Prosodic constraints and the learner’s environment: a corpus study
Jakobson (1968) was one of the first to propose that children’s early u tterances would exhibit ‘unmarked’ linguistic structures. For example, h e predicted that children would first use segments such as /p/, /n/, and /a/ that are wi dely attested in the world’s languages. Given the variability found in childr en’s early utterances, even within a specific language, this hypothesis has been somewh at difficult to test, and has therefore remained somewhat controversial. Recent developments in phonological theory, where ‘unmarked’ structures such as binary feet (or ‘minimal words’) play an important role, have renewed interest in the status of ‘unmarked’ structures in natural language (e. . McCarthy and Prince, 1994). Researchers of language acquisition have been quick to recognize the importance of such developments, especially with respect to higher level prosodic units such as syllables and prosodic wor ds (e.g. Fikkert, 1994; Demuth, 1995; Gnanadesikan, 1995; Pater, 1997; Ota, 19 99). For example, it has been noted that many children learning English and Dutch init ially avoid the use of coda consonants, producing early words with unmarked ‘cor ’ CV syllables, whereCVC word targets are often realized as CVCV, with an epenthetic final vowel: (1) /bVk/ ! [bVk ] Matthei (1989)