CG 163
Prof. K. Demuth
Spring ‘02
The field of Phonology has recently been influenced by theoretical advances at the phonetics/phonology interface, Optimality Theory, and the growing realization that frequency effects play a role in morphological realization, sound change, and phonological processes more generally. These issues are highly relevant for understanding the nature of Prosodic Structures such as Syllables and Phonological
Words, and are particularly relevant to acquisition and learnability issues as well. This course will examine recent literature on these topics, with a focus on the prosodic structures and acquisition of French and Spanish.
Prerequisite: CG 41 (Introduction to Linguistic Theory). CG 121 (Introduction to
Phonological Theory) or other relevant phonology background is recommended.
Syllabus
Thursday Jan. 24 th , 2pm . First meeting to arrange time – Metcalf Research Rm 233
Theoretical Preliminaries
Jan 28, Feb 4, Feb 1
English
Feb 18, Feb 25
French
March 4, March11, March 18,
Spanish
April 1, April 8
Learnability
April 15, April 22 - Guest Speaker – Kai Zuraw - MIT
Final Project Presentations & Discussion
Apr 29, May 6 - Presentations; Final Projects Due

Readings
Theoretical Preliminaries (Phonetics, Frequency Effects, and Optimality Theory)
Pierrehumbert, J. 1999. Formalizing Functionalism. In M. Darnell, E. Moravscsik, F.
Newmeyer, M. Noonan and K. Wheatley (eds). Formalism and Functionalism in
Linguistics , John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Vol. I pp.287-305.
Phonetics and Frequency Effects
Hale, Mark & Reiss, Charles. 1998. Formal and Empirical Arguments concerning
Phonological Acquisition. Linguistic Inquiry 29:656-683.
Werker, Janet F. & Christine L. Stager. Developmental changes in infant speech perception and early word learning: Is there a link ? Papers in Laboratory
Phonology V: Acquisition and the Lexicon . In Michael B. Broe & Janet B.
Peirrehumbert (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 181-193.
Scobbie, James M., Fiana Gibbon, William J. Harcastle & Paul Fletcher. 2000. Covert contrast as a stage in the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. In Broe &
Pierrehumbert, pp 194-207.
Beckman, Mary E. & Jan Edwards. 2000. Lexical frequency effects on young children’s imitative productions. In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 208-218.
Lotto, Andrew J., Keith R. Kluender & Lori L. Holt. 2000. Effects of language experience on organization of vowel sounds. In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 219-
227.
Goodman, Mara B. & Peter W. Jusczyk. 2000. The onset of sensitivity to internal syllable structure. In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 228-239.
Edwards, Jan. 2000. Commentary: Lexical representations in acquisition. In Broe &
Pierrehumbert, pp 240-249.
Bybee, Joan. 2000. Lexicalization of sound change and alternating environments. In
Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 250-268.
Trieman, Rebecca, Brett Kessler, Stephanie Knewasser, Ruth Tincoff & Margo Bowman.
200. English speakers’ sensitivity to phonotactic patterns. In Broe &
Pierrehumbert, pp 269-282.
Frisch, Steven. 2000, Temporally organized lexical representations as phonological units. In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 283-299.
Newman, Rochelle, James Sawusch and Paul Luce. 2000. Underspecification and phoneme freuqnecy in speech perception. In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 299-312.
Steriade, Donca. 2000. Paradigm uniformity and the phonetics-phonology boundary. In
Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 313-334.
Dell, Gary S. 2000. Commentary: Counting, connectionism, and lexical representation.
In Broe & Pierrehumbert, pp 335-348.
Optimality Theory
Prince, Alan & John McCarthy. 1999. Faithfulness and Identity in Prosodic
Morphology, in The Prosody Morphology Interface . Ed. by René Kager, Harry van der Hulst, and Wim Zonneveld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp.
218–309.

