A Aquisição Fonológica Variável da Nasal Velar por Aprendizes de Inglês-L2: Análise pela Teoria da Otimidade Estocástica

Abstract

This article presents a formal analysis of the Interlanguage of Brazilian learners (gaúchos) of English regarding the acquisition of the velar nasal in syllabic coda. The analysis is associated with the learning algorithm of the Stochastic Optimality Theory, the GLA (Gradual Learning Algorithm) (BOERSMA and HAYES, 2001), which views acquisition as a hierarchical ranking of linguistic constraints, in which variation is represented by the overlapping of the selection points of the constraints in a continuous scale. The status of the variation in the L1 (first language, Portuguese) and in the L2 (second language, English) is distinct, it is due to phonetic conditioning in the first language and phonological conditioning in the second language. The starting point of the L2 acquisition is the L1 ranking, whose configuration is M(arkedness)>>F(aithfulness). In the modelling proposed, a constraint AGREE (M), which demands sharing of manner of articulation in the sequence vN_#, has a similar ranking value to a constraint IDENT (F), which requires identity concerning nasal manner of articulation in the input and in the output. The modelling confirms the potential of the algorithm concerning the formalization of variable L2 systems. Acquiring the velar nasal is to promote Faithfulness towards the input, through the gradual adjustement of contraints.