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Crossing boundaries: more evidence for phonological constraints on early multi-word utterances*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Edward H. Matthei
Edward H. Matthei*
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
*
Department of Cognitive Sciences, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92717, USA.
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Abstract

A number of researchers have argued that phonological constraints may influence the emergence and form of combinatorial speech in children. Donahue (1986) presented evidence that one child's consonant harmony constraint operated across word boundaries. This paper presents further evidence for the operation of word-level phonological constraints in multi-word utterances. Selection and avoidance patterns as well as her modifications of adult forms indicate the presence of a syllable sequencing constraint in this child's grammar: an initial syllable must begin with a consonant whose sonority value is not less than that of the following syllable. The same constraint governs the form of her early word combinations. The existence of evidence for the operation of word-level constraints in word combinations, it is pointed out, has consequences for how we interpret two-lexicon models of phonological development.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 41 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank E and her parents for participating in this study. Betsy Sagey and Virginia Mann contributed occasional sympathetic ears and advice, for which I would like to express my appreciation. And last, and certainly not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Stacy Trytten who collected virtually all of the data and assisted in analysing the transcripts. I accept responsibility for all errors and infelicities committed here. Portions of this paper were presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting in December 1987.

References

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