Similar paths for dissimilar structures

In this article, we present the results of our study on the acquisition of word-initial consonant clusters in Palestinian Arabic. The remarkable property of word-initial clusters in Palestinian Arabic is that they often violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle, a universal constraint that disfavors sonority fall (e.g., lba:n "gum") and, to a lesser degree, sonority plateau (e.g., kta:b "book"). Given the violation of the Sonority Sequencing Principle, the acquisition of word-initial consonant clusters serves as a fruitful ground for studying the interaction of universal principles and language-specific effects. The goal of the study was to shed light on the role of universal principles in language acquisition and how they interact with frequency. We carried out picture naming and sentence completion tasks with 60 monolingual and monodialectal children aged 2;00-5;00 (years;months), equally divided into six age groups. In addition, we built a small corpus of child-directed speech (CDS) to evaluate the distribution of the three sonority profiles of word-initial consonant clusters-rise, plateau, and fall. We found a major language-specific effect in the cluster simplification strategies, with prothesis being the most common strategy (e.g., lbá:n → ilbá:n "gum"). However, this effect was not found in the youngest group (2;00-2;05), where the cross-linguistically favorite strategy of C-deletion was most common (e.g., lbá:n → bá:n "gum"). We also found a major effect of the Sonority Sequencing Principle in the children's productions, contrary to insignificant differences in CDS. Our study supports the claim that language acquisition is affected by both language-specific effects and universal principles. As for the interaction of these factors, we show that the effect of universal principles emerges under two conditions: (a) in early speech (youngest age group), before children accumulate sufficient data that allow language-specific properties to override, and/or (b) when frequency does not play a role.

Syllable structure and stress in Spanish: A non-linear analysis: James W. Harris, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 1983. Reviewed by: Jon Amastae, University of Texas at El Paso, Dept. of Linguistics, USA.

This study investigated longitudinally early vocalization and phonological developments of typically developing children. Ten typically developing children participated in the study from 9 months to 18 months of age. Spontaneous utterance samples were collected at 9, 12, 15, 18 months of age and phonetically transcribed and analyzed. Utterance samples were classified into 5 levels using Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development-Revised(SAEVD-R). The data analysis focused on 4 and 5 levels of vocalizations classified by SAEVD-R and word productions. The percentage of each vocalization level, vocalization length, syllable structures, and consonant inventory were obtained. The results showed that the percentages of level 4 and 5 vocalizations and word significantly increased with age and the production of syllable structures containing consonants significantly increased around 12 and 15 months of age. On average, the children produced 4 types of syllable structure and 5.4 consonants at 9 months and they produced 5 types of syllable structure and 9.8 consonants at 18 months. The phonological development patterns in this study were consistent with those analyzed from children's meaningful utterances in previous studies. The results support the perspective on the continuity between babbling and early speech. This study has clinical implications in early identification and speech-language intervention for young children with speech delays or at risk.

This paper discusses the types of syllables that should be found in a spoken artificial language based on the common types of syllables found in natural languages. The paper also examines the various units within the syllable, such as onset，nucleus ，and coda，suggesting how the preferred structure of these units maybe incorporated into an artificial language. One proposal that will emerge is that an artificial language needs to allow for at least a slight degree of complexity in its syllable structure. The paper further discusses related issue of prosody such as word stress and minimal word length in an artificial language. The paper concludes with an overview of the proposals made about syllable structure for an artificial language.

This paper provides a tutorial on the selection of complex target sounds for treatment following from known principles of language learnability. The focus is on syllable structure in recommending onset consonant clusters for treatment. The step-by-step procedure of cluster selection is illustrated for one child, Jarrod, who presented with a phonological disorder. Target selection procedures are guided by universal principles that govern the phonotactics of onset clusters and experimental evidence that supports the efficacy of phonologically complex targets. The prediction is that treatment of onset clusters will facilitate Jarrod's learning of both complex and simple properties of the sound system.

