A COMPUTER COUNT OF THE RELATIVE INCIDENCE OF LETTERS IN 431 PLEASANT (P) WORDS AND 702 UNPLEASANT (U) WORDS REVEALED THAT SOME LETTERS TEND TO OCCUR MORE FREQUENTLY IN THE INITIAL POSITION OF P WORDS AND OTHER LETTERS MORE FREQUENTLY IN THE INITIAL POSITION OF U WORDS. A TASK REQUIRING 40 ADULTS TO GUESS FOR EACH LETTER WHETHER IT OCCURRED IN A P…

FIRST AND FOURTH GRADERS AND ADULTS WERE PRESENTED ORALLY WITH A LIST OF PAIRS OF SYNTHETIC PLURAL NOUNS DIFFERING ONLY IN THEIR FINAL CONSONANTS (E.G., NARP/NARV) AND ASKED TO JUDGE WHICH MEMBER OF THE PAIR WOULD BE A BETTER PLURAL. FIFTH GRADERS MADE SIMILAR JUDGMENTS CONCERNING PAIRS OF PAST-TENSE VERBS. MOST OF THE SOUNDS PREFERRED BY THE…

FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS, GIVEN "CVC" SINGULAR NONSENSE WORDS (E.G., NAR) ORALLY AND ASKED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO PLURALS (NARF-NARK), PREFERRED FINAL SOUNDS SHARING WITH /Z/ (THE MOST COMMON SHAPE OF THE PLURAL MORPHEME IN ENGLISH) THE STRIDENCY OR CONTINUANCE FEATURES. THIS SUGGESTS THAT THEIR PLURALIZATION RULES ARE FORMULATED IN TERMS OF…

THIS PAPER PRESENTS FIRST A SUMMARY OF RESEARCH INVESTIGATING THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE KINDERGARTEN CHILD HAS ABSTRACTED IMPLICIT REGULARITIES IN THE FORMATION OF PLURALS IN ENGLISH. PRODUCTION AND RECOGNITION TASKS WERE USED. THE CHILDREN MADE MORE ERRORS WITH SYLLABLES REQUIRING THE ADDITION OR DELETION OF THE /IZ/ ALLOMORPH THAN WITH SYLLABLES…