Phonological Development

1. Phonological Development Chapter 3

2. Definitions • Articulation: speech sound production; actually saying the sounds of speech; placement of the articulators • Phonology: study of the sound system and how the sounds produced are specifically combined to create and signify meaning

3. English Speech Sounds And Sound Patterns • A “phone” is a sound made by the vocal tract, and may or may not be a sound for meaningful speech. • A “phoneme” is a sound produced in order to accomplish meaningful speech.

4. Each speech sound is represented by a symbol. • The system of written speech symbols is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

5. English Speech Sounds And Sound Patterns • Distinctive Features • Distinctive features are used to classify and to describe the speech sounds of a language.

6. Major Sound Classes • 1. Vowels • 2. Consonants • Classified by 3 characteristics: 1. The place of articulation 2. The manner of articulation 3. The presence or absence of voicing

7. Classification of Consonants • Labiodental • Interdental • Alveolar • Palatal • Velar • Glottal

8. Phonotactic Constraints • Are the permissible sequences of sounds in a language • English words do not begin with “ng” • Some clusters are not used at the beginning of words- /lp/ in “help” and /rt/ as in “sport”

9. Suprasegmentals • Are parts of the phonological system that extend beyond individual sounds. • Examples- stress and intonation patterns

10. Productions During The Prelinguistic Period

11. Productions During The Prelinguistic Period • A. Stage 1- Reflexive Vocalizations (Birth – Two Months) • 1. Reflexive vocalizations • Cries, coughs, grunts • 2. Nonreflexive vocalizations • Cooing (vowel-like sounds) • B. Stage 2-Cooing and Laughter (Two – Four Months) • 1. Cooing or gooing sounds • 2. Laughter & chuckles appear

12. Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (Con’t) • C. Stage 3 Vocal Play (Four to Six Months) • Vocal play • Discovery of articulators • Characterized by very loud, very soft sounds and very high, very low sounds, and sustained vowels

13. Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (con’t) • D. Stage 4- Canonical Babbling (Six – Ten Months) • 1. Canonical babbling • The child produces consonant-vowels syllables with adult-like intonation- “mama” “dada” • Reduplicated babbles (strings of identical syllables, “dadada”) • Variegated babbles (syllable strings with varying consonants and vowels, like “babegado”)

14. Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (con’t) • E. Stage 5- Jargon Stage (Ten Months And Older) • Jargon-form of babbling with conversational intonation. • Cross-cultural evidence suggest that all infants seem to pass through the same stages of vocal development.

15. Patterns of Development: General • General Characteristics • 1. Voiceless consonants typically emerge first • 2. /a/ is typically the first vowel to emerge (then /i/ and /u/) • 3. Sounds are easier to learn in the initial position than the final position

16. Words/Protowords • Protowords are consistent sound patterns used in consistent situations to indicate a child’s want/need. The protowords are not always recognizable to the adult form; but then through reinforcement and continued practice a child will start forming real words.

17. Adult-Like Pronunciations • A child goes from protowords easily to real words and how they do it is hard to explain. Researchers look at several things to try and explain it. -regularity of protoword production (Children develop systematic approaches to reproduction of words)

18. Regularity of Production Attempts • Perception • Suprasegmental-segmental interaction (stress) • Assimilation • Rule discovery

19. Phonological Error Patterns • Phonological Processes are: • “The error patterns that result from children’s early attempts to produce words, while they are still learning to control their articulatory apparatus.”

20. Phonological Error Patterns • A. Feature Changes • Voicing (devoicing) or place of articulation (fronting/backing)- • Saying “gat” instead of “cat” or “tat” for “cat” • B. Cluster Reductions • Consonant clusters are difficult sounds for young speakers; thus many children leave out one of the sounds. “tore” for “store”

21. Phonological Error Patterns • C. Omitting Unstressed Syllable (Syllable Reduction) • For example: “mato” for “ tomato” • D. Assimilation Errors- • “Changing a sound in a word to make it more similar to an adjacent or nearby sound in that word or neighboring word, e.g., pronouncing “greenbeans” as “greembeans.”

22. Phonological Error Patterns • Assimilation (continuation) • Assimilation may also involve manner of production • A child may make initial consonants nasal if the final consonant is nasal. • “means” for “beans” • “nance” for “dance” • “mump” for “bump”

23. Cross-cultural Differences in Phonological Development • Children who speak other languages such as Spanish, Japanese, and Finish may use different strategies and phonological patterns from children learning English.

24. Phonological Development • By three years of age, most children are able to pronounce all vowel sounds and most consonants in their language, although they still make many errors. • Consonants such as liquids and fricatives are likely to be in error even at 4or 5. Consonant clusters, especially in initial-word position, are not mastered until age 7 or 8.

25. Completion of Phonetic Inventory • By 7 yrs of age, most children have acquired the entire phonetic inventory.

26. Completion of Phonetic Inventory • Reasons why children’s speech does not sound like an adults even after acquisition of the phonetic inventory: • Children speak slower and with greater variability in pronunciation and timing. • Children’s voices are higher • Children may adopt speech styles that are used by their “group”

27. Development of English Morphophonology • Morphophonology- “The rules governing sound changes that accompany the combination of morphemes in a language.” e.g. native/nationality, divine/divinity (here there is a sound change in the pronunciation of the stem of the word)

28. Development of English Morphophonology • Between 7;0 and 12;0, the child learns more complex derivational structures and morphophonological rules.

29. Class Activity • Describe the phonological error. What phonological patterns is the child using? • 1. “gug” for ”bug” • 2. “doad” for ”toad” • 3. “pandate” for “pancake” • 4. “loon” for “balloon” • 5. “pill” for ”spill”