Item-learning and system-learning

Phonological and grammatical analyses of child language have concentrated on finding a system in the child's production or in its relationship to the adult target. This paper suggests that a stage of item-learning applies at various levels of language (phonology, intonation, morphology and syntax, and semantics) before a stage of system-learning. System-learning may involve segmentation and subsequent substitution; the separation of two simultaneously operating systems; or the pairing of a set of referents with one form.