Focus on Phonological Acquisition

304 Pages·1997·26.57 MB·English

by  S.J. Hannahs

FOCUS ON PHONOLOGICAL ACQUISITION
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION & LANGUAGE DISORDERS
EDITORS
Harald Clahsen Lydia White
University of Essex McGill University
EDITORIAL BOARD
Anne Baker (University of Amsterdam)
Melissa Bowerman (Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik, Nijmegen)
Katherine Demuth (Brown University)
Werner Deutsch (Universität Braunschweig)
Kenji Hakuta (UC Santa Cruz)
Nina Hyams (University of California at Los Angeles)
Peter Jordens (Free University, Amsterdam)
Jürgen Meisel (Universität Hamburg)
Kim Plunkett (Oxford University)
Mabel Rice (University of Kansas)
Michael Sharwood Smith (University of Utrecht)
Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh)
Karin Stromswold (Rutgers University)
Jürgen Weissenborn (Universität Potsdam)
Helmut Zobl (Carleton University, Ottawa)
Volume 16
S.J. Hannahs and Martha Young-Scholten (eds)
Focus on Phonological Acquisition
FOCUS ON
PHONOLOGICAL
ACQUISITION
Edited by
S.J. HANNAHS
MARTHA YOUNG-SCHOLTEN
University of Durham
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of Ameri­
can National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Focus on phonological acquisition / edited by S.J. Hannahs. Martha Young-Scholten.
p. cm. — (Language acquisition & language disorders : ISSN 0925-0123; v. 16)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Perception and production in learning to talk / Henning Wode ~ Why syntax is
different : a UG approach to language disorders in children / Alison Henry - The role of feature
geometry in the development of phonemic contrasts / Cindy Brown & John Matthews -
Consonant harmony in child language / Heather Goad - Syllable structure parameters and the
acquisition of affricates / Conxita Lleó & Michael Prinz - The non-isomorphism of phonologi­
cal and morphological structure / S.J. Hannahs & Elaine M. Stotko - Structure preservation in
interlanguage phonology / Fred R. Eckman & Greogry K. Iverson - L2 Spanish spirantization,
prosodic domains, and interlanguage rules / Mary L. Zampini - Metrical parameter missetting
in second language acquisition / Joseph Pater - The acquisition of second language phrasal
stress / John Archibald.
1. Language acquisition. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general-Phonology. I. Hannahs, S.
J. II. Young-Scholten, Martha. III. Series.
P118.F58 1997
401'.93-dc21 97-23078
ISBN 90 272 2482 X (Eur.) / 1-55619-779-9 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1997 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
Table of contents
Current issues in the first and second language acquisition of phonology
Martha Young-Scholten & S.J. Hannahs 1
First language acquisition
Perception and production in learning to talk
Henning Wode 17
Why syntax is different: a UG approach to language disorders in children
Alison Henry 47
The role of feature geometry in the development of phonemic contrasts
Cynthia Brown & John Matthews 67
Consonant harmony in child language: an optimality theoretic account
Heather Goad 113
Syllable structure parameters and the acquisition of affricates
Conxita Lleó & Michael Prinz 143
The non-isomorphism of phonological and morphological structure:
evidence from acquisition
S.J. Hannahs & Elaine M. Stotko 165
Second language acquisition
Structure preservation in interlanguage phonology
Fred R. Eckman & Gregory K. Iverson 183
L2 Spanish spirantization, prosodic domains and interlanguage rules
Mary L. Zampini 209
Metrical parameter missetting in second language acquisition
Joseph Pater 235
The acquisition of second language phrasal stress: a pilot study
John Archibald 263
Index of names 291
Index of key words 295

