Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas

E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 237 EGLĖ KRIVICKAITĖ vytauto Didžiojo universitetas INETA DABAŠINSKIENĖ vytauto Didžiojo universitetas Acquisition of the Lithuanian Language: nEtiKrų žoDžių ESSENTIAL WORDS: acquisition of phonology, repetition test of false words, syllable structure, theory of natural phonology. 1. Child Speech BackgroundSpeech development in the first years of life is determined by two closely related factors: biological (development of language tools) and cognitive-linguistic (perception and assimilation of the features of the language heard in the environment) (stoel-gammon 2011: 2). Comparative studies of language acquisition show that up to 6 months children of different nationalities sneeze the same way: first they begin to pronounce explosive (p, t, k, p, d, g), nasal (m, n) consonants and vowels (velleman, vihman 2007; žukauskienė 2012). it is stated that children first begin to pronounce these sounds not only because of their ease of articulation, but also because they hear them most often in their environment. for example, v, z and ð or wind sounds are more difficult to articulate and are used less often (velleman, vihman 2007: 26; Edwards, beckman 2008: 124). Somewhat later, these individual sounds begin to be combined into a cv (consonant-vowel) syllable structure of sounds (velleman, vihman 2007: 26), and several times repeated samples of cv sounds resemble adult words, e.g., mama, tete, baba, bamido, etc. (stoel-gammon 2011: 8). From the age of 6-7 months, the child increasingly uses the sounds of the mother tongue: by constantly hearing the child’s language1, the child begins to assimilate the sounds heard in the environment1. children’s language is characterized by a reduced vocabulary, short, simple sentences, abundance of nouns (especially deminutive forms) and verbs (cameron-faulkner et al. 2003; Kamandulytė 2006a). 238 Language Culture | 86 sus, and other sounds disappear (velleman, vihman 2007: 26). This is a natural way of acquiring phonology: children who hear the language of the environment notice dimi during the 10-month hissing period of French babies than Swedish or Japanese babies, whose language of the dėsningumus ir pradeda jais remtis. Lyginamieji kalbų tyrimai atskleidė, kad, pvz., lūpiniai garsai, kurie yra būdingi prancūzų kalbai, dažniau girenvironment contains fewer of these sounds (Edwards, Beckman 2008: 123); Swedish, Estonian and Bulgarian children learn to pronounce the v earlier than English-speaking children (ingram 1988); French children learn to pronounce l later than English-speaking children (chervrie-muller, Lebreton 1973, quoted from Edwards, beckman 2008: 3–4). The influence of the language heard in the environment increases as the child’s vocabulary enriches, over time the child is able to pronounce more and more complex and rare sounds and their conjugation (velleman, vihman 2007; Kavitskaya et al. 2011). It has been established that Lithuanian children about the third year are already able to pronounce the following consonant combinations in a syllable: bl, dž, gt, kd, kl, km, kn, ks, kš, kt, lč, lg, ln, lp, nd, ng, nt, sk, sl, sp, st, sv, šč, tg, zd, žd and consonant combinations between syllables: gs, gt, ks, kš, kt, lk, ls, lt, lv, ms, mt, nk, nt, ps, sk, sn, st, šd, šk, šm, šp, šs, št, tl, tn, tr, tv, ts, žd, žm, žs, žt. The most difficult is to learn to pronounce kl and sp consonant combinations in syllables and lv, nt, sk, st consonant combinations between syllables (Kamandulytė 2006b: 85–88). A little later – about the fourth or fifth year – children should already be able to pronounce 2-3 consonant combinations well (although they may still miss some consonant) (garšvienė, ivoškuvienė 1993: 32–33). children’s vocabulary becomes richer, they approach the language of adults: more and more varied derived words are used, the formation of compound words improves, adverbial adjectives are increasing (garšvienė, ivoškuvienė 1993: 37). The results of the non-standardized Lithuanian children's sound pronunciation test show that one fifth (78%) of preschool children pronounce individual sounds correctly, and most often make mistakes when pronouncing s, z, š, ž, c, dz, č, dž and r sounds. learned sound in a word is more difficult to pronounce than separately or in a syllable (garšvienė, juškienė 2008: 80), so more mistakes are made when repeating words than when pronouncing individual sounds. Most often, some sounds are replaced by others, e.g., asilas → atilat, ropė → vopė, pjūklas → priūklas, and also often sounds, especially in consonant samples, are omitted, e.g., zebras → zebas, sviestas → siestas, herbas → hebas (garšvienė, juškienė 2008: 80–81). so preschool children still have difficulty pronouncing complex articulation and rarer sounds of Lithuanian language. Acquisition of phonology, i.e. the natural human ability to E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 239 perceive the sound system, to pronounce sounds and their combinations, is attempted to explain by the theory of natural phonology2. attempts to clarify the difficulties that children face in mastering the features of phonology. It has been found that children perceive lower rising vowels (a, e) more easily than nas garsas ar garsų eilė gali būti klasifikuojami atsižvelgiant į jų suvokimo ir tarimo sudėtingumą. natūralioji fonologija aiškinama priešinimu: lengva upper rising vowels (u, i). sharp explosive sounds are more difficult to pronounce clearly than muffled ones. To speak vs. to understand clearly (Dziubalska-Kołaczyk 2004). The phonological processes of each language are unique, i.e. each language has its own sounds, sound combinations, syllable and word structures (Dziubalska-Kołaczyk 2004), but people react similarly to language difficulties. In order to communicate effectively, a child has to overcome physiological constraints, for example, English-speaking children need to learn and become accustomed to consonant conjugations, while Hawaiian-speaking children do not, because Hawaiian does not have consonant conjugations. As already mentioned, language acquisition begins with the most commonly used patterns in speech: children first begin to use those sounds and their compounds that they most often hear in the environment. Comparative studies show that children first learn syllables of the cv structure, most often reduce the consonant conjugation and do not pronounce the last consonants in the syllable (fikkert 2000). researchers observe the phonological processes occurring in children’s speech and most often mention distant assimilation and metathesis. It has been found that distant assimilation in children’s speech occurs in as many as 32% of children’s words (velleman, vihman 2007: 33). metathesis in children’s speech is also common – the initial consonants of the word are usually swapped with the final ones. it is believed that such processes in children's speech occur due to the fact that when learning new words, children rely on the experience of pronouncing already accumulated words. The first words are pronounced fairly accurately (usually the first 10-20 words of simple structure), and the subsequent words are pronounced less correctly. This regression of phonology is typical of early language, because children systemize the rules of pronunciation of the first words and rely on them in the acquisition of later words. In other words, children choose words that correspond to a pattern known from the hissing period (e.g., cvcv), and therefore try to find ways to make more complex structures easier to pronounce. 2 The theory of natural phonology developed in the 20th century from the studies of phonetics and phonology. pioneer of this theory – David Stampe (1969, 1973). Later, natural phonology developed, encouraged by the work of natural linguists, particularly those associated with W. u. Dressler studies (1985, 1994, Dressler et al. 1987). 240 KaLbos KuLtūra | 86 tarimą, pvz., prideda balsį žodžio pabaigoje, supaprastina žodžio pabaigos priebalsių tarimą (velleman, vihman 2007). fonologijos raida tęsiasi ilgai, todėl net priešmokyklinio ar pradinio moCyclic children may have difficulty pronouncing more complex sounds, consonant conjugations or polysyllabic words. in this process are easier ir sudėtingesnių atvejų, kuriuos mėginama aptarti kituose skyriuose. 2. nEtiKrų žoDžių Kartojimo tEstas A lot of useful information about the late development of phonology can be obtained through special tests. The false words repetition test is a task where the subject is asked to repeat false words3. repeating an unusual combination of sounds, a meaningless word is not easy – it requires multiple cognitive linguistic skills: language perception, phonological memory, articulation, etc. (rispens, parigger 2010). studies show that children with speech disorders have particular difficulty repeating accurately a meaningless word they hear for the first time (marshall, van der Lely 2009: 40). The results of studies carried out in foreign countries are the same: children with speech disorders are statistically significantly worse at repeating false words than their peers with normal language development (gathercole 2006a, 2006b; rispens, prigger 2010). For example, in the false word repetition test of 8;3-10;114-year-old children with normal language development and children with speech developmental disorders5, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups, especially when comparing the repetition of false words longer than two (three-five) syllables (Weismer et al. 2011). Therefore, it is suggested that the false word repetition test can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify possible language developmental disorders in both younger (4-5 years) and older (11-12 years) children (stokes, Klee 2009). In addition to the diagnostic reasons for early speech development, false word repetition tests are important for monitoring the development of vocabulary and other language skills. the child’s ability to repeat a new, first-heard polysyllabic word at an early age indicates the readiness to learn new words and develop vocabulary 3 false words – a phonological sequence of sounds that complies with the phonotactic rules of a particular language, but has no meaning and does not form part of a sentence (clark et al. 2012: 578). The age of 4 is indicated as follows: 8;3 – eight years, three months. 5 this thesis is about Specific Language Impairment (SLI). for more details see ruzaitė, Dabašinskienė 2010. E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 241 (gathercole 2006a): poor repetition of a word heard for the first time may indicate difficulty in learning new words or a language developmental disorder. The false word repetition test is identified with language acquisition: it is suggested that false word repetition begins in infancy, when children are just beginning to learn their first words (gathercole 2006a). In other words, every word that the child ever heard for the first time sounded unusual, new to him – just like the words that are asked to be repeated in the fake word repetition test (chiat, roy 2007). One of the first results of the test of repetition of false words were presented by English psychologists s. E. gathercole and a. baddaley (1989): after conducting a continuous study of repetition of false words, a correlation between the results of the test of repetition of false words and the further development of the child's vocabulary was established. At the beginning of the study, the vocabulary volume of 70 four-year-old children was measured and a false words repetition test was performed. A year later, when the study was repeated, it was found that four-year-old children’s repetition of false words correlated statistically significantly with the vocabulary of five-year-old children: children who had better results in the repetition of false words a year earlier had a wider vocabulary than those who had worse results in the repetition of false words (baddeley et al. 1998: 160). Poor results in the false words test warn that the child may have difficulty learning and memorizing new words. The results of an experimental study (gathercole, baddely 1990), analogous to the test of repetition of false words, allowed to formulate another hypothesis about the development of the child’s vocabulary: the more similar a new word is to an already known one, the easier it is to memorize it. In this study, 5-year-old English-speaking children were asked to memorize common names (Peter, Michael) and unusual names (Puemass, Meeton). There was a correlation between this test and the results of the false words repeat test: children whose false words repeat test results were worse, also remembered worse names they had never heard. The accuracy of the repetition of false words is linked to the ability of phonological memory: the more a new word resembles an already known one or evokes associations with a known word, the easier it is to learn (gathercole, baddely 1990). The false word repetition test has also proven to be useful in studying foreign language learning: Finnish children (aged 9-10) were given a false word repetition test based on the phonetic features of English before they began learning English as a second foreign language. Two years later, when the same children were tested for their English vocabulary, a strong correlation was found between the results of the false word repetition test performed two years earlier and the English vocabulary accumulated two years later (baddeley et al. 1998: 160). 