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Former Project B1 - Dynamics of representations in phonological acquisition

PI and Ko-PI: Prof. Dr. Domahs, Prof. Dr. Kauschke and Prof. Dr. Scharinger
Ph.D.-student: Francie Höhler

Research Context

In the course of language acquisition, systematic segmental and prosodic variations in words can be observed between the second and fourth year of life which are called phonological processes. Many segmental and prosodic phonological processes that occur typically in certain phases of language acquisition are well documented. However, when it comes to deviations in vowel realisations, little is known and evidence is rare. This is especially the case for children’s early processing of reduced vowels and the acquisition of reduced syllables. The few studies on reduced syllables found in the research literature, demonstrate that these structures are demanding in language acquisition (Kehoe & Lleó, 2003; Kauschke, 2018; Kehoe, 2019) but these claims are mainly based on a few described cases. A systematic examination of the perception and production of reduced vowels is still needed in order to clarify the status of the deviations in reduced vowel realisations and whether these variations can be classified as systematic phonological processes.

By analysing children’s production and perception of reduced vowels and reduced syllables in typical and atypical language acquisition, new insights regarding the acquisition of phonological acquisition will be gained. Furthermore, different types of contexts in which reduced vowels and syllables occur (e.g., in inflection or lexical words, in different word positions) will be taken into account.

Current dissertation project

Working Title: Reduced vowels and reduced syllables in typical and atypical language acquisition: Processes and development of target language representations

Aims

The aim of the research project is to investigate whether reduced vowels and reduced syllables pose an acquisition hurdle in German first language acquisition. More specifically, the developmental trajectory of such structures in utterances of children exhibiting a typical language acquisition will be evaluated. Additionally, the perception of reduced vowels and syllables in atypical developing children will be compared with those in typical developing children.

Methods

On the one hand, the realisation of reduced vowels and reduced syllables will be investigated by means of elicited child speech data and corpus data (e.g., the Osnabrück-Corpus by Angela Grimm (2007)). On the other hand, the sensitivity towards reduced vowels will be examined using EEG measurements (MissMatchNegativity, MMN). This enables us to gain knowledge about how the production changes during language acquisition and whether differences in the perception could be responsible for a delay in language acquisition.

Preliminary work

The project builds on the analysis (BA thesis Höhler) of the Osnabrück Corpus by Angela Grimm (2007). The corpus data will be prepared for a further analysis following Kehoe and Lleó (2003). Another preliminary work is a MMN study of the first supervisor (Türk, Gerards, Scharinger & Domahs, 2022) on vowel perception, which will be adapted for the child study.

Relation to other projects

Close links exist to Project B3, in which the effect of interventions on the modification of phonological representations in second language acquisition of children is investigated. Within this project the representation of vowels including schwa is examined. The processing of vowels provides a link to Project A1.

References

  • Grimm, A. (2007). The development of early prosodic word structure in child German: simplex words and compounds [Dissertation]. Universität Potsdam, Potsdam.

  • Höhler, F. (2020). Reduktionssilben im frühen Erstspracherwerb des Deutschen: Eine phonetisch-phonologische Korpusanalyse von Realisierungsvarianten [Bachelorarbeit]. Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg.

  • Kauschke, C. (2018). Wortbetonung als Einstieg in die Therapie von Sprachentwicklungsstörungen.  logopädieschweiz, 3, 4–11.

  • Kehoe, M. W. (2019). An acoustic study of schwa syllables in monolingual and bilingual German speaking children. Linguistische Berichte, 260, 423–470.

  • Kehoe, M., & Lleó, C. (2003). A Phonological Analysis of Schwa in German First Language Acquisition. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 48(3/4), 289–327.

  • Türk, S., Gerards, J., Scharinger, M. & Domahs, U., (2022) MMN patterns in the processing of German mid-high vowels in native and non-native speakers. Presentation at the International Conference on Laboratory Phonology 22.