| 1. |
- Karlsson, Fredrik, 1975-
(författare)
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The acquisition of contrast : a longitudinal investigation of initial s+plosive cluster development in Swedish children
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This Thesis explores the development of word-initial s+plosive consonant clusters in the speech of Swedish children between the ages of 1;6 and 4;6. Development in the word-initial consonant clusters is viewed as being determined by 1) the children’s ability to articulate the target sequence of consonants, 2) the level of understanding of which acoustic features in the adult model production are significant for the signalling of the intended distinction, and 3) the children’s ability to apply established production patterns only to productions where the acquired feature agrees with the adult target, to achieve a contrast between rival output forms. This Thesis employs a method where output forms are contrasted with attempted productions of potential homonym target words. Thus, development is quantified as an increase in the manifestations of phonetic features where it agrees with the adult norm, coupled by a decrease in the same feature in output forms where it is inappropriate according to the specifications of the phonological system of the ambient language. Acoustic investigations of cues of voicing, aspiration, place of articulation and syllable onset complexity, and auditory investigations of place, manner and syllable onset complexity were conducted. The Thesis has four outcomes. One, a description of the perceptual quality of the productions in terms of place, manner, voicing and syllable onset complexity is presented. Two, a developmental sequence of stable acquisition of these features is proposed; manner is shown to be acquired first, followed by syllable onset complexity and place of articulation. Evidence is provided that the voiced/aspirated distinction is still being acquired at the end of the investigated age period. Three, the developmental use of acoustic cues of place and voicing are described. Voice Onset Time and Spectral Skewness are shown to be used by children in order to increase the likeness to the adult target in terms of voicing and place of articulation. Aspiration Amplitude is shown to be used as an auxiliary cue to Voice Onset Time. The place cues Spectral Tilt Change, F2, Spectral Mean and Spectral Variance were shown to be used in order to refine already produced consonants rather than approach the adult target model. Four, the Thesis provides evidence of periods of confusions in the output of children. With the reductions of these patterns of confusion, evidence is provided of children’s re-organisation of their internal representation of the consonant to be produced.
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| 2. |
- Wiklund, Anna-Lena, 1970-
(författare)
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The Syntax of Tenselessness : On Copying Constructions in Swedish
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates three construction types in Swedish where two (or more) verbs display identical inflectional morphology (COPYING) and share one overt subject. The constructions are referred to as (i) T(ENSE)M(OOD)A(SPECT)-COPYING complements, of the form John started and wrote (John started writing), (ii) PARTICIPLE COPYING complements, of the form John had been-able written (John had been able to write), and (iii) PSEUDOCOORDINATIONS, of the form John sat and wrote (John was writing). (i) and (ii) differ from (iii) in alternating with infinitives. (ii) differs from (i) and (iii) in restricting copying to participial form and in being incompatible with a linking element (corresponding to 'and'). The main claim is that the construction types are three surface variants of one and the same phenomenon, involving complementation and semantically vacuous inflection on the embedded verb(s). The differences between them are argued to be derivable from independent factors. (i) and (iii) are shown to differ from (ii) w.r.t. amount of functional structure present in the embedded clause. Matrix verbs in (iii) are shown to instantiate light verb uses of otherwise lexical verbs. Copying complements are argued to instantiate subtypes of "tenseless" infinitivals (infinitivals whose tense orientation fully overlaps with that of the matrix clause), characterized by an underspecified functional domain. Copying is assumed to be a surface reflection of (Agree-type) dependencies between functional heads of the same label; features of the embedded functional heads copy values from the corresponding functional heads in the matrix clause. Arguments for treating copying complements as instantiating restructuring are presented. It is proposed that copying complements differ from non-copying infinitival complements in being subject to valuation from the matrix functional domain. This suggests that an imporant aspect of (possibility of) restructuring is alternation between unmarked (negatively specified) and unvalued varieties of the same features.
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