Article published in:
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. 115–132

What guides children’s acquisition 
of #sC clusters?

A cross-linguistic account

| Florida International University
This chapter is an overview of the cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of two-member s-clusters. Results of several studies on three Germanic languages (English, Dutch, and Norwegian) and three non-Germanic languages (Hebrew, Croatian, and Polish) were evaluated. Productions from typically developing children as well as children with phonological disorders were looked at with respect to cluster reductions and correct productions. While the examination of the former revealed a common behavior among all six languages, the latter point to language-specific effects.
Published online: 29 April 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.56.11yav
References

References

Barlow, J.A.
2005 Sonority effects in the production of consonant clusters by Spanish-speaking children. In Selected Proceedings of the sixth Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as a First and Second Language, D. Eddington (ed.), 1–14. Somerville MA: Cascadilla.
2001 A preliminary typology of initial clusters in acquisition. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 15: 9–13. Crossref link
Beckman, M. & Edwards, M.L.
1999 Lexical frequency effects on young children’s imitative Productions. In Papers in Laboratory Phonology V, M.B. Broe & J.B. Pierrehumbert (eds), 208–218. Cambridge: CUP.
Ben-David, A.
2006 On the acquisition of Hebrew #sC onsets. Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders 4: 205–217. Crossref link.
Ben-David, A., Ezrati, R. & Stuhlman, N.
2010 Acquisition of /s/ clusters in Hebrew speaking children with phonological disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24(3): 210–223. Crossref link.
Berent, I., Lennert, T. & Smolensky, P.
2011 Syllable markedness and misperceptions: It’s a two-way street. In Handbook of Syllable , C.E. Cairns & E. Raimy (eds). Leiden: Brill.
Broselow, E.
1992 Language transfer and universals in second language epenthesis. In Language Transfer in Language Learning [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 6], S.M. Gass & L. Selinker (eds), 71–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Crossref link
Broselow, E. & Xu, Z.
2004 Differential difficulty in the acquisition of second language phonology. International Journal of English Studies 4: 135–163.
Broselow, E., Chen, S. & Wang, C.
1998 The emergence of the unmarked in second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 261–280. Crossref link
Broselow, E. & Finer, D.
1991 Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax. Second Language Research 7: 35–39. Crossref link
Clements, G.N.
1990 The role of sonority cycle in core syllabification. In Papers in Laboratory Phonology, 1: Between the Grammar and Physics of Speech , J. Kingston & M.E. Beckman (eds), 283–333. Cambridge: CUP.
Davis, S.
1990 Italian onset structure and the distribution of il and lo . Linguistics 28: 43–55. Crossref link.
De Lacy, P.
2007 The interaction of tone, sonority, and prosodic structure. In The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology , P. de Lacy (ed.), 281–307. Cambridge: CUP. Crossref link.
Fikkert, P.
1994 On the Acquisition of Prosodic Structure. PhD dissertation, University of Leiden.
Gerrits, E.
2010 Acquisition of /s/ clusters in Dutch-speaking children with phonological disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24(3): 199–209. Crossref link.
Gerrits, E. & Zumach, A.
2006 The acquisition of #sC clusters in Dutch. Journal of Multi- lingual Communication Disorders 4: 218–230. Crossref link
Giegerich, H.J.
1992  English Phonology . Cambridge: CUP. Crossref link
Gierut, J.
1999 Syllable onsets: Clusters and adjuncts in acquisition. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 42: 708–726. Crossref link
Goad, H. & Rose, Y.
2004 Input elaboration, head faithfulness, and evidence for representation in the acquisition of left-edge clusters in West Germanic. In Constraints in Phonological Acquisition , R. Kager, J. Pater & W. Zonneveld (eds), 109–157. Cambridge: CUP.
Gouskova, M.
2004 Falling sonority onsets, loanwords, and syllable contact. Chicago Linguistic Society 37: 175–186.
2001 Relational hierarchies in optimality theory: The case of syllable contact. Phonology 21: 201–250. Crossref link.
Hall, T.A.
1992  Syllable Structure and Syllable Related Processes in German . Tubingen: Niemeyer. Crossref link
Harris, J.
1983  Syllable Structure and Stress in Spanish. A Non-linear Analysis . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Hogg, R & M. Cully, C.
1987  Metrical Phonology:A Coursebook . Cambridge: CUP.
Hooper, J.
1976  An Introduction to Natural Generative Phonology . New York NY: Academic Press.
Karimi, S.
1987 Farsi speakers and the initial consonant clusters in English. In Interlanguage Phonology: The Acquisition of a Second Language Sound System , G. Ioup & S. Weinberger (eds), 305–318. Cambridge MA; Newbury House.
Kenstowicz, M.
