Predicting phonotactic difficulty in second language acquisition
Katarzyna Dziubalska-Koaczyk Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna [email protected]
Predicting phonotactic difficulty in second language acquisition
Katarzyna Dziubalska-KoaczykGrzegorz Krynicki Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna [email protected]@ifa.amu.edu.pl
*Aim of the paperto demonstrate thatuniversal phonotactic preferences guide the acquisition of consonant clusters in a second language
*Empirical evidenceyoung learners of English (L2 English) with the following L1s:independent: Japanese, Korean, VietnameseSino-Tibetan: ChineseAustronesian: Kosraean, Marshallese, Palauan, Ponapean, Samoan, Tagalog, Trukese, VisayanDravidian: TamilPolish
*Outline of the talkHypothesisDescription of the experimentIntroduction to B&B phonotacticsPhonotactic calculatorAnalysis of the selected dataPreliminary conclusions
*Hypothesisa degree of difficulty in pronouncing L2 clusters would correlate with the universal characteristics of a given consonantal clusterthe more preferred a cluster, the easier and less susceptible to modifications it is expected to beNAD is expected to be a universal criterion, underlying the performance of all subjects, and surpassing other relevant factors, such as the structure of the subjects mother tongue, their experience with English or their other capacities and motivationsdegree of preference is measured by the NAD Principle
*Description of the experiment53 subjects; 15 subjects analysed hereaged 11-13native speakers of 15 various languages; 10 here recorded reading 83 times an English carrier sentence I havent seen a xxx before! each time containing a different bi-syllabic nonce wordeach word contained just one double or triple consonant clusterall positions (initial, medial and final) and representative combinations were covered
*Text for subjectsRead the following sentences aloud:
I havent seen a kyati before!I havent seen a shwepy before!I havent seen a chluppy before!I havent seen a katewt before!I havent seen a petewm before!
*a sound file demo
a Ponapean speaker (Micronesia)
*B&B phonotacticsa universal model of phonotactics within Beats & Binding Phonology (Dziubalska-Koaczyk 2002) a syllable-less theory of phonology embedded in Natural Phonologyintersegmental cohesion determines syllable structure, rather than being determined by it (if one insists on the notion of the syllable)
**B&B phonotacticsthe phonotactic preferences specify the universally required distances between segments within clusters which guarantee, if respected, preservation of clusters (cf. intersegmental cohesion)
clusters, in order to survive, must be sustained by some force counteracting the overwhelming tendency to reduce towards CV's (CV preference)
this force is a perceptual contrast defined as NAD Principle (cf. Dziubalska-Koaczyk 2002, 2003, Dressler & Dziubalska-Koaczyk 2007, in press, Dziubalska-Koaczyk & Krynicki 2007, Bertinetto et al. 2007)
**B&B phonotacticsthe universal preferences specify the optimal shape of a particular cluster in a given position by referring to the
Net Auditory Distance Principle (NAD Principle)NAD = |MOA| + |POA| + |Lx|
whereby MOA, POA and LX are the absolute values of differences in the Manner of Articulation, Place of Articulation and Voicing of the neighbouring sounds respectively
*B&B phonotacticsExample:NAD (C1,C2) NAD (C2,V)In word-initial double clusters, the net auditory distance (NAD) between the two consonants should be greater than or equal to the net auditory distance between a vowel and a consonant neighbouring on it.
**Table of consonants
**B&B phonotacticsconsider the preference for initial double clustersNAD (C1,C2) NAD (C2,V)let us now define two Net Auditory Distances between the sounds (C1, C2) and (C2, V) whereC1(MOA1, POA1, Lx1) C2 (MOA2, POA2, Lx2)V (MOA3, Lx3)in terms of the following metric for (C1, C2) cluster|MOA1 - MOA2| + |POA1 - POA2| + |Lx1 - Lx2|& |MOA2 MOA3| + |Lx2 Lx3|for (C2, V) cluster
**B&B phonotacticsExample:in CCV in E. tryt = (4, 2, 0), r = (1, 2, 1), V = (0, 0, 1)NAD (C1, C2) = |4-1| + |2-2| + |0-1| = 3+0+1=4NAD (C2, V) = |1-0| + |1-1| = 1+0=1thus, the preference NAD (C1,C2) NAD (C2,V)is observed because 4 > 1
NAD Principle makes finer predictions than the ones based exclusively on sonority: prV > trV, krV > trV, trV > drV, etc.