Smolensky, Paul, Davidson, Lisa, & Jusczyk, Peter. 1996. The Initial and Final States:
Theoretical Implications and Experimental Explorations of Richness of the Base, ed. Rene Kager and Wim Zonneveld, Fixing priorities: Constraints in phonological acquisition . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Hayes, Bruce. 1999. Phonological Acquisition in Optimality Theory: The Early Stages, ed. Rene Kager and Wim Zonneveld, Fixing priorities: Constraints in phonological acquisition . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1-30.
English
Pater, Joe. 1998. From phonological typology to the development of receptive and productive phonological competence: Applications of minimal violation, ed.
Rene Kager and Wim Zonneveld, Fixing priorities: Constraints in phonological acquisition . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Kehoe, Margaret M. & Stoel-Gammon, Carol. 2001. Development of syllable structure in
English-speaking children with particular reference rhymes. Child Language
28:393-423.
Goad, Heather & Brannen, Kathleen. 2000. Syllabification at the Right Edge of Words:
Parallels Between Child and Adult Grammars. In McGill Working Papers in
Linguistics , ed. J. Steele & M. Yoo, 1-26.
Levelt, Clara C. & van de Vijver, Ruben. 1998. Syllable types in cross-linguistic and developmental grammars. Ms. Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Potsdam,
Germany.
Pater, Joe & Werle, Adam. 2001. Typology and Variation in Child Consonant Harmony.
In Proceedings of HILP5 , ed. Anthony Dubach Green and Ruben van de Vijver
Caroline Fery, 20.
Stemberger, Joseph Paul, Bernhardt Handford, Barbara & Johnson, Carol E. 1999. U-
Shaped Learing in Phonological Development. Ms., "Regressions" ("u" -shaped learning) in the acquisition of prosodic structure .
The Prosodic Structure and Acquisition of French
Scullen, Mary Ellen. 1995. French Syllable Structure: Reconsidering the Status of the
Onset. In Grammatical Theory and Romance Languages , ed. Karen Zagona.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Scullen, Mary Ellen. 1997. French prosodic Morphology: A unified account .
Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club Publications.
Fery, Caroline. 2001. Markedness, Faithfulness, Vowel Quality and Syllable Structure in
French. Linguistics in Potsdam 15.
Whalen, D.H, Levitt, Andrea G., & Wang, QI. 1991. Intonational differences between the reduplicative babbling of French-and English-learning infants. Child Language
18:501-516.
Vihman, Marilyn May, DePaolis, Rory A, & Davis, Barbara L. 1998. Is there a "Trochaic
Bias" in Early Word Learning? Evidence from Infant Production in English and
French. Child Development 69:935-949.
Chevrot, Jean-Pierre & Fayol, Michel. 1999. Acquisition of French Liaison, Related
Child Errors and Learning of Probabilistic Constraints. Paper presented at
International Congress for the Study of Child Language , Spain.

Sauvage, Jeremi. La stabilisation du systeme phonologique francais: structuration metaphonologique et phonologique des Onsets, 30: University of Rouen.
Paradis, Johanne, Petitclerc, Sophie, & Genesee, Fred. 1997. Word truncation in Frenchspeaking two year olds. Paper presented at BUCLD 21 Proceedings
Veneziano, Edy. 1999. Early lexical, morphological and syntactic development in
French: Some complex relations. The International Journal of Bilingualism
3:183-217.
The Prosodic Structure and Acquisition of Spanish
Lleo, Conxita & Prinz, Michael. 1996. Consonant Clusters in child phonology and the directionality of syllable structure assignment. Child Language 23:31-56.
Lleo, Conxita. 1998. Proto-articles in the acquisition of Spanish Interface between
Phonology and Morphology. In Modelle for Flexion , ed. A Ortmann and T. Parodi
R. Fabri, 20: Univeristy of Hamburg.
Gennari, Silvia & Demuth, Katherine. 1997. Syllable omission in the acquisition of
Spanish. Paper presented at Proceedings of the 21st Annual Boston University
Conference on Language Development .
Demuth, K. 2001. Prosodic constraints on morphological development. In J.
Weissenborn & B. Höhle (eds.), Approaches to Bootstrapping: Phonological,
Syntactic and Neurophysiological Aspects of Early Language Acquisition .
Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Language Acquisition and Language Disorders
Series , vol. 24, 3-21.
Statistics and Learnability
Dollaghan, Christine A. 1994. Children's phonological neighbourhoods: Half empty or half full? Child Language 21:257-271.
Jusczyk, Peter W. & Luce, Paul A. 1994. Infants' Sensitivity to Phonotactic patterns in the Native Language. Journal of Memory and Language 33:630-645.
Dresher, Bezalel Elan. 1999. Charting the Learning Path: Cues to Parameter Setting.
Linguistic Inquiry 30:27-67.
Prince, Alan & Tesar, Bruce. 1999. Learning Phonotactic Distributions, 38. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University.
Boersma, Paul & Hayes, Bruce. 2001. Empirical Tests of the Gradual Learning
Algorithm. Linguistic Inquiry 32:45-86.