Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:59:41.239Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in English target words during the first-word period*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2016

KATSURA AOYAMA  and
BARBARA L. DAVIS
KATSURA AOYAMA*
Affiliation:
University of North Texas, USA
BARBARA L. DAVIS
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Katsura Aoyama, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #305010, Denton, Texas 76203, United States. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in target words during the first-word period in infants learning American English. In the spontaneous speech of eighteen participants, target words with a Consonant–Vowel–Consonant (C1VC2) shape were analyzed. Target words were grouped into nine types, categorized by place of articulation (labial, coronal, dorsal) of initial and final consonants (e.g. mom, labial–labial; mat, labial–coronal; dog, coronal–dorsal). The results indicated that some consonant sequences occurred much more frequently than others in early target words. The two most frequent types were coronal–coronal (e.g. dad) and labial–coronal (e.g. mat). The least frequent type was dorsal–dorsal (e.g. cake). These patterns are consistent with phonotactic characteristics of English and infants' production capacities reported in previous studies. This study demonstrates that infants' expressive vocabularies reflect both ambient language characteristics and their own production capacities, at least for consonant sequences in C1VC2 word forms.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 44 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 1065 - 1087
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

The data in the study were collected with support from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R-01 HD27733-03 to the second author. The authors thank Kelsey Robin for analyzing the individual data, and Tina Boike for providing editorial assistance. Thanks also for the participation of these infants and their families, without whom this work could not have happened.