*B&B phonotacticsthe universal NAD Principle leads to predictions about language-specific phonotactics, its acquisition and changespecifically, it also allows to predict and explain the order of difficulty in the acquisition of second language phonotactics which appears to be universally valid and as such calls for similar remedies across languages
*English frequent initial doubles according to NAD Principle
Wykres1
615
615
514
514
514
514
514
413
413
25-3
25-3
15-4
PO + MO + LX
C2V
rnica
excel
ZbitkiPO + MO + LXC2Vrnicast
kr615br
kl615kr
br514gr
gr514fl
fl514kl
tr514sl
bl514tr
sl413sk
dr413sp
sk25-3bl
sp25-3dr
st15-4
excel
PO + MO + LX
C2V
rnica
PO + MO + LX
C2V
**Selected Polish clusters according to NAD Principle
Wykres8
514
413
330
330
34-1
34-1
24-2
24-2
24-2
MOA+POA+Lx
C2V
NAD
Cluster types in Polish acc. to NAD
speciments of used clusters B&B
ZbitkiPO + MO + LXC2VMOPOLX
pr514311
kr514311
tl413301
kl514311
pl514311
fr413211
xr413211
s\l413211
s\r413211
sl312201
s`l312201
fl413211
rd34-1300
r?743331
rv330210
rt440301
rz`23-1200
lv330210
lz`23-1200
lm220110
ms`330111
mr211110
mz`23-1110
mw1.50.511.500
mx431121
ml211110
mn12-1010
mv13-2100
mb24-2200
mk541221
mg440220
mp34-1201
nd24-2200
nk440211
nt34-1201
ng34-1210
nz13-2100
nd24-2200
s`k24-2110
xv330021
s`p24-2110
z`v13-2010
vz`13-2010
zd14-3100
zg24-2110
vs`23-1011
fk34-1120
fs13-2010
ft24-2110
vd24-2110
f?541140
sk24-2110
st14-3100
sp24-2110
wk6.542.53.521
wg5.541.53.520
wz3.530.52.510
wb3.54-0.53.500
wk6.542.53.521
wz`3.530.52.510
jd4.540.53.510
jz3.530.52.510
jk4.540.53.501
jt5.541.53.511
jb5.541.53.520
jp6.542.53.521
j?6.542.53.521
jg3.54-0.53.500
pr514
fr413
lv330
m330
rd34-1
fk34-1
mb24-2
k24-2
sk24-2
pr514
fr413
lv330
m330
rd34-1
mb24-2
fk34-1
k24-2
sk24-2
speciments of used clusters B&B
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
MOA+POA+Lx
C2V
NAD
Cluster types in experiment acc. to ONAD
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
MOA+POA+Lx
C2V
NAD
Cluster types in experiment acc. to subjects
*Phonotactic calculatorfor the purposes of B&B phonotactics, Krynicki developed the phonotactic calculatorits purpose is to enable fine-tuning and developing the theory by statistical analysis of phonetic dictionaries and phonetically annotated corpora from various languages
*Phonotactic Calculator - requirementsvarious cluster lengths at all word positionsformulating phonotactic hypothesesfeedback on predictability of a phonotactic hypothesischoice or customization of available phone sets, features of each phone and scores for each featureavailable phonetic dictionaries and languages (PolSynt, Festvox, Festival)metrics used for calculating distances between phones (taxicab, euclidean)accepted phonetic alphabets (IPA, SAMPA)
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*
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*Analysis of the selected dataa total of 1245 utterancesproduced by 15 childreneach reading 83 sentences containing a nonsense word with a 2- or 3-consonant clusterin 767 of these utterances (61,6%) the speakers modified or avoided the cluster that was assumed to be the correct pronunciation of the nonsense word
*Error types
error descriptionnumber of errors in the corpussymbolvowel insertion between the elements of a consonant cluster or at the end of a cluster that was expected to be pronunced [email protected] the number of consonants in the cluster (from 3 to 2 or 1 and from 2 to 1)218$unintelligible pronunciation154?substitution of consonant in a cluster by consonants not present in the expected cluster 152#substantial mispronunciations119%pause insertion between the elements of a consonant cluster or at the end of a cluster that was expected to be pronunced word-finally24.deletion of the cluster4omission of the word2omittedtotal907
*
Summary statistics for six preferencespreference numbernumber of cluster that apply to a given preferencenumber of clusters that follow the preferencepercentage11717100%21313100%3382771%45360%55360%65240%
*Part 1 of the hypothesisA degree of difficulty in pronouncing L2 clusters correlates with the universal characteristics of a given consonantal cluster.
To a certain degree the amount of correlation
