Open AccessThe Acquisition of Tonic and Pre-Tonic Vowels in Brazilian Portuguese
Author(s) -
Graziela Pigatto Bohn
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of portuguese linguistics/journal of portuguese linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2397-5563
pISSN - 1645-4537
DOI - 10.5334/jpl.184
Subject(s) - tonic (physiology) , phonology , restructuring , linguistics , portuguese , brazilian portuguese , psychology , phonological rule , cognitive psychology , political science , philosophy , neuroscience , law
This study presents the acquisition of the tonic and pre-tonic vowels in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) by three children aged from 1;0 to 3;5, assuming the Contrastive Hierarchy Theory (CHT) (Dresher 2003, 2009). We address three issues regarding acquisition within the CHT: variability, phonological processes and restructuring. Results indicate that children may take different paths in acquiring segmental phonology and restructure their built structure if it does not account for the phonological processes found in the language they are exposed to