Researchers have long known that children’s early word productions differ from those of adults, both in the segments and syllables produced (e.g., dog > [dɑ]; banana > [ n nə). Some have proposed that these early segmental /syllabic truncations are due to early perceptual or articulatory limitations (e.g., Echols, 1992; MacNeilage, 1980). Others have proposed that children’s early words are phonologically “unmarked,” becoming more marked over time (Demuth, 1995; Gnanadesikan, 2004). However, results from recent crosslinguistic research suggest that children’s early word productions are sensitive to language-specific phonologies, showing earlier acquisition of high frequency syllable and prosodic word structures (e.g., Levelt, Schiller, & Levelt, 2000; Roark & Demuth, 2000). This indicates that children’s early prosodic words show more systematic language-specific differences in shape than perceptual, articulatory and markedness proposals would predict. To the extent that these findings are robust, we should then be able to make predictions regarding the timing and course of prosodic word development across languages. The first goal of this special volume is to explore these issues more fully by bringing together recent research on the acquisition of prosodic words (PWs) from a number of languages with different distributions of prosodic structures. The papers in this volume therefore include contributions from the less studied Catalan (Prieto), European Portuguese (Vigario, Freitas & Frota) and Japanese (Ota), as well as the better-known Spanish (Lleo) and English (Demuth, Culbertson & Alter). In most cases newly collected longitudinal corpora, including data from several children between the ages of 1 – 2 years, now makes it possible to provide a more systematic, quantitative study of PW development. A second goal of this volume was to test some of the frequency-based predictions, providing a theoretical framework for further investigation of children’s developing phonologies. For example, frequency and markedness constraints often co-occur, facilitating the early acquisition of high-frequency, unmarked structures (e.g., core CV syllables, trochaic feet). Occasionally, however, the “unmarked” structure is not the most frequent, raising questions regarding the course of acquisition under such conditions (e.g., Stites, Demuth, & Kirk, 2004; Zamuner, Gerken, & Hammond, 2005). The existence of these new longitudinal acquisition corpora, many of which include extensive samples of early child-directed speech, now make it possible to LANGUAGE AND SPEECH, 2006, 49 (2), 129 –135

This paper presents kinematic data and a statistical analysis of the MRC Psycholinguistic Database in a study of patterns of syllable coda structure in English bisyllables. X-ray microbeam and OPTOTRAK data were used to study spontaneous errors in rapid speech. Subjects repeated real-word and nonsense bisyllables at increasing speaking rates. All subjects made errors that harmonized the place of articulation of the codas at faster speaking rates. Errors were determined by kinematic changes in the tongue and lip gestures. Analysis of the MRC Psycholinguistic Database revealed that coda harmonies occur statistically more frequently than chance in English even when the statistical incidence of segments are taken into account. The experimental evidence is discussed in terms of production constraints on syllable production. The influence of stress pattern, manner, and place of articulation are explored. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD Grant No. DC-00594 and NSERC.]

Early Intervention in Children with Cleft Palate

This article examines the constraints on Prosodic Word production in Spanish by three monolingual and three Spanish-German bilingual children from the beginning of word production until 2;2. It also considers the relationship between Prosodic Words and Phonological Phrases, and in the case of monosyllabic words, it takes into consideration syllable structure (i.e., presence or absence of codas), in order to ascertain the importance of foot binarity in early child speech. Although the preferred Prosodic Word shape is that of a trochee, there appear a few monosyllables, consisting of CVC (or CV), which are produced earlier by the bilinguals than by the monolinguals. The minimality constraint is violated by the production of CV forms. Maximality constraints are observed for a very short time, as unfooted syllables appear very soon, especially in the data of the monolinguals. However, it takes several more months until Spanish children are able to produce Prosodic Words containing two feet, whereas Phonological Phrases constituted by two disyllabic Prosodic Words are produced earlier by some children. It is proposed that such data can be optimally treated by means of constraints, and their relevance to the question of whether prosodic structure is acquired bottom-up is briefly discussed.