242 KaLbos KuLtūra | 86 2.1. Pagrindinės netikrų žodžių kartojimo testo ypatybės developing a test of false words based on the phonetics of different to lyginamieji tyrimai leido išskirti dvi pagrindines netikrų žodžių struktūros ypatybes, lemiančias testo rezultatus: 1) skiemens struktūrą (priebalsis–balsis (cv) arba priebalsių samplaika–balsis (ccv)); 2) žodžių ilgį (skiemenų skaičių žodyje) (chiat, roy 2007; gutierrez-clellen, simon-cereijido 2010). languages; it is proposed that the test of false words consist of phonemes that are learned by children the earliest; in this case, the repetition accuracy would not be affected by the physiological inability to pronounce the sound (Dollagham, Campbell 1998). false word repetition tests in different world languages have the same results: 1) false words with consonant samples are more difficult to repeat than words without samples (santos et al. 2006; marshall et al. 2009, Kapalkova et al. 2013; Kavitskaya et al. 2011); 2) more accurate repetition of consonant samples at the beginning of the word (marshall et al. 2009: 42), as this is related to louder and stronger pronunciation of the first syllable of the word (pegy, mork 2010). It has also been found that children first begin to pronounce consonant combinations at the beginning of the word (about the second-third year), in this position consonant combinations are used more frequently and are more diverse (mcLeod et al. 2001); 3) one and two syllable false words are most accurately repeated, i.e. the accuracy of false words decreases with the length of the word (Kavit skaya et al. 2011). When repeating false words, the child must rely on short-term phonological memory. Longer words require more time to be perceived and repeated, their phonological representation gradually disappears from the short-term memory, so the results of repeating longer words are worse. it is stated that poor short-term phonological memory function is associated with slow learning of single words (gathercole 2006a: 600–601). Another important factor that determines the accuracy of the repetition of false words is the age of the subjects: the older the child, the more accurately he repeats both shorter (one-two syllables) and longer (three-five syllables) false words (santos et al. 2006; Kavitskaya et al. 2011; Kapalkova et al. 2013). Older children know more words made up of different sound combinations, thus have more phonetic knowledge and are able to repeat unknown words more accurately when they hear them for the first time (munson et al. 2005: 1034). E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 243 2.2. Structure of the Lithuanian language false words repetition test Lithuanian false words6 are created taking into account the peculiarities of Lithuanian word structure: only sounds and syllable structures that are possible and most commonly found in Lithuanian words are used. A Lithuanian word consists on average of 7 phonemes (usually about 5–8 phonemes) (Kazlauskienė 2010: 35–37), the prevalence of two–four syllable words (Karosienė, girdenis 1990: 21). The most common syllable types of Lithuanian words are cv, cvc, ccv, ccvc (Karosienė, girdenis 1994; Kazlauskienė, raškinis 2008: 26–27), which means that a syllable in Lithuanian is usually composed of 2–3 sounds (Karosienė, girdenis 1994). It has been established that two thirds (about 65%) of all Lithuanian words are open syllables (cv, ccv, cccv) (girdenis, Karosienė 2010: 82), syllables usually begin with consonants k, l, s, t, p, n, end with vowels: o, a, i, e, u (girdenis, Karosienė 2004: 220), internal syllables of words are rich in soft consonants, vowels of the anterior row predominate (garšva, girdenis 1996). The most common sounds that make up a word are i, a, e, o and s, k, t, m, n, r (Karosienė, girdenis 1993; Kazlauskienė, raškinis 2009). The Lithuanian false words repetition test contains words with only two consonant consonants, because three consonant consonants are too difficult for young children to pronounce. The most common types of two consonants in Lithuanian are: rt7 (42%) (nt, rt, nk, rb); st (18 per cent) (st, sk, št, sp); tr (13 per cent) (kl, pr, tr, tv, gr, bl, tl, pl); sr (6 per cent) (sm, sn, sv, sl, sv, šl) (girdenis 1995: 107–111; Kazlauskienė 2007: 37–40). Therefore, based on these main characteristics of Lithuanian word structure and previous studies of Lithuanian children’s phonological structure acquisition (Kamandulytė 2006b; garšvienė, juškienė 2008), fake Lithuanian words were formed (see appendix). Lithuanian non-real words were tried to be composed in such a way that they are not similar to real Lithuanian words, do not raise any associations with a known word, but comply with all the peculiarities of Lithuanian word structure: the consonant samples of non-real words are composed of two types of consonant samples: st (39 per cent), tr (33 per cent) and sr (28 per cent)8; the word length varies 6 Lithuanian non-real words repetition test (author Dabašinskienė, Krivickaitė 2013) developed in the framework of the cost iso804 Language Impairment in a Multilingual society: Linguistics Patterns and the Road to Assessment project (2011–2013). 