On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese
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M. João Freitas
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to examine the acquisition of vowels in European Portuguese by monolingual Portuguese children. The vowel inventory in this language is affected by reduction in unstressed position, which entails allophonic (and allomorphic) variation. This study focuses on the acquisition of the unstressed [ɨ] and [ɐ] resulting from the reduction of the segments /a/, /e/ and /ɛ/. Regarding the analysis of the target system, the process that reduces /a/ to [ɐ] involves the Height node (degree of openness) while the process that reduces /ɛ, e/ to [ɨ] affects both the Height node and the V-Place node (place of articulation). Given the facts attested in the adult system, data obtained from seven children in the process of acquiring Portuguese as their native language is examined in the light of the following research questions: is the order of acquisition related to the featural architecture of segments? Are children sensitive to phonological processes in the early stages of phonological development?
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to examine the acquisition of vowels in European Portuguese by monolingual Portuguese children. The vowel inventory in this language is affected by reduction in unstressed position, which entails allophonic (and allomorphic) variation. This study focuses on the acquisition of the unstressed [ɨ] and [ɐ] resulting from the reduction of the segments /a/, /e/ and /ɛ/. Regarding the analysis of the target system, the process that reduces /a/ to [ɐ] involves the Height node (degree of openness) while the process that reduces /ɛ, e/ to [ɨ] affects both the Height node and the V-Place node (place of articulation). Given the facts attested in the adult system, data obtained from seven children in the process of acquiring Portuguese as their native language is examined in the light of the following research questions: is the order of acquisition related to the featural architecture of segments? Are children sensitive to phonological processes in the early stages of phonological development?
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
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Part 1: Segments and processes
- Detection of liaison consonants in speech processing in French 3
- Patterns of VCV coarticulatory direction according to the DAC model 25
- The stability of phonological features within and across segments 41
- Pre- and postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish 67
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Part 2: Prosodic structure
- Variation in the intonation of extra-sentential elements 85
- Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French 109
- The phonetics and phonology of intonational phrasing in Romance 131
- Disentangling stress from accent in Spanish 155
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Part 3: Acquisition of segmental contrasts and prosody
- On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese 179
- The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants 199
- Logistic regression modelling for first and second language perception data 219
- Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages 237
- Subject Index 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Part 1: Segments and processes
- Detection of liaison consonants in speech processing in French 3
- Patterns of VCV coarticulatory direction according to the DAC model 25
- The stability of phonological features within and across segments 41
- Pre- and postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish 67
-
Part 2: Prosodic structure
- Variation in the intonation of extra-sentential elements 85
- Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French 109
- The phonetics and phonology of intonational phrasing in Romance 131
- Disentangling stress from accent in Spanish 155
-
Part 3: Acquisition of segmental contrasts and prosody
- On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese 179
- The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants 199
- Logistic regression modelling for first and second language perception data 219
- Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages 237
- Subject Index 259
