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Publications

A frequência que conta na aquisição da fonologia: types ou tokens?

Publication . Vigário, Marina; Frota, Sónia; Martins, Fernando

We examine the frequency of a number of phonological units and patterns in European Portuguese, computed over tokens and over types, in adult speech, and compare it with the frequency and/or order of emergence of those units and patterns in children’s early speech. We conclude that, whenever frequency information based on tokens and on types does not converge, it is always the frequency computed over tokens that correlates with the frequency patterns and/or order of emergence of those units/patterns in child speech. This investigation contributes to the understanding of the role of frequency in language acquisition, in addition to providing new frequency data for Portuguese.

2010Book part

Open access

Frequência na Fonologia do Português: recursos e aplicações

Publication . Vigário, Marina; Frota, Sónia; Martins, Fernando; Cruz, Marisa

2012Book part

Open access

Contributos para o estudo da variação na frequência de ocorrência de unidades e padrões fonológicos

Publication . Aguiar, Joana; Vigário, Marina

In this paper, we examine the frequency of phonological units and patterns in two oral corpora of European Portuguese: the corpus TA90PE, containing interviews from different regions of Portugal, and the corpus TQT, containing oral samples collected in Terra Quente Transmontana. The results contribute to determine the scope and limits of frequency variation, showing that the distribution of some of the phonological units and patterns examined is influenced by geographical and social factors, such as education and age. It is suggested that these later aspects, together with other linguistic data, may contribute to draw linguistic profiles in forensic analyses.

2010Book part

Open access

Os processos fonológicos na fala da criança de cinco anos: tipologia e frequência

Publication . Guerreiro, Huguette; Frota, Sónia

The goal of this study is to describe the type and frequency of the phonological processes that characterize the speech of 5-year-old European Portuguese learners. 43 children (boys and girls) with ages between 5:00 and 5:11, all native speakers and kinder-garden attendants from the Mafra district, have participated in the study. The evaluation tool used was a version of “Avaliação Fonológica da Criança” (Yavas; Hernandorena & Lamprecht 2002), specifically adapted for this study. 7027 lexical words were analyzed, taken from two types of speech samples: isolated words and connected speech. The results show that the segmental phonological processes (segment substitutions and changes) have very low frequency. Within this class of processes, only the semivocalization of liquids shows a higher frequency. The results further show that structure-changing processes that lead to a simplification of the complex syllable structures ‘branching onset’ (CCV) and ‘branching rhyme’ (CVC) are the dominant processes in the speech of 5-year olds. In particular, the omission of liquids in word-medial codas and the reduction of consonantal clusters are prevalent within subjects. The structure-changing processes related with the CCV and CVC structures are also the most frequent ones across subjects.

2010Journal article

Open access

O tempo no tempo: um estudo do desenvolvimento das durações a partir das primeiras palavras

Publication . Matos, Nuno; Frota, Sónia

The study of duration patterns in early speech has yield contradictory results regarding the role played by biological factors and language specificity. We have examined the development of duration patterns in the speech of one European Portuguese child, from 1;04 to 2;04. Our findings show two different moments of temporal reorganization: the first related to PW duration; the second to syllable duration as a function of number of syllables in higher prosodic domains. The latter moment leads to the emergence of phrase-final lengthening. We interpret these findings as supporting the role played by the native language, and as providing evidence for the emergence of prosodic structure in language production.

2009Book part

Open access