Keywords
input, onset, coda, language acquisition
Description
The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of the input on an English-speaking child’s production of fricatives in onset and coda positions. Transcript data from a child-mother dyad from Providence Corpus (Demuth, Culbertson & Alter 2006) in CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2000) was examined. The child and the adult production frequency of fricatives in both onset and coda positions were calculated. The results suggested the role of the input in child’s production was modulated by syllable position; more specifically, the child’s production of fricatives was predicted by the mother’s input frequency better in coda position than in onset position. This study sheds light on the ways in which the input may interact with innate learning biases during the course of language acquisition.
Included in
The Role of the Input in Young Children’s Speech Production is Modulated by Syllable Position
The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of the input on an English-speaking child’s production of fricatives in onset and coda positions. Transcript data from a child-mother dyad from Providence Corpus (Demuth, Culbertson & Alter 2006) in CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2000) was examined. The child and the adult production frequency of fricatives in both onset and coda positions were calculated. The results suggested the role of the input in child’s production was modulated by syllable position; more specifically, the child’s production of fricatives was predicted by the mother’s input frequency better in coda position than in onset position. This study sheds light on the ways in which the input may interact with innate learning biases during the course of language acquisition.