Precursors to onset clusters in acquisition.

Full Abstract

Two lawful relationships involving word-initial onset clusters have been advanced in the acquisition literature; namely, that clusters imply affricates (Lleó & Prinz, 1996, 1997), and that liquid clusters imply a liquid distinction (Archibald, 1998). This study evaluated and extended the validity of these implicational laws in a population of 110 children (aged 3;0 to 8;6) with functional phonological delays who contributed extended speech samples for computational analyses. Results indicated that, for the most part, the composition of children's sound systems were in compliance with the proposed laws; however, there were noted asymmetries and apparent exceptions in the data. The asymmetries motivated an integration of the two laws to reveal a pattern of segmental-prosodic cyclicity consistent with deterministic models of phonological acquisition. The apparent exceptions highlighted the relevance of independent methodologies and offered a potential theoretical alternative with the Resolvability Principle as directions for future research.

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Author information

Author/s: Gierut, Judith A (JA); O'Connor, Kathleen M (KM);

Affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, 200 South Jordan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405-7002, USA. gierut(-atsign-)indiana.edu

Grants: DC01694 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of child language (J Child Lang), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 29 (issue 3) : pp 495-517

Dates: Created 2002/07/11; Completed 2002/08/20; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12109361, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans

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