Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:16:45.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the acquisition of abstract representations for English vowels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2008

Jeri J. Jaeger
Jeri J. Jaeger*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A basic assumption of generative and lexical phonology is that lexical entries of morphemes contain abstract phonological representations (APRs), and that surface pronunciations are derived from them by rules. Whether and how such a system can be acquired is problematic. This paper looks at the acquisition of APRs for English vowels and the Vowel Shift Rule (VSR), and tries to ascertain (1) whether VSR has any psychological reality, (2) at what age this psychological reality begins to be manifested, and (3) what the source of any psychological reality of VSR is. It finds that (1) pre-literate children show no signs of knowing VSR, (2) literate children and adults show marginal knowledge of only those VSR relations represented by the English vowel letters, and (3) the source of this knowledge can be demonstrated to be the learning of spelling conventions. It is concluded that theories which posit more concrete lexical representations are supported by this evidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 3 , May 1986 , pp. 71 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank John Ohala and Bruce Derwing for comments on an earlier version of this paper, and Linnea Ehri for useful discussions of some of the issues raised. I especially want to thank Anna for sharing with me her insights into language.

References

Armbruster, T. E. (1978). The psychological reality of the vowel shift and laxing rules. PhD dissertation, University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
Berko, J. (1958). The child's learning of English morphology. Word 14. 150–177.Google Scholar
Bloch, B. (1947). English verb inflection Lg 23. 399–418.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. (1976). Meaning and memory. Forum Linguisticum 1. 1–14.Google Scholar
Bresnan, J. … Kaplan, R. M. (1982). Introduction: grammars as mental representations of language. In Bresnan, I. (ed.) The mental representation of grammatical relations. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. xvii–lii.Google Scholar
Brown, R. … McNeill, D. (1966). The ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 5. 325–337.Google Scholar
Bybee, J. L. … Slobin, D. I. (1982). Rules and schemas in the development and use of the English past. Lg 58. 265–289.Google Scholar
Campbell, L. (1986). Testing phonology in the field. In Ohala, J. J. … Jaeger, J. J. (eds.) Experimental phonology. Orlando, Fl.: Academic Press. 163–173.Google Scholar
Carroll, J. B.Davies, P. … Richman, B. (1970). The American Heritage word frequency book. Boston: Houghton Miffin.Google Scholar
Cena, R. M. (1978). When is a phonological generalization psychologically real? Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. … Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper … Row.Google Scholar
Derwing, B. L. (1973). Transformational grammar as a theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Derwing, B. L. … Baker, W. J. (1977). The psychological basis for morphological rules. In Macnamara (1977). 85–110.Google Scholar
Derwing, B. L. … Baker, W. J. (1979). Recent research on the acquisition of English morphology. In Fletcher, P. … Garman, M. (eds.) Language acquisition: studies in first language development. 1st edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 209–223.Google Scholar
Derwing, B. L. … Baker, W. J. (in press). Assessing morphological development. In Fletcher, P. … Garman, M. (eds.) Language acquisition: studies in first language development. 2nd edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (1984). How orthography alters spoken language competencies in children learning to read and spell. In Downing, J. … Valtin, R. (eds.) Language awareness and learning to read. New York: Springer-Verlag. 119–147.Google Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (forthcoming). Sources of difficulty in learning to spell and read. In Wolraich, M. L. … Routh, D. (eds.) Advances in developmental and behavioral pediatrics. Greenwich, Conn.: Jai Press.Google Scholar
Hale, K. (1973). Deep–surface canonical disparities in relation to analysis and change:an Australian example. In Sebeok, T. A. (ed.) Current Trends in Linguistics ii. The Hague: Mouton. 401–458.Google Scholar
Halle, M. (1973) Prolegomena to a theory of word formation. LI 4. 3–16.Google Scholar
Halle, M. (1977). Tenseness, vowel shift, and the phonology of the back vowels in Modern English. LI 8. 611–625.Google Scholar
Halle, M. (1978). Knowledge unlearned and untaught: what speakers know about the sounds of their language. In Halle, M.Bresnan, J. … Miller, G. (eds.) Linguistic theory and psychological reality. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 294–303.Google Scholar
