Odp: phonostylistic processes

[Lise Menn]

Dear Anna,
I think this depends on the frequency and transparency of the process (how
often it occurs, what are the conditions under which the alternative forms
are displayed).  Whether reading is involved probably depends on how
reading is taught; and finally, as you of course know, to define the
question fully, there is the need to distinguish between conscious
awareness and tacit knowledge.
	Also, one must define 'proper' pronunciation sociolinguistically
and pragmatically.  Assimilation may be as 'proper' as non-assimilation for
'ten bikes', depending on speech rate and style; and at least in American
English, to say 'Why don't you call her?'' instead of 'Why don'cha
call'er?'  is, in most cases, to make an accusation instead of a
suggestion.
	This being the case, I suggest that we talk about (a complex
continuum from) 'distinct' to 'relaxed' style,  avoiding the term 'proper'
because of its ambiguities.

	My best examples showing (probably tacit) knowledge of English
stylistic reduction processes come from my older son Stephen, when he was
about 4.  At that time, he gave unmistakable evidence of 'undoing' flapping
and vowel reduction, because he was 'restoring' certain full forms
incorrectly.  So he said /rejz^nz/ and /(theta)is^s/ for 'raisins' and
'thesis' (his father was a graduate student at the time), where a correct
distinct-style pronunciation of the unstressed syllable should have had a
mid-high front vowel instead of a mid-low central vowel (cf. 'Boston',
where the unstressed vowel of a distinct pronunciation is indeed a mid-low
central vowel).   And in undoing the flap between the last 2 syllables of
'recorder', he produced a distinct-style form with a released /t/, instead
of a /d/.
	He had started to read by that time, but it is not possible to know
whether reading or just increased tuning in to variability in  adult
pronunciations was responsible for his learning of the stylistic
alternations of coronal flapping and unstressed vowel reduction.
	Lise Menn

>Dear Lise,
>
>Some time ago I recieved your  response to my e-mail concerning
>phonostylistic processes among small children.
>I realise that we develop our stylistic variants over lifetime and we "work"
>on the  way we speak every day. What I'm particularly intrested in is,
>however,  not the mere style of our utterances but the phonostylistics. I'd
>like to find out when children begin to recognise various phonostylistic
>processes, for example, assimilation. In which period of their development
>do they become conscious of the proper pronounciation? In other words, when
>a parent performs reciprocal assimilation in  "don't you", or regressive
>assimilation "ten bikes", etc. when does the child become aware of the
>difference between assimilated and non-assimilated sound. Does this
>recognision take place when children are 2(?), 3(?) or 4 -years old, or
>perheps only when they learn how to read and write?
>
>I'd be really grateful if you could comment on that.
>Anna Szymanska
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Lise Menn <lise.menn at colorado.edu>
>To: Anna Szymanska <aniaxs at go2.pl>
>Cc: <info-childes at mail.talkbank.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 6:46 PM
>Subject: Re: phonostylistic processes
>
>
>> >I would like to know when phonostylistic processes start to develop. Can
>> >anyone tell me something about it?
>> >
>> >Thank you in advance.
>> >
>> >Anna
>>
>> I don't know if I ever mentioned this in print anywhere, but my
>> dissertation subject Jacob (Menn 1979) did a very creditable imitation of
>> his father's emphatic negation 'no way!'  (general emphasis, extra length
>> on vowel) before 18 months.
>> More generally, I think that this is like the question 'when do
>> children begin to acquire their dialect?'  They do so from the beginning
>of
>> language - they don't start with a 'neutral' or 'unmarked' form and then
>> develop  specific variants, but rather they start from examples and
>attempt
>> to match ones that attract them.  Frequency, match to existing phonetic
>> (including babble) repertoire, emotional/cognitive interest, and
>> suprasegmental properties all play a role in the selection of targets.
>> Mastery of what different stylistic variants mean to different
>> hearers is, on the other hand, developed over a lifetime (there are still
>> times when I fail to detect sarcasm).
>> Lise Menn


Beware Procrustes bearing Occam's razor.

	Lise Menn 			office phone 303-492-1609
	Professor			home fax     303-413-0017
	Department of Linguistics
	UCB 295
	University of Colorado
	Boulder, CO 80309-0295

Lise Menn's home page
http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/

"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia"
http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf