The acquisition of word stress

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The acquisition of word stress
Word stress is guided by binary syllable
tree Phrase stress is guided by binary phrase tree
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Stress patterns in English words (Zonneveld
Trommelen)
Find out why it is a trochee Find out where the
trochee is placed
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English non-sense words
The stress is assigned by analogy The rules of
analogy reveal the abstract system
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Stress patterns in English non-sense words
The syllable selected for stress follows from an
immediate rule
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The stress rules
The 5 syllable-parameters yield 32 systems (Hayes
1995)
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Stress derivations in English
Simple cases for simple principles
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Stress patterns in English words again
Do the same principles apply to multi-syllabic
words?
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Questions for cues
String-reduction is the key to a stepwise
acquisition of grammar
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Historical background Jakobson (1942)
20 ? articulation options 220 1.048.576
systems
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Historical background Jakobson (1942)
24 16
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Historical background Jakobson (1942)
Learnability predicts a grammatical hierarchy
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Historical background Jakobson (1942)
At least part of UG arises from accidental
structures in the body rather than from
language-designed structures of the brain
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Cues for stress rules (Dresher 1999)
Cues are supposed to operate with a blind
deterministic effect
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Learnability order (Dresher 1999)
Dreshers hierarchy of cues is an additional
stipulation It is not yet much of an explanation
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Learnability order (Dresher 1999)
This search system might have been wired in, like
sucking for milk in all young mammals
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Acquisition questions for Dreshers proposal
Proposal reconstruct child language to find out
about the hierarchy in acquisition
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A different approach Truncation
The trochee (established in bi-syllables) is now
imposed by truncation to the minimal binary
patterns
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Truncation patterns are a starting point
Due to truncation, the parameter setting is
reduced to an effective intake (evidence frame)
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Other simplifications in word patterns
A minimal amount of input might impose the basic
pattern
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Natural input reduction
Natural input reduction is the key
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Acquisition order
Natural reductions happen to yield evidence
frames Evidence frames explain the linear order
in acquisition steps
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References