Relationship between phonological and lexical acquisition: a longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Introduction: knowing typical linguistic acquisition is fundamental to understand the deviant development. So, relationships among the language components are important points to explore. PURPOSE: verifying how the phonological and lexical acquisition occurs, as well as relationships that can occur between those language subsystems of one child accompanied longitudinally from one year and five months, to two years. The variables were the number of acquired sounds and the number of types and tokens of lexical items. Material and method : The research figured on the girl M.E. Previous to the data collection, some assessments were performed to verify aspects of global and language development. The collections of data consisted of camera takes from the interactions between the first author and the child during 20 minutes, with intervals from 13 to 21 days. During the interactions, a box with various toys was offered. The data were analyzed through phonetic transcription of the child’s speech. Regarding to phonology, the sounds acquired in the phonological system were analyzed and as for the lexical analysis, the types and the tokens were counted. Results and conclusions: M.E’s phonology, in general, improved along the sessions, but with regressions and presence of U-shaped curve. The tokens were higher than the types and there was increase in both according to the increase of age. The relations types/tokens had little variation among the camera takes. Regarding to the relationships between phonological and lexical development, both improved with increasing age, showing that the new word acquisition gives clues to new sound acquisition and conversely.