The relation between prosodic structure, syllabification and segmental realization: Evidence from a child with fricative stopping

Abstract

This study is concerned with the interaction between prosodic structure, phonotactic structure and syllabification in the realization of segmental targets. It is based on a detailed investigation into the realization of intervocalic fricative targets by a child who stopped fricatives word-initially, but produced them correctly word-finally. Intervocalic fricatives in different prosodic and phonotactic domains were elicited using controlled repetition tasks, backed up by speech samples. It was found that intervocalic fricatives were realized correctly provided they occurred between strong and weak syllables within a word, in a phonotactic sequence which is permissible word-finally, e.g./f/ in buffalo, selfish. Intervocalic fricatives were generally stopped in other prosodic domains, e.g./f/ in beautiful, and in other phonotactic domains, e.g./f/ in comfort. These findings have implications for the processes involved in the output of lexical phonology.