Conxita Lleo | University of Hamburg (original) (raw)
Papers by Conxita Lleo
Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2006
Generative grammar addressed for the first time acquisition as a central issue in the study of gr... more Generative grammar addressed for the first time acquisition as a central issue in the study of grammar. This perspective has given rise over the years to a considerable body of work, mainly on first language acquisition, but also on second language acquistion, bilingual acquisition, and the acquisition by children affected by SLI. If we assume continuity, i.e. that all stages in acquisition reflect possible natural languages, we must posit a mutual dependency between grammatical theory and the facts of acquisition. On the one hand, theories about particular languages should pass the proof against data from acquisition. On the other hand, acquisition data may provide a source of evidence for deciding among alternative theories of language. Within the past twenty years, Romance languages have been an increasing focus of research for theories of language, and the literature on the acquisition of Romance has grown steadily during this time. The moment thus seemed ripe to unify the efforts of several scholars working on the acquisition of Romance languages and devote a special issue of CatJL to the acquisition of Romance, taking into consideration the double perspective just mentioned. We thank the authors and reviewers for making this project possible. The volume deals with the acquisition of the phonology, morphology and syntax in Catalan, French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish. The papers dealing with phonology focus on two main topics: the acquisition of prosodic constituents and the interface between phonology and morphology. The prosodic constituents examined are: the syllable (Demuth & Kehoe on consonant clusters in French; Prieto & Bosch Baliarda on codas in Catalan) and the foot (Goad & Buckley on the relevance of the foot in Québec French). The morpho-phonological interface is treated by Fikkert & Freitas (on the relevance of allophony and allomorphy for the acquisition of the Portuguese vowel system), and Lleó (on the dependence of plural marking on phonological acquisition). The papers dealing with syntax focus on the acquisition of pronominal clitics (Babyonyshev & Marin on clitic production in Romanian and Pirvulescu on clitic omission in French) and verb and wh-movement (Costa & Loureiro on verb raising in Portuguese, Hamann on wh-movement in French). All the papers in this volume show the relevance of formal linguistics to issues in acquisition, focusing on the relationship between representation and acquisition
This paper analyzes the production of whquestions by German-Spanish bilingual children, and compa... more This paper analyzes the production of whquestions by German-Spanish bilingual children, and compares it to the monolingual production of the same question type. Both monolinguals and bilinguals have acquired the intonation targets at the age of 3;0, but the bilinguals’ scaling and alignment of the first peak show non-target-like results. Moreover, whereas the target languages present a final falling boundary tone, bilinguals and German monolinguals prefer a rising boundary tone.
Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2006
This paper examines the development of nominal plural formation in Spanish by three monolingual a... more This paper examines the development of nominal plural formation in Spanish by three monolingual and two Spanish-German bilingual children, from the beginning of word production until at about 2;4-3;0, depending on data availability. Some children begin to express plurality by means of a finale (belonging to the Spanish allomorph-es), whereas other children, one of the monolinguals and the two bilinguals, produce plural finals from the beginning. These results are correlated to the child-specific accessibility of final codas in lexical items. On the one hand, such a correlation leads to the postulation of a relative dependency of morphology on phonology: only accessible phonological material can provide morphology with the means to express its categories. However, even if the phonological means have not yet been acquired, the child can still express morphological categories, which are then incomplete, and often ignored in analyses that do not take phonology into consideration.
Linguistische Berichte, 2011
This paper analyzes the production of Catalan schwa by children and adults in two areas of Barcel... more This paper analyzes the production of Catalan schwa by children and adults in two areas of Barcelona differing in degree of presence of Spanish (which does not have schwa in its sound inventory). The schwa production in different kinds of words or in different positions in the word provides evidence for the status of this vowel.
(In)vulnerable Domains in Multilingualism, 2003
... Principles and Parameters theory accounts for the difficulty of codas by requiring that the B... more ... Principles and Parameters theory accounts for the difficulty of codas by requiring that the Branching rhyme ... This study will restrict itself to the rhyme part of the syllable, more specifically to ... as an example of coda production although the child produced the coda [i] rather than the ...
Language Acquisition, 2008
and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study pu... more and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Journal of Child Language, 2003
Studies of vowel length acquisition indicate an initial stage in which phonological vowel length ... more Studies of vowel length acquisition indicate an initial stage in which phonological vowel length is random followed by a stage in which either long vowels (without codas) or short vowels and codas are produced. To determine whether this sequence of acquisition applies to a group of German-speaking children (three children aged 1;3–2;6), monosyllabic and disyllabic words were transcribed and acoustically analysed. The results did not support a stage in which vowel length was totally random. At the first time period (onset of word production to 1;7), one child's monosyllabic productions were governed by a bipositional constraint such that either long vowels, or short vowels and codas were produced. At the second (1;10 to 2;0) and third time periods (2;3 to 2;6), all three children produced target long vowels significantly longer than target short vowels. Transcription results indicated that children experienced more difficulty producing target long than short vowels. In the discus...
