This thesis investigates the relationship between speech production and speech perception in the early stages of phonological and lexical acquisition. Previous studies have mainly focused on independent investigations of speech production and perception abilities in language acquisition. This thesis connects the individual speech production capacities to the child's perception and is organized around three major studies: Study I explores methodological alternatives such as the combination of EEG and eye-tracking in different Swedish participant groups: adults, 17-month-olds, and 24-month-olds. Visual and auditory stimuli, as well as the connection between word production and word perception are explored. Study II investigates phonological capacities in terms of consonant inventory, percentage of correctly pronounced words, segmental errors, as well as phonological templates in relation to vocabulary size in a group of Swedish 18-month-olds. Study III studies the influence of the children's individual phonological and lexical capacities in speech production on their word recognition in a group of Swedish toddlers with a productive vocabulary size above 100 words. The general results show that children accept mispronounced word forms as appropriate word candidates when the word forms are related to their individual word production. The occurrence of segmental errors increases with vocabulary size, and phonological templates are more likely to be observed in children with a productive vocabulary size above 100 words. The results thus indicate an influence of the individual child's production on word recognition, and a relationship between phonological capacities and lexical knowledge. These insights contribute to theoretical debates in linguistics regarding the abstractness of phonological word form representations and reveal a closer relationship between production and perceptual abilities in toddlers than what has previously been shown.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:24:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabiola Dagostini Peleias.pdf: 3457328 bytes, checksum: 7dd5e2d586af21d038754992b5d71372 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-11-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This work is part of the sound acquisition area in second language (L2), specifically in English, and it aimed to investigate whether there was a relationship between production and perception of the voiceless interdental fricative pronunciation [θ] or not in a group of Brazilian native speakers (BNS), based on acoustic and phonetic analysis. It was stated that there is such a relationship on account of the BNS in the sample. According to the literature, Brazilian learners of English tend to produce the voiceless interdental fricative [θ] as [s], [f] and [t] ((LIEFF & NUNES, 1993). This is because they consider such sound to be similar to [s], [f] and [t], and as stated by Flege (1999) and Meador, Flege and MacKay (2000), similar sounds of L1 (native language, in this case, Brazilian Portuguese - BP) and L2 may cause difficulties for the learner. Three studies have been made: an analysis of the production of the 3 BNS as well as of the AMS (American Native speaker) concerning the sound [θ]; an analysis of the perception of the sound [θ] by the 3 BNS and, finally, an evaluation of the 3 BNS productions of the sound [θ] by 31 American Native judges. The results of the three analyses have been crossed, and it can be posed that they conform to the literature about the link between production and perception and the assimilation of sounds from L2 to L1. Moreover, with such results, it was possible to achieve the goal of this work. It was verified that, regarding the perception analysis, the three BNS tend to perceive the sound [θ] as [θ] or [t]. Regarding the production analysis, one of the BNS approached the ANS. Therefore, it can be stated that there is a relationship between this BNS perception and production. The two remaining BNS did not approach the ANS. Most of the time, those speakers perceived the sound [θ] as [t], and the same happened with their productions of the sound [θ]. Taking into account those figures, it can be stated that there is a relationship among their production and perception, even if they have not perceived the sound [θ] as it should have been done. The perception and production analyses results were compared with the evaluation of the 31 judges, and the same can be said concerning all BNS: one of the BNS approached the ANS concerning the sound [θ], and the two remaining ones did not approach the ANS. To sum up, it was observed that, in this particular sample, there is a relationship between their production and perception, and that two out of the three BNS assimilated the sound [θ] as [t] / Este trabalho situa-se na área de aquisição de sons de L2 (segunda língua), mais especificamente língua inglesa, e seu objetivo foi investigar se existe uma relação entre a produção e a percepção da pronúncia da fricativa interdental surda [θ] em um grupo de sujeitos nativos brasileiros, a partir da análise fonético-acústica. Defendia-se que há uma relação entre a percepção e a produção da pronúncia da fricativa interdental surda pelos sujeitos nativos brasileiros da amostra. Segundo a literatura, aprendizes brasileiros de inglês tendem a produzir a fricativa interdental surda da língua inglesa [θ] como [s], [f] e [t] (LIEFF e NUNES, 1993). Isso porque consideram que esse som é similar aos citados e, de acordo com Flege (1999) e Meador, Flege e MacKay (2000), sons similares de L1 (língua materna Português Brasileiro - PB)e L2 causam dificuldades para o aprendiz. Foram feitos três estudos: uma análise das produções dos 3 SNB (sujeitos nativos do PB) e do SNA (sujeito nativo americano) envolvendo a [θ]; uma análise de percepção do [θ] pelos 3 SNB e uma avaliação, por juízes nativo-americanos, das produções dos 3 SNB e do SNA envolvendo o [θ]. Os resultados dos estudos foram cruzados, e constatou-se que estão em consonância com a literatura sobre o vínculo entre produção e percepção e assimilação de sons em L2 para a L1, atingiram o objetivo e validaram a hipótese defendida. Os 3 SNB, no teste de percepção, tendem a perceber o som [θ], em sua maioria, como [θ] ou como [t]. No teste de produção, a SNB1 aproximou-se do SNA; para esse sujeito, há relação entre sua percepção e sua produção. Os SNB2 e SNB3 se distanciaram do SNA. Em sua maioria, perceberam os estímulos como plosiva alveolar surda [t], comportamento que também se refletiu em sua produção. Portanto, pode-se afirmar que há relação entre produção-percepção, mesmo não tendo percebido e produzido o som [θ], em sua maioria, de maneira correta. Os testes foram comparados às avaliações dos juízes norte-americanos, e o mesmo pode ser afirmado para todos os sujeitos: os estímulos do SNB1, em sua maioria, foram avaliados como fricativa interdental surda [θ], do SNB2 como plosiva alveolar surda [t] e do SNB3 também como plosiva alveolar surda [t]. Observou-se, nesta amostra, que houve a relação entre produção e percepção e que 2 entre 3 dos SNB assimilaram [θ] como [t]