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Truncation to Subminimal Words in Early French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Katherine Demuth  and
Mark Johnson
Katherine Demuth
Affiliation:
Brown University
Mark Johnson
Affiliation:
Brown University
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Abstract

It has commonly been proposed that there is a stage in development where children’s early productions are binary feet, or minimal words. However, the present study of a French-speaking child (1;1–1;8) finds an extended period where both CVC and disyllabic target words are truncated to CV after initially being produced as reduplicated CiVCiV forms. That is, the child appears to regress, failing to produce disyllabic forms that could be produced earlier. This article proposes an explanation for this apparent regression in terms of segmental-prosodic constraint interaction, where the child’s limited segmental inventory, in conjunction with the high frequency of CV lexical items in everyday French, conspire to yield subminimal truncations as “optimal” at this stage in development. These findings provide support for a growing body of literature showing the importance of both constraint interaction and frequency effects in early production, arguing for a more probabilistic approach to theories of language learning.

Résumé

Résumé

Plusieurs chercheurs ont proposé l’existence d’un stade d’acquisition pendant lequel les productions chez les enfants ont la forme non marquée d’un pied binaire (mots minimaux). Cependant, la présente étude d’un enfant de langue maternelle française (1; 1-1;8) révèle une période prolongée où les mots cibles CVC et disyllabiques sont réduits (en formes CV) après avoir été produits comme des formes rédupliquées (CiVCiV). Des analyses plus précises suggèrent que ces troncations résultant en des formes sous-minimales peuvent être expliquées : les interactions de contraintes segmentales et prosodiques, l’inventaire de phonèmes limité de l’enfant et la haute fréquence des mots lexicaux CV en français font en sorte que ces troncations sous-minimales soient optimales à ce stade de développement. Ces résultats sont en accord avec la documentation grandissante montrant l’importance des effets de fréquence dans les stades précoces de la production chez l’enfant et soutiennent une approche probabilistique des théories d’acquisition du langage.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 48 , Issue 3-4 , December 2003 , pp. 211 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2003

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