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
A tendency to limit prosodic words(PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged... more A tendency to limit prosodic words(PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged in early stages of acquisition and truncation has been shown to accomplish this size constraint. Interestingly, after the onefoot stage, children acquiring English or Dutch tend to enlargetheir productions by one foot, whereas at least for children acquiring Spanish, a stage, in which PWs comprise a foot preceded by an unfooted syllable, immediately follows the one-foot stage. Early productions(between 1;5 and 2;2/2;4) of children acquiring German and Spanish in monolingual and bilingual conditions constitute the empirical basis for this paper. The monolingual cross-linguistic results show quantitative differences between the truncation of the Spanishand German-speaking children and different ways in which these two groups of children overcome the size restriction and acquire complex words. These differences are accounted for within Optimality Theory, couched in Metrical Phonology, by m...
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 2002
This study examines the behaviour of ® ve phonemes /f, S, ts, k, l/ in word-initial, word-® nal, ... more This study examines the behaviour of ® ve phonemes /f, S, ts, k, l/ in word-initial, word-® nal, and intervocalic positions in the productions of ® ve German-speaking children (age 1;3 to 3;3 years) in order to determine the patterning of those intervocalic consonantsÐ do they behave more like onsets or codas? The study also contrasts the behaviour of intervocalic consonants after short versus long vowels in view of the stance taken in the theoretical literature that intervocalic consonants after short vowels are ambisyllabic but not after long vowels. Findings show that out of 25 conditions (5 phonemes3 5 children), nine yield support for the patterning of intervocalic consonants as codas, two as onsets, and ® ve as unique (neither coda nor onset). Three conditions yield support for the dual patterning of intervocalic consonants. In all other conditions, there was insucient information to support their patterning with codas or with onsets. Results provide minimal support for diOE erent patterns of intervocalic consonants after short and long vowels; however, the lengthening and insertion of consonants after short vowels suggest that children are aware of the diOE erent phonological roles of intervocalic consonants after short and long vowels.
The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique, 2003
Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University …, 1999
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2004
This study examines the acquisition of the voicing contrast in German-Spanish bilingual children,... more This study examines the acquisition of the voicing contrast in German-Spanish bilingual children, on the basis of the acoustic measurement of Voice Onset Time (VOT). VOT in four bilingual children (aged 2;0–3;0) was measured and compared to VOT in three monolingual German children (aged 1;9–2;6), and to previous literature findings in Spanish. All measurements were based on word-initial stops extracted from naturalistic speech recordings. Results revealed that the bilingual children displayed three different patterns of VOT development: 1. Delay in the phonetic realization of voicing: two bilingual children did not acquire long lag stops in German during the testing period; 2. Transfer of voicing features: one child produced German voiced stops with lead voicing and Spanish voiceless stops with long lag voicing; and 3. No cross-language influence in the phonetic realization of voicing. The relevance of the findings for cross-linguistic interaction in bilingual phonetic/phonological ...
Proceedings of the International Symposium on …, 2005
Language and Speech, 2006
Most input words Spanish-speaking children hear are disyllables stressed on the first syllable (S... more Most input words Spanish-speaking children hear are disyllables stressed on the first syllable (SW or so-called trochees), with a few stressed on the second syllable (WS or so-called iambs) as well. Monosyllabic words (S) are also present, but in very low numbers, and trisyllables stressed on the second syllable (WSW) are in the input as well, in relatively high numbers. Words comprised of two feet (SWSW) are
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
A tendency to limit prosodic words (PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledge... more A tendency to limit prosodic words (PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged in early stages of acquisition and truncation has been shown to accomplish this size constraint. Interestingly, after the onefoot stage, children acquiring English or Dutch tend to enlarge their productions by one foot, whereas at least for children acquiring Spanish, a stage, in which PWs comprise a foot preceded by an unfooted syllable, immediately follows the one-foot stage. Early productions (between 1;5 and 2;2/ 2;4) of children acquiring G erman and Spanish in monolingual and bilingual conditions constitute the empirical basis for this paper. The monolingual cross-linguistic results show quantitative differences between the truncation of the Spanishand German-speaking children and different ways in which these two groups of children overcome the size restriction and acquire complex words. These differences are accounted for within Optimality Theory, couched in M etrical Phonology, by means of two different grammars, that is, two different constraint hierarchies. The emergence of these different grammars is relevant for the analysis of the transition to complex prosodic structures in bilinguals and for the analysis of the relationships between their two phonological modules. An interaction of the two languages is found, the outcome of which is mainly attributed to markedness.