1990  Phonology in Generative Grammar . Oxford: Blackwell.
Kristoffersen, K. & Simonsen, H.
2006 The acquisition of #sC clusters in Norwegian. Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders 4: 231–241. Crossref link
Lovins, J.
1974 Why loan phonology is natural phonology? Papers from the Annual Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society: Parasession on natural phonology , 240–250.
Mildner, V. & Tomic, D.
2010 Acquisition of /s/-clusters in Croatian-speaking children with phonological disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24(3): 224–238. Crossref link.
Morelli, F.
1999 The Phonotactics and Phonology of Obstruent Clusters in Optimality Theory. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland.
Ohala, D.
1999 The influence of sonority on children’s cluster reductions. Journal of Communication Disorders 32: 397–421. Crossref link
Parker, S.
2002 Quantifying the Sonority Hierarchy. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts.
Pater, J.
2004 Bridging the gap between receptive and productive development with minimally violable constraints. In Constraints in Phonological Acquisition , R. Kager, J. Pater & W. Zonneveld (eds), 219–244. Cambridge: CUP.
Pater, J. & Barlow, J.A.
2003 Constraint conflict in cluster reduction. Journal of Child Language 30: 487–526. Crossref link
Pinker, S. & Birdsong, D.
1979 Speakers’ sensitivity to rules of frozen word order. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 18: 497–508. Crossref link.
Prince, A. & Smolensky, P.
2004  Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar . Oxford: Blackwell. Crossref link
Romani, C. & Calabrese, A.
1998 Syllabic constraints on the phonological errors of an aphasic patient. Brain and Language 64: 83–121. Crossref link
Selkirk, E.
1984 On the major class features and syllable theory. In Language Sound Structure: Studies in Phonology Presented to Morris Halle by his Teacher and Students, M. Aranoff & R.T. Oehrle (eds), 107–136. Cambridge MA; The MIT Press.
Smolensky, P.
2006 Optimality theory in phonology, II: Markedness, feature domains, and local constraint conjunction. In The Harmonic Mind: From Neural Computation to Optimality-theoretic Grammar, Vol. 2, P. Smolensky & G. Legendre (eds), 27–160. Cambridge MA; The MIT Press.
Stemberger, J. & Treiman, R.
1986 The internal structure of word-initial consonant clusters. Journal of Memory and Language 25: 163–180. Crossref link
Stenneken, P., Bastiaanse, R., Huber, W & Jacobs, A.
2005 Syllable structure and sonority in language inventory and aphasic neologisms. Brain and Language 95: 280–292. Crossref link
Steriade, D.
1990  Greek Prosodies and the Nature of Syllabification . New York NY: Garland.
Trommelen, M.
1984  The Syllable in Dutch:With Special Reference to Diminutive Formation . Dordrecht: Foris.
Venneman, T.
1972 On the theory of syllabic phonology. Linguistische Berichte 18: 1–18.
Yavaş, M.
2013 What explains the reductions in /s/-clusters: Sonority or [continuant]? Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 27(6): 394–403. Crossref link
2011 The role of sonority in the acquisition of interlanguage coda clusters. In Achievements and Perspectives in SLA Speech , M. Wrembel, M. Kul & K. Dziubalska-Kolacyk (eds), 297–307. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
2010 Sonority and the acquisition of /s/ clusters in children with phonological disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24(3): 167–176.
2003 Role of sonority in developing phonologies. Journal of Multilingual Commmunication Disorders 4: 169–181. Crossref link
Yavaş, M. & Marecka, M.
In press. Acquisition of /s/ clusters in Polish: Patterns in typical developments and in children with phonological disorders. International Journal of Speech and Language Pathology .
Yavaş, M. & McLeod, S.
2010 Acquisition of #sC onsets in English-speaking children with phonological disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 24(3): 177–187. Crossref link
Yavaş, M., Ben-David, A., Gerrits, E., Kristoffersen, K. & Simonsen, H.
2008 Sonority and Cross-linguistic acquisition of initial s-clusters. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 22(6): 421–441. Crossref link
Yavaş, M. & Core, C.
2006 Acquisition of #sC clusters in English-speaking children. Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders 4(3): 169–181. Crossref link
Yavaş, M. & Someillan, M.
2005 Patterns of acquisition of /s/ clusters. Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders 3: 50–55. Crossref link
Zamuner, T.S., Gerken, L. & Hammond, M.
2004 Phonotactic probabilities in young children’s speech production. Journal of Child Language 31: 515–536. Crossref link
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Orzechowska, Paula
2019.  In Complexity in Polish Phonotactics [Prosody, Phonology and Phonetics, ], ► pp. 217 ff. Crossref logo
Parker, Steve
2017. Sounding out Sonority. Language and Linguistics Compass 11:9 ► pp. e12248 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 march 2020. 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.