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Phonotactic Probabilities at the Onset of Language Development: Speech Production and Word Position

Contact author: Tania S. Zamuner, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada. E-mail: tzamuner{at}psych.ubc.ca.

Purpose: To examine the role of phonotactic probabilities at the onset of language development, in a new language (Dutch), while controlling for word position.

Method: Using a nonword imitation task, 64 Dutch-learning children (age 2;2–2;8 [years;months]) were tested on how they imitated segments in low- and high-phonotactic probability environments, in word-initial and word-final position. The relationship between phonological representations and vocabulary development was examined by comparing children's performance with their receptive and expressive vocabularies.

Results: Segments in high-phonotactic probability environments were at an advantage in production, in both word-initial and word-final position. Significant correlations were found between vocabulary size and children's mean segment repetition accuracy for word-initial position, but not in word-final position.

Conclusion: The results indicate that phonological representations are mediated not only by children's developing vocabularies but also by the structure of children's emerging lexicons.

KEY WORDS: phonological representations, speech production, lexical development, phonotactic probability, prosody

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