The Interaction of Phonological and Morphological Knowledge in Children’s Intuitive Syllabifications

This paper addresses the question whether a morphological boundary affects the position of a syllable boundary in young children's intuitive syllabifications of words. Bisyllabic words where a single intervocalic consonant is at the same time the final phoneme of the word stem are the ideal domain for studying the interaction of phonological and morphological knowledge. We presented the same set of materials to three age groups: five-year old Kindergarten children, eight-year old third graders and ten-year old fifth graders. In a comparison of monomorphemic words and phonologically matched plurals there was no sign of a morphological effect in any of the three age groups. An effect was obtained for diminutives (in all age groups), but this seems to have been due to phonological rather than morphological factors. The present study does not support the hypothesis that a morphological boundary affects intuitive syllabifications.