L2 Learners’ Modification of Target Language Syllable Structure: Prosodic Licensing Effects in Interlanguage Phonology

نویسنده

  • Jeffrey Steele
چکیده

0 Introduction Much linguistic research has focused on interlanguage (IL) deletion and epenthesis, most often within a typological framework (e.g. Eckman 1977, 1986, 1991, Eckman & Iverson 1993, Carlisle 1998). While typological analyses are generally descriptively and predictively adequate, they arguably have three important weaknesses. First, typological accounts have little to say about the nature of L2 learners’ grammatical knowledge (Archibald 1988a). If interlanguages are natural linguistic systems (e.g. Corder 1967, Selinker 1972, Adjemian 1976), and linguistic research seeks to model the grammatical systems which underlie natural languages, the failure of typological accounts to characterize L2 learners’ grammatical knowledge must be seen as problematic. Second, typological analyses have tended to adopt a linear conception of syllable structure. In light of research in non-linear phonology which has highlighted differences between linear strings and hierarchical phonological representation, including potentially different representations of word-final consonants (e.g. Piggott 1999, Goad & Brannen 2000), it would seem desirable to examine IL epenthesis and deletion phenomenon within a more fully articulated theory of syllable structure. Finally, while generally descriptively and predictively adequate, typological accounts lack explanatory power (e.g. Cairns & Feinstein 1982, Archibald 1998b, Steele 2000); indeed, they offer no principled explanation or motivation for IL deletion and epenthesis phenomena. In this paper, I advance a representationally-based account of L2 learners’ modification of target language syllable structure. The data presented come from a pilot study designed to test Mandarin learners’ syllabification of French word-final liquid-obstruent and obstruent-liquid clusters. I hypothesize that IL deletion and epenthesis are related to structural differences in representation between the IL (i.e. transferred L1) and target grammars (e.g. Broselow & Park 1995, Archibald & Vanderweide 1996). More specifically, L2 learners modify target language syllabifications when the target representation requires prosodic licensing (e.g. Itô 1986, Goldsmith 1990) options not present in the IL grammar. Whether a learner deletes or epenthesizes depends on several factors, including the importance of segmental preservation between underlying and surface representations, and constraints on word shape.

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تاریخ انتشار 2002