Phonological universals in early childhood: Evidence from sonority restrictions.

Language Acquisition
Iris BerentTracy Lennertz

Abstract

Across languages, onsets with large sonority distances are preferred to those with smaller distances (e.g., bw>bd>lb; Greenberg, 1978). Optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 2004) attributes such facts to grammatical restrictions that are universally active in all grammars. To test this hypothesis, here, we examine whether children extend putatively universal sonority restrictions to onsets unattested in their language. Participants (M=4;04 years) were presented with pairs of auditory words-either identical (e.g., lbif→lbif) or epenthetically related (e.g., lbif→lebif)-and asked to judge their identity. Results showed that, like adults, children's ability to detect epenthetic distortions was monotonically related to sonority distance (bw>bd>lb), and their performance was inexplicable by several statistical and phonetic factors. These findings suggest that sonority restrictions are active in early childhood and their scope is broad.

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Citations

Dec 19, 2013·Cognitive Neuropsychology·Iris BerentAlbert M Galaburda
Apr 11, 2013·PloS One·Iris BerentDiane Brentari
Apr 8, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·David Maximiliano GómezJacques Mehler
Jun 19, 2013·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Iris Berent
Dec 9, 2015·Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education·Joshua T Williams, Sharlene D Newman
Feb 25, 2014·Journal of Psycholinguistic Research·Katalin Tamási, Iris Berent
Feb 6, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Norbert Maïonchi-PinoLudovic Ferrand
Jan 1, 2018·Language Learning and Development : the Official Journal of the Society for Language Development·Adam StoneRain Bosworth
Nov 13, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Méghane TossonianNorbert Maïonchi-Pino
Jul 12, 2021·Cognition·Sin Hang LauVictor S Ferreira

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