References

REFERENCES

Aoyama, K., Peters, A. M. & Winchester, K. S. (2010). Phonological changes during the transition from one-word to productive word combination. Journal of Child Language 37, 145–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boysson-Bardies, B. de & Vihman, M. M. (1991). Adaptation to language: evidence from babbling and first words in four languages. Language 67, 297–319.Google Scholar
Boysson-Bardies, B. de, Vihman, M. M., Roug-Hellichius, L., Durand, C., Landberg, I. & Arao, F. (1992). Material evidence of infant selection from target language: a cross-linguistic phonetic study. In Ferguson, C. A., Menn, L. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (eds), Phonological development: models, research, implications, 369–93. Timonium, MD: York.Google Scholar
Davis, B. L. & MacNeilage, P. F. (1995). The articulatory basis of babbling. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research 38, 1199–211.Google Scholar
Davis, B. L., MacNeilage, P. F. & Matyear, C. L. (2002). Acquisition of serial complexity in speech production: a comparison of phonetic and phonological approaches to first word production. Phonetica 59, 75–107.Google Scholar
Delattre, P. (1965). Comparing the phonetic features of English, German, Spanish, and French: an interim report. Heidelberg: Julian Gross Verlag.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J. P., Pethick, S. & Reilly, J. S. (1993). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: user's guide and technical manual. San Diego, CA: Singular.Google Scholar
Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Hayashi, A., Tsuji, S., Mazuka, R. & Nazzi, T. (2014). The role of the input on the development of the LC bias: a cross-linguistic comparison. Cognition 132, 301–11.Google Scholar
Gonzalez-Gomez, N. & Nazzi, T. (2012). Acquisition of nonadjacent phonological dependencies in the native language during the first year of life. Infancy 17, 498–524.Google Scholar
Gonzalez-Gomez, N. & Nazzi, T. (2013). Effects of prior phonotactic knowledge on infant word segmentation: the case of non-adjacent dependencies. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 56, 840–9.Google Scholar
Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Poltrock, S. & Nazzi, T. (2013). A ‘Bat’ is easier to learn than a ‘Tab’: effects of relative phonotactic frequency on infant word learning. PloS One 8, e59601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graf Estes, K., Edwards, J. & Saffran, J. R. (2011). Phonotactic constraints on infant word learning. Infancy 16, 180–97.Google Scholar
Guidubaldi, J., Newborg, J., Stock, J. R., Svinicki, J. & Wneck, L. (1984). Batelle Developmental Inventory. Allen, TX: DLM Teaching Resources.Google Scholar
Ingram, D. (1974). Fronting in child phonology. Journal of Child Language 1, 233–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasuta, S. G. S. (1987). The phonology of the first fifty words: phonological process and homonymy. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Keating, P. (1991). Coronal places of articulation. In Paradis, C. & Prunet, J. (eds), The special status of coronals: internal and external evidence, 29–48. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kim, N. & Davis, B. L. (2015). A phonetic approach to consonant repetition in early words. Infant Behavior and Development 40, 193–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ladefoged, P. & Johnson, K. (2015). A course in phonetics (7th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. & Maddieson, I. (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
MacNeilage, P. F. & Davis, B. L. (2000). Evolution of speech: the relation between ontogeny and phylogeny. In Knight, C., Studdert Kennedy, M. & Hurford, J. R. (eds), The evolutionary emergence of language: social function and the origins of linguistic form, 146–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
MacNeilage, P. F., Davis, B. L., Kinney, A. & Matyear, C. L. (1999). Origin of serial-output complexity in infants and in language. Psychological Science 10, 459–60.Google Scholar
MacNeilage, P. F., Davis, B. L., Kinney, A. & Matyear, C. L. (2000). The motor core of speech: a comparison of serial organization patterns in infants and languages. Child Development 71, 153–63.Google Scholar
MacNeilage, P. F., Davis, B. L. & Matyear, C. L. (1997). Babbling and first words: phonetic similarities and differences. Speech Communication 22, 269–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: tools for analyzing talk, vol. I: transcription format and programs (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Maekawa, J. & Storkel, H. L. (2006). Individual differences in the influence of phonological characteristics on expressive vocabulary development by young children. Journal of Child Language 33, 439–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCune, L. & Vihman, M. M. (2001). Early phonetic and lexical development: a productivity approach. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research 44, 670–84.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. (2000). The emergence of the speech capacity. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Rochet-Capellan, A. & Schwartz, J. (2007). An articulatory basis for the labial-to-coronal effect: /pata/ seems a more stable articulatory pattern than /tapa/. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121, 3740–54.Google Scholar
Snow, D. (1994). Phrase-final syllable lengthening and intonation in early child speech. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research 37, 831–40.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1985). Phonetic inventories, 15–24 months: a longitudinal study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 28, 505–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1998). Sound and words in early language acquisition: the relationship between lexical and phonological development. In Paul, R. (ed.), Exploring the speech–language connection, 25–52. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. (2011). Relationships between lexical and phonological development in young children. Journal of Child Language 38, 1–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Storkel, H. L. (2009). Developmental differences in the effects of phonological, lexical and semantic variables on word learning by infants. Journal of Child Language 36, 291–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teixeira, E. R. & Davis, B. L. (2002). Early sound patterns in the speech of two Brazilian Portuguese speakers. Language and Speech 45, 179–204.Google Scholar
Templin, M. C. (1957). Certain language skills in children: their development and interrelationships. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsuji, S., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Medina, V., Nazzi, T. & Mazuka, R. (2012). The labial–coronal effect revisited: Japanese adults say pata, but hear tapa . Cognition 125, 413–28.Google Scholar
Vihman, M. & Croft, W. (2007). Phonological development: toward a ‘radical’ templatic phonology. Linguistics 45, 683–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vihman, M. M. & Greenlee, M. (1987). Individual differences in phonological development: ages one and three years. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 30, 503–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vihman, M. M., Macken, M. A., Miller, R., Simmons, H. & Miller, J. (1985). From babbling to speech: a re-assessment of the continuity issue. Language 61, 397–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vihman, M. M. & McCune, L. (1994). When is a word a word? Journal of Child Language 21, 517–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zamuner, T. S. (2009). Phonotactic probabilities at the onset of language development: speech production and word position. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 52, 49–60.Google Scholar
Zamuner, T. S., Gerken, L. & Hammond, M. (2004). Phonotactic probabilities in young children's speech production. Journal of Child Language 31, 515–36.Google Scholar