The Error-driven Ranking Model of the Acquisition of Phonotactics

Knowledge of the phonotactics of a language is knowledge of the distinction between licit and illicit sounds and sound combinations. For instance, English speakers know that blik could be a licit English word while bnik could not, although both are unattested. In carefully controlled experimental conditions, nine-month-old infants already react differently to licit and illicit sound combinations (Jusczyk et al. 1993). They thus display knowledge of phonotactics at an early stage, when other linguistic abilities are still not fully developed. In particular, morphology is still lagging behind, so that the child has still no access to phonological alternations (Hayes 2004). Another crucial property of the acquisition of phonotactics is gradualness: the target adult grammar is approached through a path of intermediate stages, illustrated in (1) with some spontaneous productions of two English learning children attempting to say clock(s), from McLeod et al. (2001). We see reduction of the target onset cluster /kl/ with sonority-driven preservation of the obstruent (/kl/→ [k]); reduction to the fronted obstruent (/kl/→ [t]); etcetera.