A sonority-driven analysis of cluster reduction in the speech of Persian-speaking children

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

University of Tehran

Abstract

While numerous studies have investigated children’s acquisition of clusters, the majority of such studies have only viewed the acquisition of onset clusters in western language countries. Far fewer studies have investigated the acquisition of coda clusters in any other languages. The present article tries to investigate the acquisition of coda consonant clusters by Persian-speaking children within the framework of sonority principle. It shows that children’s consonant cluster reductions are sonority-driven. That is, children reduce the clusters, which obey the sonority principle, to the more sonorous consonant. On the other hand, they metathesize cluster consonants that disobey the sonority principle so that they conform to the so called principle. The other goal of the present article is to provide a mini-grammar of cluster reduction by Persian-speaking children within the framework of Optimality Theory. To follow the aforementioned purpose, the data is analyzed within the framework of Optimality Theory and a mini-grammar is represented by the confliction between violable constraints.

Keywords


احمدی، مهدی (1379). تحلیل منحنی‏های زیروبمی هجاهای CV زبان فارسی، پایان‏نامه ارشد زبان‌شناسی، دانشگاه تهران.
بی‏جن‏خان، محمود (1384). واج‏شناسی نظریه بهینگی، تهران: انتشارات سخن.
شجاعی، راضیه و محمود بی‏جن‏خان (1389). "خوشه‏های همخوانی در تلفظ کودکان فارسی‏زبان: رویکرد اشتقاقی یا بهینگی"، مجموعه مقالات کارگاه بررسی نظریه بهینگی، 17-11.
Barlow, Jessica (2003). “Asymmetries in the acquisition of consonant clusters in Spanish”, Canadaian Journal of Linguistics, 48; 179-210.
Boersma, Paul and Claartje Levelt (2003). “Optimality theory and phonological acquisition”, Annual Review of Language Acquisition, 3; 1-50.
Clements, G. N. (1990). “The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification”, In J. Kingston & M.E. Beckman (Eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology I: Between the Grammar and Physics of Speech, 283-333. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fikkert, Paula (1994). On the Acquisition of Prosodic Structure, The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.
Goldstein, B. A. and Cintron P. (2001). “An investigation of phonological skills in Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking 2-year-olds”, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 15; 343–361.
Gilbers, D. G and D. B. Den Ouden (1994). “Compensatory lengthening and cluster reduction in first language acquisition: a comparison of analyses”, In: A.de Boer, H. de Hoop and H. de Swart (eds), Language and Cognition 4, 69-82, Groningen: University of Groningen.
Gnanadesikan, Amelia (1995). “Markedness and Faithfulness Constraints in Child Phonology”, Rutgers Optimality Archive: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/roa.html.
Grijzenhout, Janet and Sandra Joppen (1999). “First steps in the acquisition of German phonology: A case study”, Rutgers Optimality Archive: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/files/304-0399/roa-304-grijzenhout-2.pdf.
Kenstowicz, Michael (1994). Phonology in Generative Grammer, Cambridge and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Lieo, Conxita, and Michael Prinz (1996). “Consonant clusters in child phonology and the directionality of syllable structure assignment”, Journal of Child Language, 23:31-56.
Locke, J. L. (1983). Phonological Acquisition and Change. New York: Academic Press.
Ohala, Diane K. (1999). “The influence of sonority on children’s cluster reductions”, Journal of Communication Disorders, 32; 397-422.
Pater, Joe (2002). “Form and substance in phonological development”, Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 21, ed. by L. Mikkelsen and C. Potts, 348-372.
Pater, Joe and Jessica Barlow (2003). “A typology of cluster reduction: conflicts with sonority”, to appear in Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, 26.
Preisser, D. A, B. W. Hadson and E. P. Paden (1998). “Development phonology: 18-29 months”, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 53; 125-135.
Ruke-Dravina, Velta (1990). “The acquisition process of consonantal clusters in the child: Some universal rules”, Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 13; 153-163.
Selkirk, E. (1984). “On the major class features and syllable theory”, in M. Aronoff and R. T. Oehrle (eds.), Language Sound Structure, 107-136. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Smith, Jennifer L. (2003). “Onset sonority constraints and subsyllabic structure”, Rutgers Optimality Archive: http://roa.rutgers.edu/.
Tesar, Bruce and Paul Smolensky (1993). “The learnability of optimality theory”, Linguistic Inquiry, 29; 268-299.