<OT> New Posting: ROA-862

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 862-0906

Prosodic structure in child French: Evidence for the foot

Heather Goad <heather.goad at mcgill.ca>
Meaghen Buckley <meaghen.buckley at mail.mcgill.ca>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=862


Abstract:
There is disagreement in the literature on whether French
has stress and on whether it has a foot projection. The
disagreement stems from the observation that French is unusual
in that the phrase rather than the word is the domain of
stress assignment, there is optional initial stress in addition
to obligatory final stress, and there are rampant violations
of word minimality. In view of these observations, this
paper examines the outputs of a child learner of Québec
French in an attempt to determine the conclusions she has
arrived at concerning the status of the foot in the language
being acquired. It is demonstrated that, in spite of the
challenge that the facts of the target language present,
from the onset of production, the child’s outputs are compatible
with standard views on prosodic structure. Word minimality
effects, the distribution of final lengthening, the emergence
of word-final consonants, and the organisation of functional
material into prosodic structure are all examined. The paper
also provides a preliminary analysis of stress in target
French which is, to the greatest extent possible, consistent
with standard views on prosodic structure.

Comments: 
Keywords: French, Québec French, stress, foot binarity, word minimality, truncation, prosodic structure
Areas: Phonology,Language Acquisition
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=862