The Emergence of the Unmarked in Second Language Phonology

Abstract

This paper discusses the simplification of forms ending in obstruents by native speakers of Mandarin, in particular two effects that are not obviously motivated by either the native- or the target-language grammars: a tendency to devoice final voiced obstruents and a tendency to maximize the number of bisyllabic forms in the output. These patterns are accounted for within Optimality Theory, which describes a grammar as a set of universal, ranked constraints. It is argued that the devoicing and bisyllabicity effects result from universal markedness constraints that are present in all grammars but that are masked in the learner's native-language grammar by the effects of higher ranking constraints.

Perceptually Based Constraints and Metathesis: Evidence from Artificial Grammar

“…1.2 *VoiObsCoda Another issue using sonority as a basis for syllable contact is that it is not clear how other constraints might interact with the sonority hierarchy, such as *VoiObsCoda, which bans voiced obstruents in a coda position (Broselow, Chen, and Wang 1998;Flack 2009 The present study focuses on word initial stop-fricative clusters in English, specifically in terms of the fricatives /f/ and /v/ and the stops /p, t, k, b, d, g/. According to a course-grained sonority-based syllable contact rule, /f/ and /v/ should be preferred as codas, while stops should be preferred as onsets.…”

“…The constraint *VoiObsCoda is based on the generalization that obstruents are often devoiced in word final and coda position (Flack 2009), and has been shown to emerge for speakers that do not devoice obstruents (Broselow, Chen, and Wang 1998). In addition, obstruent cues for voicing are often degraded in word final and coda position (Wright 2004), suggesting that voiced obstruents might be avoided in coda position.…”

Toward a generative theory of language transfer: Experiment and modeling of sC prothesis in L2 Spanish

“…Broselow, Chen, & Wang, 1998). The present study has gone beyond previous experimental work in assessing the phonetic predictions of a particular instance of this theory: the resyllabification account of sC prothesis in SpEns predicts that [s] will have coda characteristics when prothesis occurs, and onset characteristics otherwise, which is what was found for duration.…”

“…Following Broselow et al (1998), the initial sections developed a constraint-based analysis of sC prothesis; the analysis was then adapted for MaxEntHG by incorporating additional tableaux to reflect background knowledge of English and Spanish phonotactics. Two simulations were then conducted assessing how well the MaxEntHG analysis explained the observed data collected in the experiment.…”

“…Following Broselow, Chen, & Wang (1998), the section begins by developing an OT analysis whose factorial typology includes both the English-like and Spanish-like pattern of repairs for onset clusters. The OT analysis is then extended by embedding it in the MaxEntHG framework (Goldwater & Johnson, 2003;et seq.).…”