Acquisition of variable rules: /s/-lenition in the speech of Chilean Spanish-speaking children and their caregivers

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis paper examines the acquisition of the variable rules constraining Spanish syllable-final /s/-lenition in Chilean Spanish-speaking children, and whether adultto-adult speech differs from child-directed speech in the production of s-lenition. The data of 10 children (ages 2;04-5;09) and their caregivers is presented. Tokens of syllable final /s/ were coded for pronunciation and a variable-rule analysis examining the effect of various linguistic and extralinguistic constraints was carried out. The results show that child and caregiver use of s-lenition is similar to that found in adult-to-adult speech; however, two of the youngest children showed near-categorical behavior. This paper highlights the important role of caregiver input on acquisition of s-lenition and proposes that production of s-lenition in utterance-final position in the input (caregiver's speech) is linked to young children's acquisition of s-lenition; young children exposed to an input with high rates of [s] in utterance-final position acquire s-lenition earlier.I am grateful to the following people for their help with transcribing and coding the data:

Children’s Deviation in the Acquisition of Variable Linguistic Gender Patterns

“…That is, while parental input is essential in the initial stages of a child"s acquisition of language (cf. Dí az-Campos, 2005;Foulkes et al 2005;Miller, 2013), socio-psychological factors and sociolinguistic competence can be more influential at later stages of a child"s life particularly when acquiring variation, as s/he become, in addition to peer pressure (Nardy, Cheverot & Barbu, 2014), more aware of their surroundings and the significance of certain sounds to projecting specific gender and spatial identities (Habib, 2016b).…”

Assessing Plural Morphology in Children Acquiring /S/-Leniting Dialects of Spanish

“…In dialects of Spanish with /s/ lenition, the variable distribution of the variant forms-[s], [h], and omissions-is conditioned by various linguistic (e.g., grammatical category, phonological context) and sociolinguistic factors (e.g., social class, gender, speech style; Alba, 2000Alba, , 2004Brown & Torres Cacoullos, 2002;Cepeda, 1995;Erker, 2010;File-Muriel & Brown, 2011;Hammond, 1980;Lipski, 1985;Miller, 2007Miller, , 2013Poplack, 1980). In particular, working-class speakers omit the final /s/ more often than other social class groups, males omit it more than females, and speakers omit it more often in informal contexts (e.g.…”

“…Recent work indicates that Spanish-speaking children begin to acquire the variable rules of /s/ lenition by the beginning of their third birthday, although at this age children are not completely adultlike in their usage (Miller, 2007(Miller, , 2013. Early in development children produce more omissions than their caregivers do, and throughout the early years (age 2-5) children produce fewer tokens of aspiration.…”

“…In fact, children of /s/-leniting dialects begin to produce /s/ in syllable-final position by at least age 3 years (Miller, 2013). Crucially, it is not just that /s/ lenition affects the acquisition of the phoneme /s/ in syllable final position.…”

“…Many studies have highlighted the effect of word position on Spanish /s/ lenition (File-Muriel & Brown, 2011;Hammond, 1980;Miller, 2013;Miller & Ramos, 2013). Many studies have highlighted the effect of word position on Spanish /s/ lenition (File-Muriel & Brown, 2011;Hammond, 1980;Miller, 2013;Miller & Ramos, 2013).…”