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.

[img] [English] PDF - Accepted Version
Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.

Download (4MB)

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.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/8150
Item ID: 8150
Additional Information: Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-144).
Department(s): Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of > Linguistics
Date: October 2014
Date Type: Submission
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Portuguese language--Acquisition; Portuguese language--Consonants--Study and teaching; Portuguese language--Phonology; Portuguese language--Versification

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over the past year

View more statistics