7 s – pučiamasis (s, z, š, ž, f, h, ch); t – sprogstamasis (p, b, t, d, k, g); r – sklandusis (l, m, n, r, v, j). There are no samples of 8 rt type consonants in the False words repetition test, because this sample is only possible between syllables. 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 244 Language Culture | 86 syllables (phonemes 6-7) and 8 – of four syllables (phonemes 6-9). Each group contains 2 words without Lietuvišką netikrų žodžių testą sudaro 24 žodžiai, kurie suskirstyti į tris grupes: 8 žodžiai, sudaryti iš dviejų skiemenų (4–6 fonemos), 8 – iš trijų consonant samples and 6 words with consonant samples: three words with consonant samples at the beginning of the word, three words with consonant samples in the middle of the word. all the consonant samples are in the syllable, only in two diphthong words both in the syllable and at the intersection of the syllables (see appendix). The authors of the study wanted to check whether children are able to pronounce not only false words, but also Lithuanian words of similar structure, so for each false word an equivalent was chosen – a Lithuanian word (see annex). 1) the length of the words: false and true words have the same number of syllables, e.g. šve.la9 → sma.la (two-syllable words), šku.li.nė → ska.re.lė (three-syllable words), ma.gvu.no.lė → re.kla.mė.lė (four-syllable words); 2) syllable structure (number of phonemes per syllable) and consonant conjugation, e.g. ke.mu → do.ja (two phonemes per syllable); spa.de.ki → sta.tu.la (sample of adjectives in the first syllables). Other aspects (articulatory characteristics of consonants and vowels) were not taken into account, because it was not possible to find identical words, but the consonant conjugation was tried to maintain as similar articulation as possible. e.g. pr (explosive bilingual + smooth anterior alveolar) replaced by the corresponding br (explosive bilingual + smooth anterior alveolar): gabra → cobra; gv (explosive posterior palatal + smooth labial dentate) replaced by kl (explosive posterior palatal + smooth anterior dentate): magvunolė → reklamėlė; sk (blowing anterior alveolar tongue + explosive posterior palatal tongue) replaced by sk (blowing anterior dental tongue + explosive posterior palatal tongue): skolinė → skarelė; for several words identical consonants of false and true words correspond to men: gitva → gatvė, klesta → klasta, sminto → smiltė (see appendix). 9 syllables separated by periods. E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 245 3. LiEtuvišKų nEtiKrų ir tiKrų 25 children with normal language development10 were selected for this exploratory study in Kaunas city kindergartens and schools. Each child was tested individually, first with the tavimo duomenys. tiriamieji suskirstyti į 5 amžiaus grupes po penkis vaikus: 1) 4–5 m.; 2) 5–6 m.; 3) 6–7 m.; 4) 7–8 m. ir 5) 8–9 m. Duomenys False Words Repetition Test11 and then with the True Words Repetition Test. The aim of this study is to compare the ability of children of different ages to repeat false and true Lithuanian words. It is hypothesized that children will be able to repeat real Lithuanian words more accurately than false ones, but all polysyllabic words and words with consonant conjugations should cause more difficulties. The results of the study allowed to draw a preliminary conclusion, which coincides with the data of similar studies in other countries: false, never-heard-before words are more difficult for children to repeat than real ones. The children repeated Lithuanian false words with about 89% accuracy and true words with 95% accuracy. The study showed that two-syllable words (both true and false) were repeated with equal accuracy (96%), but when comparing true and false words longer than two syllables, differences were noted: children repeated true three-syllable words as accurately as two-syllable ones (96%), with slightly worse results for four-syllable true words12 (93%) (see Figure 2). The number of syllables has a greater influence on the accuracy of the repetition of incorrect words: two-syllable incorrect words were repeated with 96% accuracy, three-syllable with 89% accuracy and four-syllable with 82% accuracy (see Figure 1). Comparing the results of both tests, it is clear that the most common errors are made when repeating true and false words of the same structure – those that have consonant conjugations, such as smala and švela; cobra and gopher; mower and gosakluni, etc., only the repetition of incorrect words is more frequently mistaken (see Figure 2). 