<OT> New Posting: ROA-752

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 752-0605

L1 Phonotactic Knowledge and the L2 Acquisition of Alternations

Joe Pater <pater at linguist.umass.edu>
Anne-Michelle Tessier <tessier at linguist.umass.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=752


Abstract:
Phonological alternations often serve to modify forms so
that they respect a phonotactic restriction that applies
across the words of language. Although it has long been
assumed that an adequate theory of phonology should capture
the connection between phonotactics and alternations, there
is however no psycholinguistic evidence that speakers actually
do use a single mechanism for them both. In this study,
we used an artificial language learning experiment with
adult subjects to test whether an alternation that meets
a phonotactic target is easier to learn than one that does
not. The results suggest that phonotactic knowledge does
aid in the acquisition of alternations, and also provide
a novel example of the influence of the first language on
second language learning.

Comments: Ms, UMass Amherst, revised version of Pater, Joe and Anne-Michelle Tessier. 2005. Phonotactics and alternations: Testing the connection with artificial language learning. In K. Flack and S. Kawahara (eds.), UMOP 31: 1-16
Keywords: phonotactics, acquisition
Areas: Psycholinguistics,Language Acquisition,Phonology
Type: Book Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=752