An astronomical opacity effect

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Constraints in phonological acquisition

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

The predictive power of optimality theory for phonological treatment

The phonology and clinically induced learning patterns of a female child with a phonological delay (age 4;11) were examined from the analytical perspective of Optimality Theory. The analysis revealed that a Consonant Harmony error pattern affected alveolar stops from two different sources from underlying lexical representations and from representations derived by an interacting error pattern of Deaffrication. The implications of that analysis for the selection of treatment targets were explored in a treatment study. It was found that treatment aimed at the derived source of Consonant Harmony resulted in the suppression of both Consonant Harmony and Deaffrication. The explanation for these results was attributed to a fixed ranking among certain constraints.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

On the anatomy of a chain shift

Phonological chain shifts have been the focus of many theoretical, developmental, and clinical concerns. This paper considers an overlooked property of the problem by focusing on the typological properties of the widely attested ‘s > θ > f’ chain shift involving the processes of Labialization and Dentalization in early phonological development. Findings are reported from a cross-sectional study of 234 children (ages 3 years; 0 months–7;9) with functional (nonorganic) phonological delays. The results reveal some unexpected gaps in the predicted interactions of these processes and are brought to bear on the evaluation of recent optimality theoretic proposals for the characterization of phonological interactions. A developmental modification to the theory is proposed that has the desired effect of precluding certain early-stage grammars. The proposal is further evaluated against the facts of another widely cited developmental chain shift known as the ‘puzzle > puddle > pickle’ problem (Smith 1973).National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Developmental shifts in phonological strength relations

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

An opacity-tolerant conspiracy in phonological acquisition

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Geometric accounts of consonant-vowel interactions in developing systems

Phenomena associated with consonant-vowel interactions are examined relative to three general models of feature geometry which differ in the planar relationship of consonants and vowels. The data come from reports of developing phonological systems, both normal and disordered. Geometric analyses reveal that consonants and vowels are fully integrated in the earliest stages of development such that the place specification of consonants is primarily derived from the vowel. However, change through development requires modifications either in the principles of place association, the degree of feature specification, or the planar representation of consonants and vowels.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on January 1993, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.3109/02699209308985559

Long-distance place assimilation with an interacting error pattern in phonological acquisition

Two commonly occurring and independent error patterns in children's early speech are examined to determine how and to what extent they might interact. One error pattern replaces velar consonants with coronals, and the other replaces a coronal with a consonant that agrees in place of articulation with some other consonant elsewhere in the word. A range of interactions is observed within and across children with regard to whether the product of one error pattern can serve as the target of the other. The different interactions motivate different claims about the nature and substance of children's underlying representations, which in some cases may differ from those of the ambient system. An extension to underspecification theory is advanced which allows underlying representations to be radically underspecified and in certain cases also to be specified for a default feature.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on January 1997, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.3109/02699209708985198

Comparative markedness and induced opacity

Results are reported from a descriptive and experimental study that was intended to evaluate comparative markedness (McCarthy 2002, 2003) as an amendment to optimality theory. Two children (aged 4;3 and 4;11) with strikingly similar, delayed phonologies presented with two independent, interacting error patterns of special interest, i.e., Deaffrication ([tIn] 'chin') and Consonant Harmony ([$\text{g}$ↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog') in a feeding interaction ([kik] 'cheek'). Both children were enrolled in a counterbalanced treatment study employing a multiple base-line single-subject experimental design, which was intended to induce a grandfather effect in one case ([dↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog' and [kik] 'cheek') and a counterfeeding interaction in the other ([$\text{g}$ↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog' and [tik] 'cheek'). The results were largely supportive of comparative markedness, although some anomalies were observed. The clinical implications of these results are also explored.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Statistical analysis of word-initial /k/ and /t/ produced by normal and phonologically disordered children

The acoustic characteristics of voiceless velar and alveolar stop consonants were investigated for normally articulating and phonologically disordered children using spectral moments. All the disordered children were perceived to produce It/ for /k/, with /k/ being absent from their phonetic inventories. Approximately 82% of the normally articulating children's consonants were classified correctly by discriminant function analysis, on the basis of the mean (first moment), skewness (third moment) and kurtosis (fourth moment) derived from the first 40 ms of the VOT interval. When the discriminant function developed for the normally articulating children was applied to the speech of the phonologically disordered group of children, no distinction was made between the velar and alveolar stops. Application of the model to the speech of individual children in the disordered group revealed that one child produced distinct markings to the velar-alveolar contrast. Variability measures of target /t/ and /k/ utterances indicated greater variability in this disordered child's productions compared with the normally articulating children. Phonological analysis of this child's speech after treatment, in which the velar-alveolar contrast was not treated, revealed target appropriate productions of both It/ and /k/. By contrast, the other three phonologically disordered children, for whom no acoustic distinction was found between target It/ and target /k/, did not evidence any knowledge of the contrast after treatment with other target phonemes.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on January 1990, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/026992000750020341