Semantic iconicity in plural acquisition: Extending the argument to include normal children

Abstract

Suprasegmental marking of plural has been noted in language- and phonologically-impaired children. Additionally, such marking has been interpreted within the iconicity model of language acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to extend this model of iconic influences on plural acquisition to the normal population. An analysis of the convergence of phonological, morphological and semantic factors within plural acquisition reveals that normal children are confronted with the identical factors that resulted in suprasegmental plural marking in phonologically impaired children. The above arguments are augmented by a case study of a linguistically normal female child (age 2 years 7 months) who used an increase in fundamental frequency (F₀) and duration to signal plural.

Key Words:

• Language acquisition
• plurals
• semantic iconicity