10 Children with normal speech development are considered to have no speech disorders and do not attend a logopedist. 11 Structure and methodology of the Lithuanian false words repetition test are described in Krivickaitė 2013; Dabašinskienė, Krivickaitė 2013; Krivickaitė 2014. 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Lithuanian false and true words syllabesfalse true true word word word false word consonant compound → true word consonant compound 2Select a theme – 2Doja Koja – 2Skiing Table sk → st 2Shvela Small sh → sm 2chapterCobra pr → br 2gitva street tv → tv 2Sand sm → sm; nt → lt16 2KlestaKlasta Kl → kl; st → st17 3geloša Karosas – 3shiruta scarf – 3School Skarle sh → sk 3Plemuta Climate pl → kl 3maspulė raskila sp → English (US) 3Lasmuvi cherry sm → shn 3Spades of statues sp → st 3pasvapi ašrotis sv → sl 4sulertė serenada – 4zadevina chocolate – 4Snails of the Dreamer sn → sv 4Spiratuša Hole in the wall sp → sk 4nisparima Restaurant sp → st 4magvunolė Advertisement gv → kl 4Staligosa Delicacy st → sk 4gosakluni lawnmower Kl → pastaba. pajuodinta priebalsių samplaika; ketvirtoje lentelės skiltyje pažymėta, kokia tik rame žodyje esanti samplaika atitinka netikrame žodyje esančią priebalsių pj samp time. 16 In the false word sminto the consonant combination nt is between syllables, in the true word smiltė the consonant combination lt is also between syllables. 17 In the false word klesta the consonant combination st is between syllables, in the true word klasta the consonant combination st is also between syllables. E. KrivicKaitė, i. DabašinsKiEnė. Lietuvių kalbos fonologijos įsisavinimas: netikrų žodžių kartojimo eksperimentinis tyrimas 255 acQuisition of LitHuanian pHonoLogy: nonWorD rEpEtition EXpErimEntaL stuDy Summary a child’s capacity to repeat a new polysyllable word heard for the first time in the early age shows the ability to memorise new words and to expand one’s dictionary (gathercole 2006a); therefore, the nonword repetition test is associated with language acquisition. it is stated that the repetition of nonwords starts very early in life when a child starts learning the first words (gathercole 2006a): each word once heard by a child for the first time sounded unusual and new – like the words which are asked to be repeated in the nonword repetition test (chiat, roy 2007). the article presents a pilot experimental study carried out on the basis of nonword and word repetition tests. the Lithuanian Nonword Repetition Test was designed with due regard to the structural characteristics of Lithuanian words (word length, vowel and consonant frequency, syllable structure); the test consists of 24 nonwords of different structure. Each nonword is associated with a Lithuanian equivalent taking into account word length and syllable structure. the sample of the pilot study is made of 25 typically developing preschool and school-age children (from 4 to 9 years old). the results of the study revealed that the accuracy of repetition of nonwords and words is determined by three factors: 1) syllable structure: most errors occur in the repetition of words and nonwords containing combinations of consonants. What is more, the accuracy of repetition of nonwords is also determined by the place where the consonant combination occurs: more errors occur in repeating words with a consonant combination in the middle of the word compared to those with a consonant combination in the beginning of the word. the place of consonant combination does not affect the accuracy of repetition of words; 2) word length: the longer the word, the lower the accuracy of its repetition; 3) age of participants in the study: the older the age group, the more accurately both shorter (one-two syllable) and longer (three-four syllable) words and nonwords are repeated. KEYWORDS: acquisition of phonology, nonword repetition test, syllable structure, natural phonology theory. EgLė KrivicKaitė vytauto Didžiojo universitetas K. Donelaičio g. 58, Lt-44248 Kaunas, Lithuania [email protected] inEta DabašinsKiEnė vytauto Didžiojo universitetas K. Donelaičio g. 58, Lt-44248 Kaunas, Lithuania [email protected]