Vowel harmony and universality in Hebrew acquisition

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The role of universals versus language specific grammars during acquisition is at the focal point of this study. A corpus-based investigation of two children's harmony patterns during acquisition is carried out. It is shown that although Hebrew does not have a productive harmony grammar, there is nevertheless a considerable amount of vowel harmony in the children's productions, suggesting speakers have a universal predisposition for such patterns. The children start out at roughly the same point, the ultimate goal being determined by the ambient language. The developmental paths, however, are individual. One child shows a preference for segmental considerations in determining harmony patterns, while the other shows a preference for prosodic considerations. Both children, however, gradually modify their grammars, presented herein within an Optimality Teoretic framework, ultimately reaching the same goal, an adult grammar without active vowel harmony.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Acquisition of Hebrew Phonology and Morphology
Pages5-27
Number of pages23
ISBN (Electronic)9789004280151
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Hebrew
  • Language acquisition
  • Universal constraints
  • Variation
  • Vowel harmony

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

RAMBI publications

  • rambi
  • Children -- Language
  • Hebrew language -- Acquisition
  • Hebrew language -- Vowel harmony

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