Halle, M. … Clements, G. N. (1983). Problem book in phonology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Halle, M. … Mohanan, K. P. (1985). Segmental phonology of modern English. LI 26. 57–116.Google Scholar
Hooper, J. B. (1976). An introduction to natural generative phonology. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jaeger, J. J. (1980). Categorization in phonology: an experimental approach. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Jaeger, J. J. (1984). Assessing the psychological status of the Vowel Shift Rule.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 13. 13–36.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, P. (1975). What are phonological theories about? In Cohen, D. … Wirth, J. (eds.) Testing linguistic hypotheses. New York: Wiley. 187–209.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, P. (1982). From Cyclic Phonology to Lexical Phonology. In van der Hulst, H. … Smith, N. (eds.) The structure of phonological representations. Vol. I. Dordrecht: Foris. 131–175.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, P. … Menn, L. (1977). On the acquisition of phonology. In Macnamara (1977). 47–78.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1972). Phonetic prerequisites for a distinctive feature theory. In Valdman, A. (ed.) Papers in linguistics and phonetics to the memory of Pierre Delattre. The Hague: Mouton. 273–285.Google Scholar
Linell, P. (1979). Psychological reality in phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCawley, J. D. (1976). Some ideas not to live by. Die Neueren Sprachen 75. 151–165.Google Scholar
Reprinted in McCawley, J. D. (1979). Adverbs, vowels, and other objects of wonder. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 234–246.Google Scholar
McCawley, J. D. (1979). Remarks on Cena's vowel shift experiment. In Clyne, P.Hanks, W. … Hofbauer, C. (eds.) The elements: parasession on linguistic units and levels. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. 110–118.Google Scholar
MacKay, D. G. (1976). On the retrieval and lexical structure of verbs. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 15. 169–182.Google Scholar
MacKay, D. G. (1978). Derivational rules and the internal lexicon. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 17. 61–71.Google Scholar
Macnamara, J. (ed.) (1977). Language learning and thought. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, B. A. (1973) On the status of vowel shift in English. In Moore, T. E. (ed.) Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press. 223–260.Google Scholar
Myerson, R. F. (1976 a). A study of children's knowledge of certain word formation rules and the relationship of this knowledge to various forms of reading achievement. EdD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Myerson, R. F. (1976 b). Children's knowledge of selected aspects of ‘Sound pattern of English’. In Campbell, R. N. … Smith, P. T. (eds.) Recent advances in the psychology of language: formal and experimental approaches. New York: Plenum Press. 377–402.Google Scholar
Nessly, L. (1975). Experimental phonology and English stress. Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Ohala, J. J. (1972). On the design of phonological experiments. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting, Linguistic Society of America, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Ohala, J. J. (1974). Experimental historical phonology. In Anderson, J. M. … Jones, C. (eds.) Historical linguistics. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: North Holland. 353–389.Google Scholar
Read, C. (1972). Pre-school children's knowledge of English phonology. Harvard Educational Review 41. 1–34.Google Scholar
Skousen, R. (1972). On capturing regularities. CLS 8. 567–577.Google Scholar
Steinberg, D. D. … Krohn, R. K. (1975). The psychological validity of Chomsky and Halle's Vowel Shift Rule. In Koerner, E. F. K. (ed.) The transformational-generative paradigm and modern linguistic theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 233–259.Google Scholar
Templeton, S. (1979). Spelling first, sound later: the relationship between orthography and higher order phonological knowledge in older students. Research in the Teaching of English 13. 255–264.Google Scholar
Vennemann, T. (1974). Words and syllables in natural generative grammar. In Bruck, A.Fox, R. A. … Galy, M. W. La (eds.) Papers from the parasession on natural phonology. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. 346–374.Google Scholar
Wang, H. S. (1985). On the productivity of vowel shift alternations in English: an experimental study. PhD dissertation, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Zimmer, K. (1969). Psychological correlates of some Turkish morpheme structure conditions. Lg 45. 309–321.Google Scholar
Zutell, J. (1971). Spelling strategies of primary school children and their relationship to Piaget's concept of decentration. Research in the Teaching of English 13. 64–80.Google Scholar