Jakobson revisited: Some evidence from the acquisition of Polish

No theory of phonological acquisition has been more discussed, yet empirically untested, than that of Jakobson (1968). The theory has not been adequately tested because of methodological problems, misinterpretations, and insufficient elaboration of the theory itself. This paper discusses these problems regarding the determination of when a child has acquired a phonological opposition, and offers a tentative solution. The data used to demonstrate the problem are from a young girl Hania acquiring Polish as a first language, taken from Zarebina (1965). A solution is proposed which rejects lexical oppositions and determines the nature of the oppositions from the child's substitution patterns.