Context-sensitive underspecification and the acquisition of phonemic contrasts

Area of Science:

• Phonology
• Linguistics
• Language Acquisition

Background:

• Current theories of phonological representation struggle to explain the developmental trajectory of feature acquisition.
• Longitudinal data on child phonology acquisition, specifically the emergence of voice contrast, presents a challenge for existing models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate competing theories of phonological representation against empirical data from child language acquisition.
• To determine which phonological underspecification framework best accounts for the emergence of phonemic contrasts.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of longitudinal data from a child's acquisition of a voice contrast (Amahl, 2;2-3;11).
• Comparative evaluation of contrastive specification, context-free radical underspecification, and context-sensitive radical underspecification.

Main Results:

• Contrastive specification and context-free radical underspecification fail to adequately explain the observed acquisition patterns.
• The transition from non-contrastive, context-conditioned features to contrastive features with gradual phonetic diffusion is problematic for these models.
• Context-sensitive radical underspecification offers a plausible account of both developmental stages and the transition between them.

Conclusions:

• Context-sensitive radical underspecification provides a more accurate model for phonemic acquisition than competing frameworks.
• This approach necessitates minimal grammar changes and aligns better with observed phonetic development and learner constraints.