Early Word Structure; Or Why Consonant (C) and Vowel (V) Combos Matter

Word Structure Basics

Word structure (also called morphology) can be a confusing area of early language. Generally, words are broken down into ‘morphemes’ (the smallest unit of meaning) in a word, i.e. the consonants and vowels. These can be written as C and V to easily know them at a glance.

We can then use V and C to represent the ‘structure’ a word is made from. An easy example may be the word ‘it’, which is made from the structure VC (‘i’ as the vowel, and ‘t’ as the consonant). Once you know this, you can start finding common patterns of structures in words used across English. A good example here might be the words ‘it’, ‘at’, ‘is’ and ‘am’, which are all part of the VC structure family.

Confusingly linguistic nerds sometimes lump words together into groups based on the syllable (the number of ‘beats’ in a word) structures. Words using one syllable are called monosyllabic, and words using 2 or more syllables are called polysyllabic. Examples here include ‘kid’ as a monosyllabic word, and ‘children’ as a polysyllabic word. If this all seems confusing, just remember it as a way linguists sort shorter word structures from longer word structures based on the ‘beats’ they have.

Now we know the basics of word structures, we can turn our attention to the common patterns you may expect to see in young kids and what ages (approximately) you should expect them to occur. Below is a brief look at the structures you can expect at certain age brackets:

By 1-2 Years:

• Infants will mostly use basic monosyllabic (1 syllable or ‘beat’) words

By 2-3 Years:

• Children begin using monosyllabic (1 syllable) and polysyllabic (2 or more syllables or ‘beats’) words.

• Monosyllable words more common than polysyllabic words.

• Structures:

  • CV like ‘me’

  • VC like ‘it’

  • CVC like ‘bat’

  • CVCC like ‘stop’

  • CCVC like ‘crab’

By 3-4 Years:

• Polysyllabic words become more common compared to monosyllable words

• Structures (including all the above ones):

  • CCVCC like ‘drink’

  • CCCVC like ‘splash’

  • CVCVC like ‘donut’

  • CCCVCC like ‘splint’

By 4-5 Years:

• Multisyllabic words (3 or more syllables) join the pictures

• Structures stay the same but are expanded upon

By 5-6 Years:

• All monosyllable, polysyllable, and multisyllable words are generally mastered.

Please note the above information is general in nature and is not intended as professional medical advice. Please seek an appointment with a registered speech-language pathologist if you are at all worried about your child's development.

References:

• Mcleod, S (2009). Speech sound acquisition. In Bernthal, J. E., Bankson, N. W., & Flipsen, P. Articulation and phonological disorders: speech sound disorders in children. Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Boston, MA.

• Shriberg, L. D. (1993). Four New Speech and Prosody-Voice Measures for Genetics Research and Other Studies in Developmental Phonological Disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 36(1), 105–140. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3601.105

• Watson, M. M., & Scukanec, G. P. (1997). Profiling the phonological abilities of 2-year-olds: a longitudinal investigation. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 13(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/026565909701300102

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