The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La Revue Canadienne De Linguistique, 2003
Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2006
Generative grammar addressed for the first time acquisition as a central issue in the study of gr... more Generative grammar addressed for the first time acquisition as a central issue in the study of grammar. This perspective has given rise over the years to a considerable body of work, mainly on first language acquisition, but also on second language acquistion, bilingual acquisition, and the acquisition by children affected by SLI. If we assume continuity, i.e. that all stages in acquisition reflect possible natural languages, we must posit a mutual dependency between grammatical theory and the facts of acquisition. On the one hand, theories about particular languages should pass the proof against data from acquisition. On the other hand, acquisition data may provide a source of evidence for deciding among alternative theories of language. Within the past twenty years, Romance languages have been an increasing focus of research for theories of language, and the literature on the acquisition of Romance has grown steadily during this time. The moment thus seemed ripe to unify the efforts of several scholars working on the acquisition of Romance languages and devote a special issue of CatJL to the acquisition of Romance, taking into consideration the double perspective just mentioned. We thank the authors and reviewers for making this project possible. The volume deals with the acquisition of the phonology, morphology and syntax in Catalan, French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish. The papers dealing with phonology focus on two main topics: the acquisition of prosodic constituents and the interface between phonology and morphology. The prosodic constituents examined are: the syllable (Demuth & Kehoe on consonant clusters in French; Prieto & Bosch Baliarda on codas in Catalan) and the foot (Goad & Buckley on the relevance of the foot in Québec French). The morpho-phonological interface is treated by Fikkert & Freitas (on the relevance of allophony and allomorphy for the acquisition of the Portuguese vowel system), and Lleó (on the dependence of plural marking on phonological acquisition). The papers dealing with syntax focus on the acquisition of pronominal clitics (Babyonyshev & Marin on clitic production in Romanian and Pirvulescu on clitic omission in French) and verb and wh-movement (Costa & Loureiro on verb raising in Portuguese, Hamann on wh-movement in French). All the papers in this volume show the relevance of formal linguistics to issues in acquisition, focusing on the relationship between representation and acquisition
This paper analyzes the production of whquestions by German-Spanish bilingual children, and compa... more This paper analyzes the production of whquestions by German-Spanish bilingual children, and compares it to the monolingual production of the same question type. Both monolinguals and bilinguals have acquired the intonation targets at the age of 3;0, but the bilinguals’ scaling and alignment of the first peak show non-target-like results. Moreover, whereas the target languages present a final falling boundary tone, bilinguals and German monolinguals prefer a rising boundary tone.
Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2006
This paper examines the development of nominal plural formation in Spanish by three monolingual a... more This paper examines the development of nominal plural formation in Spanish by three monolingual and two Spanish-German bilingual children, from the beginning of word production until at about 2;4-3;0, depending on data availability. Some children begin to express plurality by means of a finale (belonging to the Spanish allomorph-es), whereas other children, one of the monolinguals and the two bilinguals, produce plural finals from the beginning. These results are correlated to the child-specific accessibility of final codas in lexical items. On the one hand, such a correlation leads to the postulation of a relative dependency of morphology on phonology: only accessible phonological material can provide morphology with the means to express its categories. However, even if the phonological means have not yet been acquired, the child can still express morphological categories, which are then incomplete, and often ignored in analyses that do not take phonology into consideration.
Linguistische Berichte, 2011
This paper analyzes the production of Catalan schwa by children and adults in two areas of Barcel... more This paper analyzes the production of Catalan schwa by children and adults in two areas of Barcelona differing in degree of presence of Spanish (which does not have schwa in its sound inventory). The schwa production in different kinds of words or in different positions in the word provides evidence for the status of this vowel.
(In)vulnerable Domains in Multilingualism, 2003
... Principles and Parameters theory accounts for the difficulty of codas by requiring that the B... more ... Principles and Parameters theory accounts for the difficulty of codas by requiring that the Branching rhyme ... This study will restrict itself to the rhyme part of the syllable, more specifically to ... as an example of coda production although the child produced the coda [i] rather than the ...
Language Acquisition, 2008
and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study pu... more and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Journal of Child Language, 2003
Studies of vowel length acquisition indicate an initial stage in which phonological vowel length ... more Studies of vowel length acquisition indicate an initial stage in which phonological vowel length is random followed by a stage in which either long vowels (without codas) or short vowels and codas are produced. To determine whether this sequence of acquisition applies to a group of German-speaking children (three children aged 1;3–2;6), monosyllabic and disyllabic words were transcribed and acoustically analysed. The results did not support a stage in which vowel length was totally random. At the first time period (onset of word production to 1;7), one child's monosyllabic productions were governed by a bipositional constraint such that either long vowels, or short vowels and codas were produced. At the second (1;10 to 2;0) and third time periods (2;3 to 2;6), all three children produced target long vowels significantly longer than target short vowels. Transcription results indicated that children experienced more difficulty producing target long than short vowels. In the discus...
