In the present study, the speech of twenty-four normally speaking toddlers and twenty-eight late talking toddlers was analyzed with respect to the syllable structures produced during a speech sample. The groups were matched with regard to age, sex, and socio-economic status, all passed a hearing screening, and all scored at least 85 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

No description available.

The subjects of the study were kindergarten and first grade speakers of Czech and English. The Czech language contains a considerably higher frequency and variety of complex syllabic onsets than English. Hence, it was hypothesized that if linguistic input affects children's phonological awareness development, Czech children should show higher levels of ability on the tasks. These differences were expected to appear in preliterate kindergarten children if linguistic input, more than literacy and/or general cognitive factors, impacts significantly on phonological awareness. / The finding that preliterate Czech children were more advanced in the ability to manipulate complex syllable onsets suggests that oral language input has an important effect on developing phonological awareness skills. Furthermore, its effect appears to be independent of the effects of literacy.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

This dissertation demonstrates that the optimal account of English phonology denies phonemic status to oral glides. That is, it shows that all instances of phonetic [y] and [w] are predictable by rule. These occurrences include the following: formative initial glides, such as those in yet and wet; post-consonant, pre-vocalic [w] in such forms as quit, guava, and white and post-consonant, pre-vocalic [y] in such forms as cute, few, million, onion, and champion; the [y] following the tense vowels in bite, beet, bate, and boy and the [w] following the tense vowels in bout, boot, boat, cute, and few; and, finally, the post-vocalic centering glide [h] in spa, cloth, beer [bihr], and bear. The new proposals, described and justified in Chapter III, have the effect of eliminating the glides [y] and [w] from the inventory of underlying phonemes of English. From this flows what is perhaps more significant: they render the feature [Syllabic] completely redundant in the lexical representations of English formatives.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the utility of nonlinear phonological frameworks for designing and executing an intervention program with phonologically disordered children. Six such children between the ages of 3 and 6 years participated in the study three times a week over three consecutive six-week blocks. The following general questions were addressed: 1. Will nonlinear phonological frameworks help to predict logical and attainable intervention goals for phonologically disordered children? 2. Are the separate prosodic and segmental levels of representation of nonlinear phonology psychologically real? 3. If the 'prosodic tier' has some observable clinical reality, will there be a difference in proportion and rate of syllable/word shapes acquired as a result of intervention methods that contrast the onset and rime versus those that utilize the mora a constituent? 4. If the 'segmental/melodic tier' has some observable independence, is there any advantage to be gained from targeting specified features at 'higher' versus lower' levels in the feature hierarchy in phonemic inventory intervention? An alternating block, mulitiple baseline design (counterbalanced over six single subjects) provided an opportunity to investigate the above questions. Within each six-week block, three week periods were devoted in turn to prosodic (syllable structure) training and segmental training. Prosodic subblocks were divided into two four-session sunblocks to contrast developmental change for targets presented as moraic constituents versus onset-rime constituents. Segmental periods were divided into two four-session subblocks to contrast developmental change for features from higher and lower levels in the feature hierarchy. Analyses during and after the study demonstrated the following with respect to the four research questions: 1. The nonlinear frameworks provided a logical model for deriving attainable intervention goals. All of the children became intelligible by the end of the project as a result of attaining the goals determined by nonlinear phonological theory. 2. Rate of attainment of syllabic and segmental goals differed, with a faster rate of change for syllabic goals overall, suggesting independence of segmental and prosodic tiers, and possible dominance of the prosodic tier. Interactions between tiers were also observed, suggesting that they are interdependent as well as autonomous. 3. Moraic and onset-rime condition quantitative results were virtually equivalent, but some qualitative differences appeared which had relevance for the each of the theories with respect to status of the onset, word-final consonants, and epenthesis. 4. Higher level features in the feature hierarchy tended to be acquired before lower level features. The nonlinear phonological frameworks stimulated a successful intervention study. Evidence gained through this study in turn contributes to the understanding of the nonlinear constructs. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts