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Lexical acquisition and acquisition of initial voiceless stops

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Ann A. Tyler  and
Mary Louise Edwards
Ann A. Tyler*
Affiliation:
University of Nevada
Mary Louise Edwards
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
*
[*] Address for correspondence: School of Medicine, Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, Nell J. Redfield Building, 152, Reno, NV 89557-0046, USA.
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Abstract

The interaction between lexical acquisition and acquisition of initial voiceless stops was studied in two normally developing children, aged 1;9 and 1;10, by acoustically examining the token-by-token accuracy of initial voiceless stop targets in different lexical items. Production accuracy was also examined as it related to the frequency of usage of different words, as well as the time when they entered the children's lexicons. Fewer than half of the words in the children's lexicons had tokens representing the emergence of accurate voiceless stop production prior to the session at which the voicing contrast was achieved. These words were primarily ‘old’ words that had been in the children's lexicons from the beginning of data collection, as opposed to ‘new’ words, first produced in later recording sessions. Findings are discussed in reference to the ‘lexical diffusion’ model of sound change and within the framework of nonlinear underspecification theory.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 253 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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