Berko and Brown 1960

Fis Phenomenon

• A young child (about 3 years old) referred to his toy fish as “fis.”

• When an adult responded, “Oh, you mean your fis,” the child rejected the adult’s imitation and corrected them:

  “No — my fis!”

But when the adult said “Oh, your fish,” the child agreed:

“Yes, my fis.”

Findings

• Children can perceive phonemic contrasts before they can produce them.

• Comprehension-production asymmetry

Linguistic Implications

• Fis phenomenon is demonstrative that phonological knowledge is separate from phonetic performance.

• This distinction supports the competence v performance model (Chomsky 1965)
  - Competence: internalised knowledge of linguistic rules
  - Performance: physical realisation of those rules in speech.

• Childrens competence develops earlier; their performance lags due to motor constraints.

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