Volume 19, Winter 1997

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Browsing Volume 19, Winter 1997 by Subject "Language acquisition"

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    Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 19, Winter 1997
    (University of Calgary, 1997-01) Pasquini, Ana; Rowsell, Lorna V; Smith, Laura Catharine
    The editors of this issue, Ana Pasquini, Loma Rowsell and Laura Catharine Smith, are pleased to present the nineteenth issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The papers contained in this volume represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.
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    The role of L1 feature geometry in the acquisition of L2 segmental phonology: acquiring /θ/ and /ð/ in English
    (University of Calgary, 1997-01) Smith, Laura Catharine
    Why do second language learners fail to acquire certain L2 phonemic contrasts even long after they have "mastered" the L2 syntax? In this paper, I seek to provide an answer to this question. Research by Brown (1993) indicates that the learner's L1 feature geometry plays a role in the acquisition of L2 segmental phonology. This hypothesis is tested by examining the inability of Japanese, German, Turkish and French (Canadian and European) learners of English to correctly perceive /θ/ and /ð/. I argue that the lack of the feature [distributed] in these languages is the source of these errors. This feature marks the contrast between /θ-ð/ and /s-z/ in English. Although feature geometry cannot predict the specific errors for each language, I argue that it can constrain the list of possible candidates which will be substituted for the interdentals. The error phones perceived share the same structure or have minimally less structure than that of the target phone. I suggest that the specific error phone is then determined at the phonetic level of the learner's L1.
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    Second language syllable structure: phonological government and typological universals
    (University of Calgary, 1997-01) Archibald, John; Vanderweide, Teresa
    Second language learners commonly modify the syllable structure of their L2 words to match the syllable patterns found in their L1 words. Broselow and Finer (1991) propose a phonetically based minimal sonority distance parameter to account for their Korean subjects difficulties with English onset clusters. In contrast, Eckman and Iverson's (1993) claim that typological universals are sufficient to account for second language learner behavior. We propose a model of L2 syllabification based on a phonological minimal sonority distance parameter using derived sonority and phonological government. We argue that the acquisition of English onset clusters is linked to the acquisition of phonological contrasts and that similar to child language acquisition, a phonological contrast must first be acquired before it can be used as part of an onset cluster. This model both accounts for L2 errors and has the potential for telling us something about the mental representations of second language learners.