This thesis explores how Cairene Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, and Najdi Arabic speakers deal with complex syllable margins in their L2 English. While previous studies have attributed Cairene and Iraqi speakers pronunciations of English syllables that contain consonant clusters to transfer of allowed syllable structures from their native language, this thesis illustrates that the universal markedness of consonant clusters could be a factor that motivates L2 speakers to simplify complex syllable margins. Universal markedness has to do with the frequency that a structure occurs cross-linguistically. Languages that allow complex syllable margins, such as English, also contain simple syllable margins. Many languages contain simple syllable margins but do not allow complex syllable margins; thus, complex syllable margins are more marked than simple syllable margins. A markedness approach to second language phonology would consider the markedness of complex syllable margins to be an important factor in whether L2 learners have difficulty with this structure. By using Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993,McCarthy and Prince 1993), this thesis illustrates the role that markedness plays in Cairene Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, and Najdi Arabic. This thesis also presents the results of a study of L2 English data produced by native speakers of Najdi Arabic and uses the data to support a markedness approach for accounting for syllable errors in L2 English.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05302007-151801 |
| Date | 23 July 2007 |
| Creators | Alezetes, Elizabeth Dawn |
| Contributors | Dr. Mizuki Miyashita, Dr. Naomi Shin, Dr. Tully Thibeau |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05302007-151801/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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