Default unstressed initial syllable? re-
Joe Stemberger
stemberg at interchange.ubc.ca
Mon Jan 10 20:29:03 UTC 2005
Lynn Santelmann wrote:
> My son (age 3 1/2) is finally acquiring unstressed initial syllables.
> The odd thing is that he seems to have a "default" unstressed
> syllable, namely "re-". So, at our house we "remember" and "reget". I
> am a "refessor". We go to "reseums".
> ...
> Neither use of re is something I've ever read about, and my quick lit
> check didn't reveal anything either. Does anybody have any literature
> on this? And could it be related to the somewhat sketchy
> representation he seems to have for a lot of new words – we're getting
> a lot of malaprops these days (snowflags for snowflakes, Dora the
> Exploder, etc.)
As several others have noted, there are two similar reports in the
literature.
In our book, pp. 463-465, we provide a discussion of the possible
phonological underpinnings of such default syllables, as part of a
general overview and discussion of other phonological effects within
initial unstressed syllables. Most English-learning children initially
delete such syllables. Then, when the child begins to produce the
syllables rather than deleting, there are sometimes strict limitations
on content. Default syllables (with restricted and set independent
content) are unusual. Reduplication (with no independent content at all)
is a bit more common (pp.465-466).
Bernhardt, B.H., & Stemberger, J.P. (1998). Handbook of Phonological
Development: From the Perspective of constraint-based nonlinear
phonology. San Diego: Academic Press.
---Joe Stemberger
Linguistics, UBC
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