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Asymmetries in the Acquisition of Consonant Clusters in Spanish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Jessica A. Barlow
Jessica A. Barlow*
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Abstract

This article considers three children’s acquisition of tauto- and heterosyllabic consonant clusters in Spanish within the framework of Optimality Theory. Each child presents with a unique phonological system with respect to the cluster types. One child, BL4 (female, aged 2;8), reduces tautosyllabic clusters to the least sonorous singleton, but preserves both segments in production of heterosyllabic clusters. A second child, SD1 (female, aged 3;4), preserves both segments of tautosyllabic clusters, but reduces heterosyllabic clusters to the least sonorous singleton. Finally, a third child, SD2 (female, 3;9), reduces both types of clusters, maintaining the least sonorous segment; however, a different pattern is observed with the nasal + voiced stop clusters, which reduce to the most sonorous segment. The inter- and intra-child variation is accounted for by an appeal to general markedness and faithfulness constraints that have been motivated elsewhere in the literature in accounting for syllabic and segmental phenomena in acquisition and beyond.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article se penche sur l’acquisition de groupes consonantiques tautosyllabiques et hetérosyllabiques de l’espagnol chez trois enfants, et ce dans le cadre de la théorie de l’optimalité. Chaque enfant présente un système phonologique particulier relativement à ces types de regroupements. Un des enfants, BL4 (fille, 2;8), réduit les groupes tautosyllabiques en ne prononçant que la consonne la moins sonore, mais conserve les deux segments lors de la production des groupes hetérosyllabiques. Un autre enfant, SD 1 (fille, 3;4), conserve les deux segments des groupes tautosyllabiques, mais réduit les groupes hetérosyllabiques à leur consonne la moins sonore. Enfin, le troisième enfant, SD2 (fille, 3;9), réduit les deux types de groupes au segment le moins sonore; on remarque cependant un patron différent en ce qui concerne les groupes nasale + occlusive voisée, qui sont réduits au segment le plus sonore. La variation observée pour chacun des enfants et entre les enfants est expliquée par des contraintes générales de marque et de préservation, lesquelles ont auparavant été motivées par l’explication, entre autres, de phénomènes syllabiques et segmentaux en acquisition et dans les langues adultes.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 48 , Issue 3-4 , December 2003 , pp. 179 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2003

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