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--></style><title>Re: Summary: Default unstressed initial syllable?
re-</title></head><body>
<div>Sorry, I've had a family emergency, or I would have been more
active in this conversation! In my older son Stephen's
case (and I'm trying to figure out where I published it, as it
was only a note in passing), the dummy syllable seemed to have been
influenced by the English article; it was found before articles were
used, and was normally /tih/ (sorry, no IPA available on this
e-mail, ih = small capital i) (barrette > tih'bet), but /tihm/ if
there was a nasal in the target word (Melissa > tihm'lissa).
However, for two words commonly found with 'some' (as in Do you want
some salami/baloney?), he said /sihm'sami/ and /sihm'boni/
respectively...which is why I think the article is involved
here.</div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>I know
I used the 'dummy syllable' term pretty early, but I don't know if I
made it up or got it from Smith ormaybe Ferguson (anybody have a copy
of Ferguson, Peiser, & Weeks handy?)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The 'recycling retruck' reminds me of a later isolated
perseverative rhythm-based error that Stephen was very aware of but
was unable to inhibit (at least for a few days): attempts at 'pencil
sharpener' came out, willy nilly, as 'pencinal sharpener'
/'pehnsihnal/. His immediate awareness that it was wrong puts it
on the borderline between a slip of the tongue and an isolated child
phonology 'rule'.</div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab></div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>Lise</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>At 4:46 PM -0800 1/10/05, Lynn Santelmann wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial">Thank you to all you
responded to my query.<br>
<br>
It appears that the use of a type of default syllable for unstressed
syllables is relatively common (just unfamiliar to me). The use of
[ri] for all unstressed syllables was documented by Neil Smith (1973)
for his son Amahl (pp. 172-173). In addition, Gnanadesikan
(2004) reports a child using<i> fi</i> as a replacement syllable in
much the same contexts. Several people reported that they have seen
this commonly in clinical practice and in child phonology research.
Joe Stemberger noted that many children show restrictions on initial
unstressed syllables when they first appear, noting that reduplication
is more common than default syllables such as my son is using.
(Bernhardt & Stemberger, 1998).<br>
<br>
What appears to be uncommon is my son's earlier use of "recycling
retruck". I still haven't a clue as to where that came from.
Johanne Paradis noted that her French/English bilingual son overused
re, as in re-see, re-put, but that use is at least semantically
appropriate! This earlier use of 're' was definitely epenthetic, and
opened up a new slot. I wonder if he was making the words in the
phrase parallel in structure?<br>
<br>
As for the choice of re- [ri], Patricia Donegan also speculates that
these might be idiosyncratic based on the initial unstressed syllables
of a child's favorite or perhaps first word, e.g., Ross's [mA]
appeared to occur first in [mAgini] 'Lamborghini' (a toy car). This is
definitely true for my son's re [ri] – recycling trucks were (and
still are) a favorite topic of conversation!<br>
<br>
The choice of 'default' syllable does seem to vary, as can be seen by
the variety of examples that I received that have not been reported in
the literature:<br>
Sharon Glennen reported that her son had a similar phenomenon at age
3, but used "buh" ([b+schwa], I'm assuming).<br>
Brenda L. Beverly reported that her son (same age as mine) is using
[b+schwa] (the syllable of 'before') in words like 'bagot'.<br>
Karin Pollock reported her daughter using 'kuh' [k+schwa]<br>
Eve Clark wrote: "D doing something very similar, and opting for
a single unstressed prefix on words that required that. His was based
on the first syllable of 'forget' I think, and it turned up as 'fe-'
(no 'r') on a variety of words as the 'default prefix'.<br>
Patricia Donegan wrote: "Two other cases I'm aware of are John
(son of David) Stampe's use of<br>
[tu] or [tA] for an initial unstressed syllable ([tutar] for guitar,
[tAkAmbAs tuhaido] for Columbus Ohio, etc.), and John Ross' son's use
of [mA] in similar contexts. Neither is, as far as I know,
reported in the literature, though."</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial"><br>
References:<br>
Bernhardt, B.H., & Stemberger, J.P. (1998). Handbook of
Phonological Development: From the Perspective of constraint-based
nonlinear phonology. San Diego: Academic Press.<br>
<br>
Gnandesikan, Amalia. 2004. Markedness and faithfulness constraints
in <br>
child phonology. In R, Kager, J. Pater and W. Zonneveld,
eds. <br>
Constraints in Phonological Acquisition. CUP. 73-108.<br>
<br>
Peters, A.M. & L. Menn. (1993). False starts and filler syllables:
ways to learn<br>
grammatical morphemes. Language 69, 742-777<br>
<br>
Smith, Neilson V. 1973. The Acquisition of Phonology: A Case Study.
CUP.<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite
>********************************************************************<span
></span>*******************<br>
Lynn Santelmann, Ph.D.<br>
Associate Professor, Applied Linguistics<br>
Portland State University<br>
P.O. Box 751<br>
Portland, OR 97201-0751<br>
phone: 503-725-4140<br>
fax: 503-725-4139<br>
e-mail: santelmannl@pdx.edu (that's last name, first initial)<br>
web: www.web.pdx.edu/~dbls<br>
*********************************************************************<span
></span>**********</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">Beware Procrustes bearing Occam's
razor.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Lise
Menn<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>office phone 303-492-1609</font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab>Professor<x-tab>
</x-tab>of Linguistics<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>home
fax 303-413-0017</font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab>University of Colorado<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>Visiting Professor, University of Hunan</font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>Office: Hellems 293<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>April-May</font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab>Secretary-elect, AAAS section Z (Linguistics)</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">Mailing
address:<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab></font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab>UCB 295<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>University of Colorado<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Boulder, CO 80309-0295</font><br>
<font size="-1" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">Lise Menn's home page<br>
http://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/faculty/lmenn/<br>
<br>
"Shirley Says: Living with Aphasia"<br>
http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/Shirley4.pdf<br>
<br>
Japanese version of "Shirley Says"</font></div>
<div><font size="-1"
color="#000000">http://www.bayget.com/inpaku/kinen9.htm</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">Academy of Aphasia</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">http://</font><font face="Arial"
size="-1" color="#008000">www.academyofaphasia.org/</font></div>
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