Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Phonological Theory and Development: In honor of Daniel A. Dinnsen
Edited by Ashley W. Farris-Trimble and Jessica A. Barlow
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 56] 2014
► pp. 25–48

Covert contrast in the acquisition of second language phonology

| University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
| University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
| University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
This paper reports results on the acquisition of the English /s/ – /z/ phonemic contrast by native speakers of Spanish. The central finding is that some of the research participants exhibited a covert contrast between these segments in their interlanguage productions. Acoustic analysis revealed that four of the participants produced a statistically reliable distinction between English [s] and [z], however, this difference was not perceived by the transcribers who were phonetically trained, native speakers of English. The existence of a stage of covert contrast in L2 phonology is eminently plausible, given the progressive nature of phonological acquisition, and brings the learning of second-language contrasts into conformity with findings in the areas of L1 acquisition and phonologically disordered speech.
Published online: 29 April 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.56.05eck
References (40)
References
Altenberg, E. & Vago, R. 1983. Theoretical implications of an error analysis of second language phonology production. Language Learning 33: 427–447. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. 2005. PRAAT: Doing phonetics by computer, Version 4.4.07. [URL]
Bradley, T.G. & Delforge, A.M. 2006. Systemic contrast and the diachrony of Spanish sibilant voicing. In Historical Romance Linguistics: Retrospectives and Perspectives [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 274], D. Arteaga & R. Gess (eds), 19–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Broselow, E., Chen, S. & Wang, C. 1998. The emergence of the unmarked. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 261–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cancino, H., Rosansky, E. & Schumann, J. 1978. The acquisition of English negative and interrogatives by native speakers of Spanish, in Second Language Acquisition, E. Hatch (ed). Rowley MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Carlisle, R.S. 1998. The acquisition of onsets in a markedness relationship: A longitudinal study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 245–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cho, T. 1999. Specification of Intergestural Timing and Gestural Overlap: EMA and EPG Studies, MA thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
2001. Effects of morpheme boundaries on intergestural timing: Evidence from Korean. Phonetica 58: 129–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crystal, T.H. & House, A.S. 1988. Segmental durations in connected-speech signals: Current results. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 83: 1553–1573. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckman, F. 1981. On the naturalness of interlanguage phonological rules. Language Learning 31: 195–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckman, F. & Iverson, G. 1994. Pronunciation difficulties in ESL: Coda consonants in English interlanguage. In First and Second Language Phonology, M. Yavas (ed.), 251–266. San Diego CA: Singular.Google Scholar
Eckman, F., Iverson, G., Fox, R.A., Jacewicz, E. & Lee, S. 2011. Explicit training and implicit learning of L2 phonemic contrasts. In Implicit and Explicit Conditions, Processes and Knowledge in SLA Bilingualism , C. Sanz & R. P. Leow (eds), 159–174. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Eckman, F. & Iverson, G. 2013. The role of the native language in the acquisition of L2 phonemic contrasts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 35: 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flege, J.E. 1987. The production of “new” and “similar” phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of Phonetics 15: 47–65.Google Scholar
Forrest, K., Weismer, G., Hodge, M., Dinnsen, D. A. & Elbert, M. 1990. Statistical analysis of word-initial /k/ and /t/ produced by normal and phonologically disordered children. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 4: 327–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcia, A. 2013. Allophonic Variation in the Spanish Sibilant Fricative. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Gierut, J.A. & Dinnsen, D. 1986. On word-initial voicing: Converging sources of evidence in phonologically disordered speech. Language and Speech 29: 97–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hammerly, H. 1982. Contrastive phonology and error analysis. IRAL 20: 17–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harris, J. 1969. Spanish Phonology . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
1983. Syllable Structure and Stress in Spanish . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hewlett, N. 1988. Acoustic properties of /k/ and /t/ in normal and phonologically disordered speech. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 2: 29–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
