Speech production

Question 1

By the time children begin to learn their first ____, they can no longer produce and perceive phonemes that are not present in their native language

Answer 1

Words

Question 2

Age at which infants’ fine motor control abilities for phonetic articulation are developed

Answer 2

7-10 months

Question 3

Sounds that are produced before the motor control abilities are fully developed

Answer 3

Phonation

Question 4

Age at which babies start to produce syllables

Answer 4

4-6 months

Question 5

Early language-like vocalizations

Answer 5

• 12 weeks: Cooing (vowel sounds)
• 16 weeks: Cooing in response to human sounds
• 20 weeks: Consonants added to cooing

Question 6

2 reasons babbling is important

Answer 6

1. Allows practice of articulators
2. Builds sensory-motor sound representations

Question 7

Canonical babbling (6-9 months)

Answer 7

Vocalizations containing syllables (in isolation or reduplicated)

Question 8

Variegated babbling (9-10 months):

Answer 8

Contains consonants and vowels sequences that differ in quality

Question 9

Consonants in babbling usually _____precede/follow the vowel

Answer 9

Precede

Question 10

Babies produce mostly syllables of this type

Answer 10

V, then CV

Question 11

Late babbling (or jargon or gibberish) (10-12 months)

Answer 11

Sounds like the target language but with no recognizable words (no sound–meaning pairing yet);
* Adjacent syllables differ in prominence (stress) and intonation
* Syllable shape and segmental constraints (e.g. place of articulation harmony) depend on the target language

Question 12

Adults can determine the target language of a babbling baby at this age

Answer 12

8 months old

Question 13

How to distinguish a word from a babble ?

Answer 13

Word = fixed meaning

Question 14

Generalization

Answer 14

Being able to recognize a linguistic structure like a phoneme even when spoken in different words, by different speakers and with different phonetic properties

Question 15

Earliest acquired vowel

Answer 15

/a/

Question 16

Earliest consonant

Answer 16

Labial stop

Question 17

Children will acquire other consonants that constrast with the first one across one _____ dimension

Answer 17

Phonetic (e.g. [+- nasal], place of articulation)

Question 18

Order of consonant acquisition

Answer 18

Manner of articulation : more stops than fricatives, nasals or liquids
Place of articulation : more labials than dentals for English and French, more dentals than labials for Swedish and Japanese; less velars for all languages

Question 19

True or false : children may produce sounds that are more common in their own language before children with another native language (and vice-versa)

Answer 19

True

Question 20

Phonological alterations are usually produced by children aged …

Answer 20

1 to beginning of 3 years old

Question 21

Across-the-board alterations

Answer 21

Same alteration across many words (E.g. cup as [tʌp] and coffee as [tafi])

Question 22

3 categories of phonological processes in children

Answer 22

1. Substitution
2. Assimilation
3. Syllabic processes

Question 23

Children can substitute when 2 sounds share features but differ in terms of ____ or _____

Answer 23

Manner or place of articulation

Question 24

Stopping

Answer 24

Substituting a stop for a fricative or another non stop such as a liquid

Question 25

Fronting

Answer 25

A back sound like a velar or palatal consonant is replaced with a more front sound (e.g. alveolar consonant)

Question 26

Gliding

Answer 26

Liquid (l or r) is replaced with a glide ([j] or [w])

Question 27

Vocalization

Answer 27

Vowel is substitued for a sonorant consonant (usually a liquid or glide)

Question 28

Assimilation

Answer 28

Altering a sound to make it more similar to adjacent sounds

Question 29

2 types of consonant assimilation

Answer 29

1. Place assimilation 2. Manner assimilation

Question 30

Voicing assimilation

Answer 30

Voicing of word-initial consonant (or voiceless unaspirated for stops)

Question 31

Consonant cluster reduction (CCR)

