The phonological grammar in language acquisition

• Autor(a) principal: Matzenauer, Carmen Lúcia Barreto
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Fórum Linguístico
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/forum/article/view/1984-8412.2019v16n2p3769

This paper deals with the construction process of phonological knowledge in children’s typical language acquisition, which is mainly shown by variability in the use of consonants up to the completion of the target language phonological inventory. An analysis based on distinctive features and centered on the behavior of liquid consonants confirms the hypothesis that variability - understood as the use of different phonetic forms to represent a single phonological segment in grammars which are characteristic of the gradual acquisition process - shows that belonging to a class precedes the stabilization of the segment as a unit of a language’s phonology. Empirical data on variability, enriched by the observation of gap filling in the earliest stages of acquisition and supported by the behavior of linguistic loans, lead to the proposition of an Aggregation Scale to express a hierarchy related to the strength of features when they play the roles of aggregate segments for the constitution of natural classes.