Volume 24, Fall 2002

Permanent URI for this collection

https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/100056

Browse

Browsing Volume 24, Fall 2002 by Subject "Language acquisition"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The acquisition of English onsets: the case of Amahl
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Hanson, Rebecca
    The acquisition of English onsets by one English-learning child is examined in close detail, with particular focus on the acquisition of /s/ and /s/-clusters. The observation that target /s/ in harmony environments is sensitive to the feature [labial] as opposed to [coronal] and [dorsal] provides support for a feature geometry model in which [labial] versus [lingual] is a possible distinction, e.g. Brown (1997). Further, the unique behavior of target /s/ in the developing phonology motivates the proposal that physiological factors, such as articulatory difficulty, can have consequences in the grammatical system. In particular, it is proposed that a constraint against lingual continuants, which require a precise physical coordination that may not have yet developed, can account for the patterns in the child's acquisition of /s/ clusters. A comparison with the acquisition of /f/, a non-lingual continuant, and that of /l/, another lingual continuant, provides further support for this proposal. The conclusions reached here are consistent with notion of a phonological system grounded in independent, functional principles as argued for in, for example, Goad (1997).
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 24, Fall 2002
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Dobrovolsky, Michael; Edwards, Jodi
    The editors of this volume, Jodi Edwards and Michael Dobrovolsky are pleased to present the twenty-fourth issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The papers contained in this volume represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Knowledge and performance: an examination of the role of explicit linguistic knowledge in L2 phonological acquisition
    (University of Calgary, 2002-09) Mah, Jennifer
    A major challenge facing adults acquiring a second language is the mastery of the second language (L2) phonology. Previous work by Han (1992) shows that even advanced students who have been deemed by native speakers to be fluent in their second language may have failed to completely master the L2 phonological system, resulting in an audible non-native accent. The present paper explores a possibility suggested by Han (1992): that explicit knowledge of the L2 phonology is required to successfully establish the appropriate phonological representations and achieve native-like performance with respect to the L2 phonology. Japanese utterances produced by a native speaker of English were recorded after four months of classroom exposure and examined for accuracy in timing control and spectral accuracy of long and short vowels, and timing control of geminate and singleton consonants. The results were then presented to the subject, and a second sample of utterances was recorded after a further two months of classroom exposure. Although the subject showed evidence of having established separate phonological representations for the Japanese length distinctions (as indicated by t tests), her performance was still distinct from that of a native speaker. Furthermore, the subject was not able to make use of the explicit knowledge gained from the results of the first round of recording, as the subject's performance did not show any significant change in the second round of recording. These results suggest that the knowledge of Japanese length contrasts may have been useful to the learner in establishing the appropriate phonological representations, but not in gaining control over the finer articulatory details of these in six months.