One factor that seems to be important in the child’s acquisition process is the actual use
of sound and word combinations, either in interaction with others or in wordplay,
alone. One two-year-old, described in Weir (1966), was tape-recorded as he lay in bed alone and could be heard playing with words and phrases, I go dis way … way bay … baby do dis bib … all bib … bib … dere. Word play of this type seems to be an important element in the development of the child’s linguistic repertoire. The details of this development beyond the telegraphic stage have been traced through the linguistic features that begin to turn up on a regular basis in the steady stream of speech emerging from the little chatterbox.