Syllable structure in interphonology has consistently demarcated the initial phases of phonological transfer, as well as the basis for a putative universal preference for the open syllable. The manner in which syllable structure is continually reorganized during the processes of acquisition has, however, not attracted much attention. This article addresses two phenomena in the acquisition of second language syllable structure - a preference for open syllables, as manifest in paragoge, and a developmental process of final segment apocopation that applies to first language lexical items appearing under the domain of the second language intonational envelope. The data for the analyses come from spontaneous utterances produced by Japanese students of English as a foreign language. Results of two ten-factor variable-rule analyses suggest that paragogic epenthesis is conditioned by a syllable structure constraint based on the L1, and that variation in the type of segment epenthesized is governed by natural phonological constraints. Analyses of the apocope dataset indicate that acquisition of L2 stress patterns leads to a restructuring of the syllable structure constraint leading to suppression of open syllables in the L2.

The syllable is the phonological element that plays a vital role in the formation of the word. A complete and standard syllable consists of the Onset, Nucleus, and Coda, but at the same time, the Onset or Coda part of the syllable can also fall down. No syllable can be constructed without Nucleus and vowel sounds. The vowel in the syllable structure has as much value as the syllable has in the word formation. These vowels play a fundamental role in the syllable’s distribution and types. This article explores the intricate structure and various types of syllables found in the Pashto language, primarily spoken in Afghanistan. Syllables play a fundamental role in linguistic analysis, as they constitute the building blocks of words and affect the rhythm, stress, and intonation patterns in speech. The findings of this study contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the Pashto language's syllable structure, shedding light on its unique phonological features. This knowledge holds significance for various fields, including linguistics, language teaching, and speech pathology, enabling researchers and language professionals to better analyze and comprehend the complexities of Pashto syllables.

Given early acquisition of prosodic knowledge as demonstrated by infants’ sensitivity to native language accentual patterns, the question of whether learners can acquire new prosodic patterns across the life span arises. Acquisition of English stress by early and late Spanish–English and Korean–English bilinguals was investigated. In a production task, two-syllable nonwords were produced in noun and verb sentence frames. In a perception task, preference for first or last syllable stress on the nonwords was indicated. Also, real words that were phonologically similar to the nonwords were collected. Logistic regression analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of three factors (syllable structure, lexical class, and stress patterns of phonologically similar words) on the production and perception responses. In all three groups, stress patterns of phonologically similar real words predicted stress on nonwords. For the two other factors, early bilinguals patterned similarly to the native-English participants. Late Spanish–English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on syllabic structure, and late Korean–English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on lexical class than native-English speakers. Thus, compared to native speakers, late bilinguals’ ability to abstract stress patterns is reduced and affected by the first language. [Work supported by NIH.]

Chinese learners’ acquisition of English word stress and factors affecting stress assignment

We use phonological variation to refer to alternative forms that are available in a language, such as different syllable structures or word stress patterns in English. We discuss several approaches to such variations and argue for a new approach, in which all alternative forms observe a set of inviolable constraints. In particular, we propose that all English words observe four constraints: (a) a foot must be disyllabic, (b) stressed syllables must be heavy, (c) heavy syllables must have stress, and (d) the maximal syllable is CVX. We discuss the implications of our proposal for Optimality Theory and for the analysis of linguistic variation in general.

This article evaluates the claim of uniform size and shape restrictions in prosodic development using a cross-sectional database of English-speaking children's multi-syllabic word productions. Several of the youngest children in the study were limited by a bisyllabic output constraint, consistent with 1 stress-foot, and one of the oldest children produced output forms, consistent with 2 stress-feet, suggesting that uniform shape may occur at the earliest stages of prosodic development and on an individual basis for certain children. In the majority of cases, however, input-output correspondence between stressed and word-final syllables played the greatest role in explaining output patterns. Consequently, the article explores optimality accounts of truncation that do not assume a size restriction. Children's increasing faithfulness to unstressed syllables can be explained by different constraint rankings that relate to edge alignment, syllable structure, and foot structure.