Introduction
Current issues in the first and
second language acquisition of phonology
Martha Young-Scholten and S.J. Hannahs
University of Durham
The study of child phonology has evolved and expanded significantly since
Jakobson put forth his markedness-based hypothesis in 1941. The elegance of
Jakobson's proposal notwithstanding, some 55 years later we know things are
a bit more complicated. The splitting of the mythical phoneme has led to a
proliferation of explorations of sub-segmental elements — for example par­
ticles or features — on the one hand and suprasegmental phenomena on the
other. Likewise, the field of second language (L2) phonology has evolved
considerably beyond Lado's 1957 account of L2 phonology in the form of his
error-focused Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. In terms of research method­
ology for both the study of child phonology and L2 phonology, we know that
the learner's internal system will not be revealed simply through an examina­
tion of the non-adult or non-target forms (i.e. errors) the learner produces.
What the last half-century has seen is a slow convergence of approaches
in the fields of L1 and L2 phonology, the seeds of which were planted by a
general shifting away in the 1970s from an almost exclusive focus on errors in
the field of second language acquisition. This convergence was accelerated in
the 1980s with the recognition that universal factors operate not only on
developing first language phonologies, but also on second language phonolo­
gies. In fact, the title of Ioup and Weinberger's 1987 volume Interlanguage
Phonology reveals the state that the field had reached a decade ago.
In what ways has the study of the acquisition of the phonology of a
second language — and a first language — progressed in the intervening
2 Martha Young-Scholten & S.J. Hannahs
decade? As has happened in the study of the acquisition of syntax, exploration
of the acquisition of phonology has been given a crucial boost by a number of
new theories and models of phonological competence. The papers in this
volume demonstrate not only the readiness of acquisition researchers to go
beyond a description of the data, but also their keenness to account for their
data through the application of these theories and models. For example,
feature geometry (Clements 1985, Sagey 1986) can be called upon in examin­
ing the development of a phonological inventory. Lexical phonology
(Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982) and the prosodic hierarchy (Selkirk 1981,
Nespor and Vogel 1986) are valuable in examining the domain of application
of rules and the relationship between phonology and morphology. A non­
linear, tiered approach to the syllable (Clements and Keyser 1983) leads to a
more insightful investigation of the development of syllable structure. The
theory of metrical phonology (e.g. Halle and Vergnaud 1987, Idsardi 1992)
provides a means of accounting for what the learner comes to know about
stress. In the course of investigating phonological development, hypotheses
based on theories of mature competence must be formulated and tested.
Findings naturally provide evidence (or counterevidence) for the acquisition
hypotheses they test, but they can also serve as extra-linguistic means of
testing a theory and, in some cases, as a means of deciding in favour of one of
several competing versions of a theory.
Yet an explanation of (adult) phonological competence does not auto­
matically yield a theory of the development of such competence. A complete
account of acquisition will also need to explain how the input is processed and
how the learner's system develops over time. We also have emerging percep­
tion-based processing models as well as and a model of constaint ranking, in
Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993), which may shed light on the
development of phonological systems.
In drawing on current phonological theory, the papers in this volume will
be of direct interest to those in the field of phonology proper. Hopefully, as a
result of the publication of papers of interest to both acquisitionists and
theoreticians, there will be increased movement in the direction that the field
of syntax has gone in last decade. Starting in the early 1980s, (see e.g. Hyams
1983) those in the field of syntax have come to regard the study of syntactic
development in a first language with much interest. This situation hardly
arose in a vacuum; rather it developed as the result of the serious consider­
ation given by language acquisition researchers to a detailed solution to the
Introduction 3
Logical Problem of Language Acquisition (see e.g. Hornstein and Lightfoot
1981). That is, given that the primary linguistic data the child hears is
impoverished (at least in the extent to which the data fail to directly reveal
syntactic principles such as structure dependence), the child must be born
with a rich internal system of linguistic principles (as well as parameters
whose values are unspecified). Syntax acquisition researchers have taken up
the challenge of determining the nature of the interaction of language-specific
input with this internal, innate system during the course of the child's linguis­
tic development. This has led to an extremely productive dialogue between
researchers whose main interest is syntactic theory and those whose focus is
the acquisition of syntax. It is hoped that the current volume will help foster
the dialogue between phonologists and phonological acquisitionists.
Judging from the steady proliferation of doctoral dissertations, mono­
graphs, edited volumes and conferences devoted to the acquisition of first or
second language phonology, researchers in the field of phonology are in­
creasingly taking up the challenge of determining how the primary linguistic
data interacts with the learner's internal, innate phonological system during
the course of acquisition. Phonology acquisition researchers have clearly
been subject to the spread of ideas from syntax, as witnessed by the implicit
and explicit adoption of a Principles and Parameters model for acquisition
(see e.g. Young-Scholten 1996 on L2 acquisition). Yet the direction of this
spread has generally been from syntax to phonology. The increase in studies
on the acquisition of phonology will ideally result in a burgeoning of interest
in these studies by syntax acquisition researchers as well.
To help ensure this result, in preparing this volume, we have taken
seriously the likelihood that those outside the field of phonology will only be
vaguely familiar with the details of current theories. For this reason the
authors of the papers in this volume provide introductions to the theories and
models within which they are working. We trust that phonologists reading this
volume who are familiar with the particular framework involved will happily
skip over these sections, particularly if this means recruiting a few converts to
the phonology camp in the end! We would like to hope that syntax acquisition
researchers will come to realize that the issues concerning the acquisition of
phonology do not essentially differ from those concerning the acquisition of
syntax. The acquisition of phonology is far more than the physical matter of
getting the articulators to move correctly, and involves the interaction of a
number of innate principles with the input, leading to the highly complex
4 Martha Young-Scholten & S.J. Hannahs
internal organization of a specific phonology in the adult's mind/brain. In this
sense the present volume should be of interest to those working in Linguistics,
whatever their particular subdiscipline.
We have drawn together this collection of ten papers with an aim to
presenting an overview of current research in first and second language
phonology. We have not attempted the breadth achieved in loup and
Weinberger's (1987) volume on L2 phonology with its 25 papers, but the
papers included here examine the issues they tackle in greater depth, each
within a clear theoretical framework. Moreover, nearly all papers make
reference to a substantial amount of empirical data, included in the text and in
appendices. The data-based research presented in the volume strives to go
beyond the sorts of early contributions to first and particularly second lan­
guage phonology when researchers worked within a theoretical framework,
but often relied on a small amount of data. In this sense too the papers in this
volume clearly bridge the gap between descriptive acquisition studies and
phonological theory.
A number of the papers in this volume originated from the Generative
Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA) conference held in Durham,
England, in 1993. At this conference we endeavored to include a robust
representation of the field of LI and L2 phonology. While syntax papers are
typically in the majority at acquisition conferences, there continues to be a
strong contingent of phonology papers at such conferences. We hope that this
book will result in a strengthening of this contingent through inspiring a
proliferation of theory-based empirical research in the field.
Section I: Exploring Child Phonology
The six papers in this section, with their empirical basis in LI data, address
issues at various levels of phonology from the segment and subsegmental
features through the syllable and to the lexicon. At the upper end, Conxita Lleó
and Michael Prinz' s paper deals with aspects of the syllable, while S.J. Hannahs
and Elaine Stotko's paper examines the interaction of phonological and
morphological structure in the lexicon. The four papers by Henning Wode,
Alison Henry, Cynthia Brown and John Matthews, and Heather Goad all deal
with the child's construction of his/her phonemic inventory, albeit from
different angles. Wode's and Brown and Matthews' papers are notable in that