Нов поглед към „телеграфната“ реч в ранната онтогенеза: прозодични ограничения
A fresh perspective on telegraphic speech in early ontogeny: prosodic constraints

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at revealing the complex relationship between the prosodic and grammatical development in the early ontogeny. Bulgarian data based on a case study are presented and analysed. The results confirm the assumption that the prosodic constraints are active both on the grammatical and lexical level, resulting in phonological adaptation of multisyllable words and phrases to the prosodic structure of the minimal words. This explains the „telegraphic“ omission of grammatical morphemes which represent extensions of the minimal word patterns, and the preservation of those function morphemes that fit the minimal word models. The overcoming of minimal-word-constraints affects initially the lexical and then the phonological words; during this process taking place within 4 months, the acquisition of each new prosodic structure serves as a model „moldering“ single lexical units as well as combinations consisting of an accentuated form plus one or more grammatical clitics. The observed phenomena are to be viewed as manifestations of universal tendencies realized through language specific peculiarities.

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