Acquisition of Serial Complexity in Speech Production: A Comparison of Phonetic and Phonological Approaches to First Word Production

Abstract

Comparison was made between performance-based and competence-based approaches to the understanding of first word production. The performance-related frame/content approach is representative of the biological/functional perspective of phonetics in seeking explanations based on motor, perceptual and cognitive aspects of speech actions. From this perspective, intrasyllabic consonant-vowel (CV) co-occurrence patterns and intersyllabic sequence patterns are viewed as reflective of biomechanical constraints emerging from mandibular oscillation cycles. A labial-coronal sequence effect involved, in addition, the problem of interfacing the lexicon with the motor system, as well as the additional problem of initiation of movement complexes. Competence-based approaches to acquisition are within the generative phonological tradition; involving an initial assumption of innate, speech-specific mental structures. While various current phonological approaches to acquisition involve consideration of sequence effects and intrasyllabic patterns, they do not adequately establish the proposed mental entities in infants of this age, and are nonexplanatory in the sense of not considering the causes of the structures and constraints that they posit.

‘Frame Dominance’ and the SerialOrganization of Babbling, and First Words in Korean-Learning Infants

“…Korean-learning infants produced a higher percentage of fricative, affricate, and liquid consonants in words than has been typically noted in other studies of first words [e.g. Davis et al, 2002]. The high percentage of these consonants in words in the Korean infants may be attributed to several considerations.…”

“…All 10 English-learning infants in the study by Davis et al [2002] continued to show a preference for all three CV co-occurrence patterns in their first words. The trends were not consistently observed in these Korean infants as they showed only 6 of the 12 expected above chance CV co-occurrences.…”

The emergence of segmental accuracy in young cochlear implant recipients

“…Utterances were classifi ed as word attempts if the parent and observer agreed that the child exhibited a consistent sound-meaning link, not necessarily corresponding to the adult form. A word was counted as established when used spontaneously on two different occasions (Davis et al, 2002;Jasuta, 1987). Transcription reliability.…”

A phonetic approach to consonant repetition in early words

“…At the onset of word use, young children often repeat the same consonant within a word (Davis, MacNeilage, & Matyear, 2002;Vihman, 1996), whereas words in adult language rarely show reduplication of consonant in a word (Ladefoged & Maddieson, 1996). Why young children produce consonant repetition for a word target and how they achieve target word accuracy have been of interest in phonological or speech development studies (e.g., Davis et al, 2002;Pater, 1997;Smith, 1973;Stoel-Gammon & Stemberger, 1994).…”