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
A tendency to limit prosodic words(PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged... more A tendency to limit prosodic words(PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged in early stages of acquisition and truncation has been shown to accomplish this size constraint. Interestingly, after the onefoot stage, children acquiring English or Dutch tend to enlargetheir productions by one foot, whereas at least for children acquiring Spanish, a stage, in which PWs comprise a foot preceded by an unfooted syllable, immediately follows the one-foot stage. Early productions(between 1;5 and 2;2/2;4) of children acquiring German and Spanish in monolingual and bilingual conditions constitute the empirical basis for this paper. The monolingual cross-linguistic results show quantitative differences between the truncation of the Spanishand German-speaking children and different ways in which these two groups of children overcome the size restriction and acquire complex words. These differences are accounted for within Optimality Theory, couched in Metrical Phonology, by m...
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 2002
This study examines the behaviour of ® ve phonemes /f, S, ts, k, l/ in word-initial, word-® nal, ... more This study examines the behaviour of ® ve phonemes /f, S, ts, k, l/ in word-initial, word-® nal, and intervocalic positions in the productions of ® ve German-speaking children (age 1;3 to 3;3 years) in order to determine the patterning of those intervocalic consonantsÐ do they behave more like onsets or codas? The study also contrasts the behaviour of intervocalic consonants after short versus long vowels in view of the stance taken in the theoretical literature that intervocalic consonants after short vowels are ambisyllabic but not after long vowels. Findings show that out of 25 conditions (5 phonemes3 5 children), nine yield support for the patterning of intervocalic consonants as codas, two as onsets, and ® ve as unique (neither coda nor onset). Three conditions yield support for the dual patterning of intervocalic consonants. In all other conditions, there was insucient information to support their patterning with codas or with onsets. Results provide minimal support for diOE erent patterns of intervocalic consonants after short and long vowels; however, the lengthening and insertion of consonants after short vowels suggest that children are aware of the diOE erent phonological roles of intervocalic consonants after short and long vowels.
The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique, 2003
Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University …, 1999
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2004
This study examines the acquisition of the voicing contrast in German-Spanish bilingual children,... more This study examines the acquisition of the voicing contrast in German-Spanish bilingual children, on the basis of the acoustic measurement of Voice Onset Time (VOT). VOT in four bilingual children (aged 2;0–3;0) was measured and compared to VOT in three monolingual German children (aged 1;9–2;6), and to previous literature findings in Spanish. All measurements were based on word-initial stops extracted from naturalistic speech recordings. Results revealed that the bilingual children displayed three different patterns of VOT development: 1. Delay in the phonetic realization of voicing: two bilingual children did not acquire long lag stops in German during the testing period; 2. Transfer of voicing features: one child produced German voiced stops with lead voicing and Spanish voiceless stops with long lag voicing; and 3. No cross-language influence in the phonetic realization of voicing. The relevance of the findings for cross-linguistic interaction in bilingual phonetic/phonological ...
Proceedings of the International Symposium on …, 2005
Language and Speech, 2006
Most input words Spanish-speaking children hear are disyllables stressed on the first syllable (S... more Most input words Spanish-speaking children hear are disyllables stressed on the first syllable (SW or so-called trochees), with a few stressed on the second syllable (WS or so-called iambs) as well. Monosyllabic words (S) are also present, but in very low numbers, and trisyllables stressed on the second syllable (WSW) are in the input as well, in relatively high numbers. Words comprised of two feet (SWSW) are
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2002
A tendency to limit prosodic words (PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledge... more A tendency to limit prosodic words (PW) to the size of a metrical foot has often been acknowledged in early stages of acquisition and truncation has been shown to accomplish this size constraint. Interestingly, after the onefoot stage, children acquiring English or Dutch tend to enlarge their productions by one foot, whereas at least for children acquiring Spanish, a stage, in which PWs comprise a foot preceded by an unfooted syllable, immediately follows the one-foot stage. Early productions (between 1;5 and 2;2/ 2;4) of children acquiring G erman and Spanish in monolingual and bilingual conditions constitute the empirical basis for this paper. The monolingual cross-linguistic results show quantitative differences between the truncation of the Spanishand German-speaking children and different ways in which these two groups of children overcome the size restriction and acquire complex words. These differences are accounted for within Optimality Theory, couched in M etrical Phonology, by means of two different grammars, that is, two different constraint hierarchies. The emergence of these different grammars is relevant for the analysis of the transition to complex prosodic structures in bilinguals and for the analysis of the relationships between their two phonological modules. An interaction of the two languages is found, the outcome of which is mainly attributed to markedness.
The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La Revue Canadienne De Linguistique, 2003