Sonority and markedness among onset clusters in the interlanguage of ESL learners

Abstract

This paper is intended as a contribution to an evergrowing body of literature on the role played by principles and parameters of Universal Grammar in second-language acquisition theory.

A recent paper by Broselow and Finer (1991) proposes that markedness as defined in terms of the multivalued Minimal Sonority Distance (MSD) parameter is definitive in their subjects' knowledge of certain consonant clusters in syllable onsets. This parameter provides for the characterization of the various types of consonant clusters allowed in the onsets of syllables in different languages. The object of Broselow and Finer's study was to determine whether L2 learners find clusters which are relatively more marked according to the MSD parameter to be more difficult to learn than cluster types which are relatively less marked.

The present paper, however, argues that it is typological markedness (Hawkins, 1987) rather than sonority distance per se which better explains L2 learners' knowledge of English clusters in syllable onsets. In line with Clements' (1990) comprehensive investigation of sonority relations within the syllable, this paper argues that markedness alone suffices to account for the observed interlanguage patterns. Using Clements' principles, which themselves actually follow from the overall theory of markedness, the interlanguage obstruent results reported by Broselow and Finer fall out automatically.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berwick, R. 1985: The acquisition of syntactic knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Broselow, E. and Finer, D. 1991: Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax . Second Language Research 7, 35-59.

Clements, G.N. 1990: The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification . In Kingston, J. and Beckman, M. , editors, Papers in laboratory phonology I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 283-333.

Deligiorgis, I. 1988: Glides and syllables. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa.

Eckman, F. 1997: Markedness and the contrastic analysis hypothesis. Language Learning 27, 315-30.

— 1991: The structural conformity hypothesis and the acquisition of consonant clusters in the interlanguage of ESL learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 13, 23-41.

Eckman, F. , Moravcsik, E. and Wirth, J. 1989: Implicational universals and interrogative structures in the interlanguage of ESL Learners. Language Learning 39, 173-205.

Eubank, L. , editor, 1991: Point counterpoint: Universal Grammar in the second language. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Fox. A. 1990: The structure of German Oxford: Clarendon Press.

10.

Goldsmith, J. 1990: Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

11.

Greenberg, J. 1978: Some generalizations concerning initial and final consonant clusters. In Greenberg, J. , Ferguson, C. and Moravcsik, E. , editors, Universals of human language, Vol. 2. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 243-79.

12.

Hawkins, J. 1987: Implicational universals as predictors of language acquisition . Linguistics 25, 453-73.

13.

Iverson, G. and Salmons, J. 1992: The phonology of the proto-Indo-European root structure constraints. Lingua 87, 293-320.

14.

Kim-Renaud, Y.-K. 1978: The syllable in Korean phonology. In Kim, C.-W. , editor, Papers in Korean linguistics . Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press, 85-98.

15.

Ruhlen, M. 1975: A guide to the languages of the world. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Language Universals Project.

16.

Selkirk, E. 1982: The syllable. In Van der Hulst, H. and Smith, N. , editors, The structure of phonological representations, Part II, Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 337-84.

17.

— 1984: On the major class features and syllable theory. In Aronoff, M. and Oehrle, R. , editors, Language sound structure: studies in phonology presented to Morris Halle by his teacher and students. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 107-36.

18.

Sohn, H.-S. 1987: Underspecification in Korean phonology. University of Illinois dissertation. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company.

19.

Vance, T. 1987: An introduction to Japanese phonology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.