Segmental and prosodic conditioning in the first language acquisition of phonology

Burkinshaw, Kelly (2014) Segmental and prosodic conditioning in the first language acquisition of phonology. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Children learning how to speak their first language must acquire the sounds and sound combinations which make up the phonological system of that language. This is a challenging task, especially given that these units may vary significantly depending on their position within syllables, words, or larger domains. In this thesis, I consider a number of factors which may influence the child's understanding of the target system. I study longitudinal data on the consonantal development of two children, Inês and Joana, who are learning European Portuguese as their first language, and show that the analysis that each child attains is influenced by different sets of cues. European Portuguese displays a number of phonological alternations at both syllable and word boundaries. I show that Inês attends to these alternations, as she displays clear differences in her consonantal development across positions. In contrast, Joana fails to attend to that evidence and, instead, shows more variable patterns of development.

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