Answer 31

A complex onset or coda (more than one consonant) is reduced to a single segment

Question 32

Coda deletion

Answer 32

Type of CCR in which the coda is deleted

Question 33

Weak syllable deletion

Answer 33

When an unstressed syllable is deleted in a multisyllabic word

Question 34

Reduplication

Answer 34

Doubling of a syllable

Question 35

Covert contrasts

Answer 35

When an acoustic analysis reveals that 2 child produced sounds that adults hear as identical are actually phonetically distinct

Question 36

3 possible explanations for phonological errors in children

Answer 36

1. Cannot hear the target (adult) form 2. Incapable of articulating the sound 3. Represent the word in its adult form and can articulate it, but the sound is altered due to phonological rules

Question 37

True or false : when his father says [sɪp], Amahl perceives it as [ʃɪp]

Answer 37

False, even though Amahl's own pronounciation of /ʃɪp/ is [sɪp]

Question 38

Children tend to produce ___less/more marked sounds compared to adults' grammars

Answer 38

Less

Question 39

The first stage in the development of some property of language is typically cross-linguistically _______ structures

Answer 39

Unmarked

Question 40

Developmental data suggest that stops are _____less/more marked than fricatives.

Answer 40

Less

Question 41

S-shaped development

Answer 41

Incorrect production, followed by a period of gradual improvement, followed by target-like production.

Question 42

Acquisition thresholds

Answer 42

Studies on the acquisition of segments over time often impose an acquisition threshold (cut-off); * Threshold varies from 75% to 90%, most commonly 80% Performance cannot go below threshold to make sure the child has achieved consistent production

Question 43

Developmental path and the markedness hypothesis

Answer 43

Developmental path of children tends to mirror cross-language patterns : cross-linguistically common (unmarked) patterns are acquired earlier than crosslinguistically uncommon (marked) patterns.

Question 44

Prediction of the order of acquisition of word-initial consonants in English based on the markedness hypothesis

Answer 44

most/(least) common consonants across the world’s languages should be the first/(last) acquired in any given language.

Question 45

Kids go through ___ stages of acquisition of word-initial consonants in English

Answer 45

5 (sounds in most of the word languages are coming in the earliest stages, fricatives come in at stages 3-5 )

Question 46

Onsets are either _____ or ______

Answer 46

Required or optional (never forbidden)

Question 47

Codas are either _____ or ______

Answer 47

Optional or forbidden (never required)

Question 48

Optimal syllable (core syllable)

Answer 48

Least marked syllable in adults, CV shape - the first syllable children acquire

Question 49

Complex/branching onset

Answer 49

consonant cluster in onset position (e.g. [pleɪ] ‘play’, [ə.plaɪ] ‘apply’)

Question 50

Complex/branching coda

Answer 50

Consonant cluster in coda position ([ɑrt] ‘art’, [ænt.lərz] ‘antlers’)

Question 51

Singleton _____ are produced from the first stage in development (at 1;4) while singleton ____ are acquired late

Answer 51

Onsets, codas

Question 52

_______ onsets are produced from the first stage in development (at 1;4) while _____ onsets are acquired later

Answer 52

Singleton, complex (same for codas)

Question 53

Markedness in syllables

Answer 53

- Codas are more marked than onsets: CV over VC - Complex syllables are more marked than their singleton version: CV over CCV; VC over VCC - Complex codas are more marked than complex onsets

Question 54

True or false : children's order of syllable shape acquisition matches the markedness of syllable shapes in adult languages

Answer 54

True

Question 55

Least marked complex onset in English

Answer 55

stop + liquid (pl)

Question 56

Least marked complex coda in English

Answer 56

Nasal + stop (mp)

Question 57

True or false : children's productions are always less marked version of the target language

Answer 57

False because overriding constraints may exist in the child's grammar that lead to marked structures Example : If [t] is less marked than [s] : for some kids [s] will turn into [t] in words like slowly: [tloli] If sounds that are acquired late like [r] are too difficult to pronounce in complex onsets, kid could replace them In complex codas, kids can move consonant to the onset

Question 58

Continuity Hypothesis (Pinker 1984; cf. Smith 1973)

Answer 58

Phonological development (the transition from one stage to another) is gradual.