Syntagmatically oriented reactions in the early phases of speech development]

Within a longitudinal observational study of two children aged from 18 to 36 months spontaneous reactive utterances were analysed. It could be found syntagmatic reactions without topic coherence with the utterances of the previous speaker. The specialty of these utterances consists in the fact that the child, after having perceived certain words in the parental utterances, creates an association to the previously heard grammatical context. The results are discussed within the scope of problems of language acquisition in children.