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3 syllable words
4 syllable words
Find out why it is a trochee Find out where the trochee is placed
3 syllable words
4 syllable words
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The stress is assigned by analogy The rules of analogy reveal the abstract system
4 syllable ---words
quantity
foot directedness
extra-metric syllable
F F ()
a ka (ba)
A me ri (ca)
Ho no lu (lu)
3 syllable words
4 syllable words
2. Which simplification/truncation rules does the child apply ? 3. What does the pre-system suggest ? (Yes, truncation/ reduction is important)
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+ anterior continuant + p b f v t d s z
+ coronal coronal
+/ anterior +/ continuant +/ coronal +/ voice = = = = +/ tongue external muscle +/ full closure +/ tongue internal muscle +/ vocal cords
24 = 16
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Some features are always used in all languages and other features are only used in some languages.
The always chosen features are learned first, the vowels aa - ie - oe and consonants p - t k. Features that are learned early are historically more stable, typologically more spread, and resistant in aphasics. Learnability predicts a grammatical hierarchy
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2.
3.
At least part of UG arises from accidental structures in the body rather than from language-designed structures of the brain
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Dresher (1999) proposes that there are early decisions quantity: which syllables are light, which are heavy? extra-metric syllables: which syllable positions are extrametrical? Later cues would trigger type of foot: [ ] (trochee) or [ ] (iambe)
Criticism Dreshers hierarchy of cues is an additional stipulation It is not yet much of an explanation
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This search system might have been wired in, like sucking for milk in all young mammals
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The trochee (established in bi-syllables) is now imposed by truncation to the minimal binary patterns
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Initially, all words are reduced to a two-syllable pattern. Mute syllables (consonant-schwa) are left out in the middle (exclusion of all 3- and 4-syllable words). The percentage of trochaic forms in English is then overwhelming. The output of the child reinforces a basic pattern (cf. Elbers 1993)
Due to truncation, the parameter setting is reduced to an effective intake (evidence frame)
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Acquisition order
The moral 1. Look at the childs simplifications first. 2. Recalculate his intake from that point of view. The acquisition procedure strong reduction leave out mute vowel (schwa) syllables all words are trochaic type stepwise restoration add final mute schwa, maintain original trochee last mute syllable is extra-metric type
Natural reductions happen to yield evidence frames Evidence frames explain the linear order in acquisition steps
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References
Demuth, K. (1996) The prosodic structure of early words, in: J. Morgan & K. Demuth Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 171-184. Dresher, E. (1999) Charting the learning path: Cues to parameter setting, Linguistic Inquiry 30, 2767. Elbers, L. (1993) Production as a source of input for analysis: evidence from the developmental course of a word-blend, Journal of Child Language 22, 47-71. Fikkert, P. (1994) On the acquisition of prosodic structure. Chapters 6 and 7. Guasti, M.T. (2002) Language Acquisition. The Growth of Grammar, Cambridge Mass./London: MIT Press. Hayes, B. (1995) Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Jakobson, R. (1942) Kindersprache, Afasie und Allgemeine Lautgesetze, Kehoe, M. & C. Stoel-Gammon (1997) The acquisition of prosodic structure: An investigation of current accounts of children's prosodic development, Language 73, 113-144. Vihman, M. (1996) Phonological Development: The origins of language in the child. Oxford: Blackwell. Vihman, M. (2003) The representation of early words, invited lecture at the Conference on Domains, May 5. Wijnen, F., Krikhaar, E. & Den Os, E. (1994) The (non)realization of unstressed elements in children's utterances: Evidence for a rhythmic constraint. Journal of Child Language 21, 5983 http://www.dbnl.nl/tekst/wijn024nonr01/wijn024nonr01_001.htm Zonneveld, W. & M. Trommelen (1989) Klemtoon en Metrische Fonologie Muiderberg: Couthino.