Acquisition of complex coda and sonority among selected bilingual Nigerian children
This study examined the role of sonority in the acquisition of complex coda by Yoruba-English bilingual children with a view to determining the way children rank constraints to arrive at their outputs. The study adopted Optimality Theory as the theoretical framework. A wordlist of about 100 words, c...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Science-res Publishing
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development |
| Online Access: | https://mail.science-res.com/index.php/jclad/article/view/3 |
| Summary: | This study examined the role of sonority in the acquisition of complex coda by Yoruba-English bilingual children with a view to determining the way children rank constraints to arrive at their outputs. The study adopted Optimality Theory as the theoretical framework. A wordlist of about 100 words, complemented by relevant pictures, was used to collect the data for analysis. Spontaneous speeches were also collected. Ten Yoruba-English bilingual children made up the population. The data got were phonologically and acoustically analyzed. The children’s grammar showed a preference for less sonorous consonants over highly sonorous consonants in coda clusters through deletion and substitution of segments. They also showed a preference for single consonants that are not highly sonorous at the coda. They violated *COMPLEX-CODA and sometimes NOCODA. The grammar of the Yoruba-English bilingual child does not allow for the formation of coda clusters. This may be as a result of the influence of the indigenous language. |
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| ISSN: | 2148-1997 |