The holophrastic hypothesis: Conceptual and empirical issues

Abstract

A conceptual distinction is drawn between a structural and a functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis. The structural version of this hypothesis views the single-word utterances of children as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic structural relations, while the functional version views each of these utterances as consisting of a single lexical item which is used for a particular communicative function. The arguments which have been proposed in favour of these two versions of the hypothesis are critically examined in the light of the empirical evidence which is currently available. It is concluded that this evidence only supports the functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis, there being no evidence available to support the interpretation of children's single-word utterances as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic relations. © 1982.