Lexical characteristics of sound change

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between sound change and lexical structure in two children with f unctional phonological disorders. Speci® cally, the question of how sound change infuses through the developing lexicon was addressed. A chronology of phonemic acquisition f or the children who participated has previously been documented. These archival data were now extended to evaluate lexical change relative to sounds acquired. Lexical change was examined through the parameters of neighbourhood density and word f requency. R esults of this study revealed two converging patterns across children: ( a) f or each child there was one parameter ( neighbourhood density or word f requency) of lexical change which held across all sounds acquired, and ( b ) f or each child the alternative parameter patterned di erentially by sound. This variability in lexical change was hypothesized to be associated with the relative degree of f eature speci® cation of the sounds acquired. This has theoretical implications f or the overlay of phonological and lexical structure, and clinical potential f or remediation of phonological disorders.

Markedness and the grammar in lexical diffusion of fricatives

“…A previous study by Gierut and Storkel (in press) addressed this issue (see also Gierut & Morrisette, 1998;Morrisette, 1999;Morrisette & Gierut, 2001). In this study, the influence of two lexical characteristics and three phonological characteristics were considered.…”

Phonotactic probabilities in young children's speech production

“…Moreover, it is also important to look at the development of children's phonology across specific lexical items, which is the focus of recent studies on lexical diffusion examining word frequency and neighbourhood densities with respect to sound changes in children's systems (e.g. Morrisette, 1999 ;. Focusing just on word frequency, studies like that of Storkel & Gierut have looked at longitudinal data on fricative development from children with functional phonological disorders.…”

Input Frequency and Word Truncation in Child Japanese: Structural and Lexical Effects

“…These words become more accessible to the child, which reduces their truncation rate, consequently lowering the overall rate of truncation for the LH0 category, but only as an epiphenomenon. It may also be that such a change in the child's phonological ability spearheaded by a few lexical items eventually spreads to similar words through lexical diffusion (Gierut, Morrisette, & Champion, 1999;Morrisette, 1999;Storkel & Gierut, 2002) or through the construction of word templates, that is, sets of preferred motor plans (Vihman & Velleman, 2000).…”