ABSTRACT

Syntactically non-structured or only partially structured expressions (one-word expressions) with a complex, often polysemic meaning, like thanks, sorry, help. In language acquisition, one-word expressions used in the first half of the second year of life

in adult language. Holophrastic utterances have therefore been interpreted as ‘implicit sentences’ (McNeill 1970). Their lacking syntactic structure is replaced by direct reference to the immediate environment as well as by intonation and gesture.