House, A.S. 1961. On vowel duration in English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 33: 1174–1182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2005. The Sounds of Spanish . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Iverson, G. & Salmons, J. 1995. Aspiration and Laryngeal Representation in Germanic. Phonology 12: 369–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, P. 1982. Lexical phonology and morphology. In Linguistics in the Morning Calm, I.S. Yang (ed.), 3–91. Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar
Kornfeld, J.R. & Goehl, H. 1974. A new twist to an old observation: Kids know more than they say. In Papers from the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Parasession on Natural Phonology, 210–219. Chicago IL: CLS.Google Scholar
Lado, R. 1957. Linguistics Across Cultures . Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lehiste, I. 1972. The timing of utterances and linguistic boundaries. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 51: 2018–2024. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lim, Jin-A & Oh, Mira. 2008. Covert contrast in second language acquisition. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Korean Linguistics , International Circle of Korean Linguistics (ed.), 202–203. New York NY: SUNY at Binghamton & Cornell University.Google Scholar
Macken, M.A. & Barton, D. 1980. A longitudinal study of the acquisition of the voicing contrast in American-English word-initial stops, as measured by voice onset time. Journal of Child Language 7: 41–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Major, R. 1994. Chronological and stylistic aspects of second language acquisition of consonant clusters. Language Learning 44: 655–680. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Gil, F. 2003. Resolving rule-ordering paradoxes of serial derivations: An optimality theoretical account of the interaction of spirantization and voicing assimilation in Peninsular Spanish. In Theory, Practice, and Acquisition , P. Kempchinsky & C-E. Piñeros (eds), 40 – 67. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E.M., & Weismer, G. 1982. The contribution of phonological, acoustic, and perceptual techniques to the characterization of a misarticulating child’s voice contrast for stops. Applied Psycholinguistics 3 : 29–43. DOI logo
Ohala, J.J. 1974. Experimental historical phonology. In Historical Linguistics, II: Theory and Description in Phonology . Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh, 2-7 Sept. 1973 , J.M. Anderson & C. Jones (eds), 353–389. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Ritchie, W. 1968. On the explanation of phonic interference. Language Learning 18:183–197. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scobbie, J.M. 1998. Interactions between the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. In Papers from the 34th annual regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Vol. II, M.C. Gruber, D. Higgins, K. Olson & T. Wysocki (eds), 343–358. Chicago IL: CLS.Google Scholar
Scobbie, J.E., Gibbon, F., Hardcastle, W.J. & Fletcher, P. 2000. Covert contrast as a stage in the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. In Papers in Laboratory Phonology, V: Language Acquisition and the Lexicon , M. Broe & J. Pierrehumbert (eds), 194–203. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Smith, B.L. 1979. A phonetic analysis of consonant devoicing in children’s speech. Journal of Child Language 6: 19–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.L. 1997. The devoicing of /z/ in American English: Effects of local and prosodic context. Journal of Phonetics 25: 471–500. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stevens, K.N., Blumstein, S.E., Glicksman, L., Burton, M. & Kurowski, K. 1992. Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of voicing in fricatives and fricative clusters. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 91: 2979–3000. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Song, Jae Yung & Fred Eckman
2019. Covert contrasts in the acquisition of English high front vowels by native speakers of Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Language Acquisition 26:4 ► pp. 436 ff. DOI logo
Song, Jae Yung & Fred Eckman
2021. Using ultrasound tongue imaging to study covert contrasts in second-language learners’ acquisition of English vowels. Language Acquisition 28:4 ► pp. 344 ff. DOI logo
Major, Roy C.
2018. Foreign Accent. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Eckman, Fred, Gregory Iverson & Jae Yung Song
2015. Overt and covert contrast in L2 phonology. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 1:2 ► pp. 254 ff. DOI logo
Kaneko, Emiko, Younghyon Heo, Gregory Iverson & Ian Wilson
2015. Quasi-neutralization in the acquisition of English coronal fricatives by native speakers of Japanese. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 1:1 ► pp. 65 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Bilingualism, Language Development and Processing across the Lifespan [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 15], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.