Nov 11
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StoelGammon/VogelSosa:2008
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On page 243 the authors write: "These findings indicate that the
specific words in a child's early vocabulary are determined not only
by semantic and pragmatic influences, but also by a child's productive
phonological ability"

But why exactly is this an indication? Couldn't it just be that the
child understands the words easier, and therefore tends to mimic
exactly these words? (And isn't this an example of the Exemplar
Theory?)

The paper discusses the theory of Usage-based phonology, referring to
the influence of lexical frequency and neighbourhood density.

Are the two characteristics considered as completely independent
factors, or is there a relationship between high frequency words and
those with a higher neighbourhood density? Does neighbourhood density
have any relationship to word length (e.g. monosyllabic words have a
higher neighbourhood density)?

In the cognitive theory section, the authors mention intra-word
variability. Are there other descriptions or hyphothesis to why it
occurs? Did previous theories simply ignored this?

Most of the theories presented were build over a very limited amount
of data (journals, observations of a single child). Thus, what are
then the difficulties in obtaining and mapping this kind of data?

Do infants that physically develop faster than their peers also have a
faster phonological development?

How exactly is the unintelligibility of the infants' speech connected
to the babble period and might there be other explanations or reasons
for it?

What is the relationship between phonological and vocabulary
development in young children?