phonological_development

							     Phonological Development
                Berko Gleason Chapter 3




Outline of the class

 What is phonology?
 What is a phoneme?
 What is a syllable?
 What are suprasegmental features?
 What are phonotactic features?
 Phonological development stages




What is Phonology?

 Study of the sound system of the
 language. The sounds that the language
 uses, as well as the rules for their
 combination.
 There are around 200 sounds used in
 languages throughout the world. No one
 language makes use of all 200 sounds.
 English has over 40 different sounds.
Sound symbols: International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA)
 In fact English has 26 letters for over 40 sounds.
   As such there can be no one-to-one
   correspondence between letter and sound,
   “a”: about, fat, fate, farm, fall, says…
 Linguists therefore refer to words as being made
 up of speech sounds or segments rather than
 letters.
 The IPA is a means of representing the 200
 sounds found in languages, including the over
 40 found in English (see textbook p.71).




Classifying Speech Sounds

 Two major categories
   Vowels
   Sounds made with an unobstructed vocal tract
   (about 16), e.g., /æ/ in cat, /ɪ/ in bid
   Consonants
     Sounds made with a constricted vocal tract (24): e.g. /p/ and
      /t/ in put




Classifying Speech Sounds
 Consonants are further classified by:
   Place of articulation
      Made with lips: /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/
      Place tongue on or near the ridge of gum behind teeth:
      /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/
   Manner of articulation
      “Stop” consonants: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/
      “Fricatives”: produced by airstream friction in the mouth /f/, /v/, /θ/,
      /s/, /z/, /∫/
      “Nasals”, produced through nose: /m/, /n/, /η/
   Voicing
      “Voiced”: produced through vocal cord vibrations, otherwise
      “voiceless”, e.g., /p/ - /b/, /t/ - /d/, /f/ - /v/, /s/ - /z/
Phonemes

 Phonemes are defined as the contrasting
 sounds in a language.
     Phoneme is the smallest sound unit
     A phoneme has no meaning by itself
     Changing a phoneme will turn one word into
    another:
         e.g., lot: rot, /l/ and /r/ are two distinct
              phonemes.
              More examples? lot: ??




Syllables

 Syllable is a phonetic unit larger and more
 stable than phoneme.
 A syllable consists of an onset and a rime,
 and a rime in turn consists of an vowel and
 final consonant(s).




Syllables
                        Syllable

      Onset                            rime

 Initial consonant(s)                   vowel            final
                                                        consonant(s)




 e.g., cat is one syllable word, onset is…, rime is…,
       tog      nig cog foz (which of these 3 words does the first
                              word “tog” rhyme with?)
Syllable structure
word              structure     onset           rime
                                        vowel          final
                                                consonants

I                 V                     I
It                VC                    i               t
go                CV            g       o
grasp             CCVCC         gr      a               sp
strands           CCCVCCC str           a               nds

  Syllable is an easier unit to isolate than phoneme




Suprasegmental features
  Superimposed on the sequence of vowels
  and consonants
  Two major features: pitch (tone), stress
       Tone: same sequence of phonemes with different
       tones differ in meaning
       e.g., /ma/1: “mother”, /ma/2: “linen”, /ma/3:
       “horse”, /ma/4: “curse”
       Stress: content words have stress in one of their
       syllables
       e.g.,’answer, a’bove, incompre’hensible
           .   ’conduct, con’duct




Phonotactics: Are there words that are
impossible?
  blink or bnick ?
  Phonotactics- are the rules that govern
  permissible sound combinations
       true and plot but not rtue or lpot
       no two stop consonants at the beginning, pb
  Learning the rules of phonotactic
  arrangement is an important component in
  phonological development
Phonological development stages

 Early perception of speech sounds
   Infants (1-4 months) can discriminate sound pairs,
      e.g., /b/ and /p/ in bah, pah, /d/and /t/, /b/and /d/, etc.
   Infants (3 days) can identify and prefer listening to own
   mothers’ voices
   Infants also can discriminate sound pairs not used in
   their native languages (before 6-8 months)
      Suggests born with this sound distinction ability
   Infants gradually lose their ability to detect sound pairs
   not used in their native languages (about 6 months later)
      Suggests language experience is important




Phonological development stages

 Babbling (6-15 months)
    Vocalize randomly and coo: produce vowellike
   sounds
    Babbling: vocalize sound sequences that are
   meaningless, but patterned, e.g., CVCV /baba/,
   /mama/




Used and not-used consonants in
babbling (from over 15 countries)
 Used                                 Not-used
    6 stops, /b, d, g, p, t,k/             7 fricatives
    2 glides, /j, w/                       /θ, ð, f, v, z, ∫, Ʒ/
    2 nasals, /m, n/                       2 affricates /t∫, dƷ/
                                           2 liquids /l, r/
Phonological development stages

 Learning to produce phonemes (ages 1-2)
   Babbling shades into early speech.
   Toddlers produce those sounds they babbled.
   Babbling is dominated by stops, nasals, and
   glides, with a few of fricatives and affricates and
   no liquids.
   Children take a few years to learn to articulate
   correctly the phonemes, with better
   performance on vowels than consonants.




Phonological development stages

 Learning to produce sound sequences
 (ages 1-2)
     By imitation, repetition, and practice, children
   learn to approximate their pronunciation of
   sound sequences to that of adults.




Phonological development stages

 Learning to produce sound sequences
 (ages 1-2):
   Children simplify complex syllable structures by
   dropping:
      the final C in CVC: boot -> /bu/, ball -> /bɔ/
      one C in C cluster: drum -> /dʌm/
      An unstressed syllable: ba’nana /nɑnɑ/, gi’raffe ->
     /rɑf/
      the final syllable while repeating the initial CV
     syllable: water /wɑwɑ/
Phonological development stages

 Learning to produce sound sequences
 (ages 1-2):
    Children also substitute sounds – an easy,
    consonant for a difficult one.
      stops for fricatives, that ->/dæt/
      glides for liquids, little ->/wɪto/
    Children may mispronounce sounds that they
    can correctly perceive.




Phonological development stages

 Sensitivity to phonotactics (aged 3-4)
    Preschool children are sensitive to some
    phonological rules.




Summary: Phonological development
stages
• Early perception of speech sounds (1-4
 months)
 Babbling (6-15 months)
 Learning to produce phonemes (1-2 years)
 Learning to produce sound sequences (1-
 2 years)
 Sensitivity to phonotactics (3-4 years)