTS vii
3.6.4. Summary of Internal Syllable Structure in Lexical Errors, and
Summary of Findings Regarding Syllables 179
3.7. Stress and Intonation 184
3.7.1. Lexical Stress 184
3.7.2. Phrasal Rhythm 196
3.7.3. Tonic Stress as an Organizer of the Syntagmatic
Phonological String 199
3.7.4. Errors of Intonation 203
3.7.5. Summary of Stress and Intonation 207
3.8. The Phonological Structure of Lexical Entries 208
3.9. Summary and Conclusions: The Acquisition of Phonology as a
'Frames, then Content' Progression 213
Chapter 4: The Lexicon and Lexical Errors
4.1. Introduction 221
4.1.1. Overview of the Chapter 221
4.1.2. 'Lexical Errors' and 'Lexical Entries' 222
4.1.3. Quantitative Analysis and Comparison to Adults 227
4.2. Factors Involved in Causing Lexical Errors 234
4.2.1. Lexical Category 234
4.2.2. Semantic and Phonological Similarity 237
4.2.3. Tonic Word Position 257
4.2.4. Utterance Influence 266
4.2.5. Weight in the Phonological Phrase 271
4.2.6. Environmental Influence 273
4.2.7. Collocational Phrases 276
4.2.8. Discourse Context 278
4.2.9. 'On The Mind': Freudian Slips? 279
4.2.10. Summary of Influences on Lexical Errors 281
4.3. Lexical Categories 290
4.3.1. Gathering Evidence on the Representation of Lexical Category 290
4.3.2. Lexical Category Consistency 291
4.3.3. Specific Lexical Categories 294
4.3.4. Lexical Category vs. Error Class 300
4.3.5. Lexical Categories at the 1-Word and 2-Word Stages? 301
4.4. Summary and Conclusions 307
Chapter 5: Semantic Relationships in Lexical Errors
5.1. Introduction 311
5.2. Semantic Relations 315
5.2.1. Frame Semantics as a Basis for the Taxonomy 315
5.2.2. Classification of Semantic Relations 320
5.2.3. Procedure for Classification 330
5.3. Results 332
viii KIDS' SLIPS
5.3.1. Semantic Relationships by Data Set 332
5.3.2. Semantic Relationships by Age 334
5.3.3. Semantic Relationships by Error Type 340
5.3.4. Semantic Relationships in Lexical Classes 348
5.4. Comparison to Other Studies 355
5.5. Semantic vs. Phonological Relationships in Processing 367
5.6. The Onset of Lexical Semantic Relationships 374
5.7. Summary and Conclusions 381
Chapter 6: Morphology and Syntax
6.1. Introduction 385
6.2. The Morphological Structure of Lexical Entries 385
6.3. Errors Involving Morphology 389
6.3.1. Morpheme-Unit Errors 390
6.3.1.1. Types of Errors, and Lexical Categories Involved 390
6.3.1.2. Morphological, Phonological, or Lexical? 393
6.3.1.3. Morphology and Speech Production Planning 401
6.3.1.4. Developmental Patterns in Morpheme-Unit Errors 404
6.3.2. Strandings 407
6.3.2.1. Types of Errors and Lexical Categories 407
6.3.2.2. Exceptions to Strandings? 410
6.3.2.3. Strandings in Planning 413
6.3.2.4. Developmental Patterns in Strandings 416
6.3.3. Order of Acquisition of Morphemes 417
6.3.4. Accommodation 419
6.3.4.1. Allomorphy and Regularity of Inflectional Morphemes 419
6.3.4.2. Agreement in Verbs and Pronouns 422
6.3.4.3. Articles and Other Determiners 424
6.3.5. Conclusions 428
6.4. Morphological Structure in Lexical Substitution and Blend Errors 428
6.4.1. Methodology 429
6.4.2. Morphological Relatedness of Words Involved in Lexical
Errors 430
6.4.2.1. General Comparison 430
6.4.2.2. Behavior of Different Types of Morphemes 434
6.4.2.3. Morphological Structure in Malapropisms 442
6.4.2.4. Regular vs. Irregular Morphology; Mass vs. Count;
Transitivity 444
6.5. Morphology: Summary and Discussion 457
6.6. Syntax 460
6.6.1. Introduction 460
6.6.2. Syntax in the 2-Word Stage? 461
6.6.3. Phrase Blends 465
6.6.3.1. Introduction 465
