We are pleased to announce the second talk in our 2016-2017 McGill Linguistics Colloquium Series will be given by Yvan Rose (Memorial University Newfoundland). For more information on upcoming events in the McGill Linguistics department, please see our website (http://www.mcgill.ca/linguistics/events).
Who: Yvan Rose
When: Friday 10/28 at 3:30pm
Where: Education room 433
Title: “Perceptual-Articulatory Relationships in Phonological Development: Implications for Feature Theory”
Abstract:
In this presentation, I discuss a series of asymmetries in phonological development, the nature of which is difficult to address from a strictly phonological perspective. In particular, I focus on transitional periods between developmental stages. I show that these transitions are best interpreted in terms of phonological categories at both prosodic and segmental levels of representation, including segmental features. Using computer-assisted methods of data classification, I describe the detail of these transitions, highlighting both perceptual and articulatory pressures on the child’s developing system of phonological representation. I discuss implications of these findings for Phonological Theory, in particular for traditional models of segmental representation relying on phonological features. While the data support the need for sub-segmental units of phonological representation, these units do not appear to match fully the set of features typically used in the analysis of adult phonological systems.