This thesis investigated the positional effects from surrounding segments on the acquisition of /ɹ/ in syllable onsets. The analysis was based on transcriptions of spontaneous productions from a...Show moreThis thesis investigated the positional effects from surrounding segments on the acquisition of /ɹ/ in syllable onsets. The analysis was based on transcriptions of spontaneous productions from a single child learning American English, collected over the course of around two years. Four contexts were examined in detail: word-initial singleton onsets, intervocalic singleton onsets, complex onsets with coronal stops, and complex onsets with labial stops. Results showed that acquisition of /ɹ/ in these contexts follows one of three slightly different developmental paths from making mistakes, deletions and/or substitutions, to producing recognizable [ɹ]’s. Previous literature suggested that coarticulation facilitates the production of [ɹ]’s in complex onsets with coronal stops, and this appeared to be the case for the data examined here. Substitution by [j] and [ɥ] occurred only adjacent to certain vowels, which can also be explained through coarticulation.Show less
This literature review investigates the neural architectures more strongly involved in sentence processing compared to the processing of unstructured word-lists, focusing on syntactic word-meaning...Show moreThis literature review investigates the neural architectures more strongly involved in sentence processing compared to the processing of unstructured word-lists, focusing on syntactic word-meaning integration. The inferior frontal gyrus, anterior temporal cortex, and posterior temporal cortex emerged as prominent regions associated with sentence processing. Additional regions, such as the angular gyrus and selective right hemispheric architecture, also exhibited enhanced activation during sentence processing. These findings support the concept of a distributed network of syntactically functional neural architecture. The results align with Hagoort's Memory, Unification, and Control model, suggesting that different components of neural architecture correlate with the model's functionality. However, persisting debates regarding the precise involvement of the IFG and its subdivisions as well as other featured regions in sentence processing warrant further investigation. Overall, this review emphasises the diffuse nature of the neural architecture underlying syntactic word-meaning integration, calling for further exploratory and explanatory investigations.Show less
This thesis is a pilot study investigating the influence of Information Structure on naturalness of (non-)canonical word order permutations among Russian Heritage speakers residing in mainland...Show moreThis thesis is a pilot study investigating the influence of Information Structure on naturalness of (non-)canonical word order permutations among Russian Heritage speakers residing in mainland Portugal. The obtained word order patterns are compared to the data collected from a homogenous group of monolingual Russian speakers from St Petersburg. The thesis in particular focuses on whether (in)definiteness plays a role in the distribution of extralinguistic information (TOPIC/FOCUS) in Heritage Russian. Through short dialogue recordings of Colloquial Russian, ratings of Subject FOCUS and Object FOCUS are elicited amongst the two participant groups, as part of the acceptability judgement task. It was hypothesised that Russian Heritage Speakers would map Word Order based on Information Structure similar to L1/1 speakers of Russian. For Subject and IO FOCUS sentences, the obtained results indicate that Russian Heritage speakers are non-target like. Russian Heritage speakers transfer the preference for VOS/SV DO IO order from European Portuguese as opposed to Russian OVS/S DO V IO.Show less
Previous psycholinguistic studies have established that orthography is involved in spoken word production when it is highly relevant to the task. Follow-up research by Wang et al. (2023) used...Show morePrevious psycholinguistic studies have established that orthography is involved in spoken word production when it is highly relevant to the task. Follow-up research by Wang et al. (2023) used blocked cyclic picture naming in Mandarin Chinese to show that orthographic information is activated even when it is not relevant to the task. The study found shorter naming reaction times when pictures were presented in an orthographically homogeneous condition than when they were presented in an orthographically heterogeneous condition, suggesting automatic activation of orthography in spoken word production. The present study replicated the paradigm used by Wang et al. (2023) on English-Dutch bilinguals and a monolingual English control group to investigate whether automatic activation of orthography occurs cross-linguistically and to what extent an effect still occurs when two orthographies are present in the mental lexicon. Current studies on bilingualism have found interference effects in semantics, syntax, and phonology, but no study on orthographic information in the bilingual mental lexicon has been carried out so far. A similar facilitative effect was found in both the English and Dutch groups, confirming the cross-linguistic existence of automatic orthographic activation in spoken word production. Furthermore, the Dutch group had significantly slower reaction times than the English group. These findings suggest that the orthographic information of the native language is automatically activated alongside the orthographic information of the second language, resulting in an interference effectShow less
This thesis investigates the early coda production of an English-speaking child A. The study compares two influential frameworks in child language acquisition: Universal Grammar (UG) and the...Show moreThis thesis investigates the early coda production of an English-speaking child A. The study compares two influential frameworks in child language acquisition: Universal Grammar (UG) and the Specific Language Hypothesis (SLGH). While Universal Grammar predicts developmental patterns based on innate knowledge in language acquisition, the Specific Language Grammar Hypothesis proposes that the frequency patterns in specific languages mainly guide language acquisition. The two theoretical accounts make different predictions for the development of coda consonants, creating an exciting topic of study. Data analysis in this thesis reveals that while child A's productions align with projections posited by Universal Grammar, it also suggests an influence from the distribution of coda consonants in English. By combining Universal Grammar and the Specific Language Grammar Hypothesis, this research found that Frequency-Based Hypothesis contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of child language acquisition. It provides valuable insights into the intricate processes involved.Show less
This study documented the realisation of the plosive voicing contrast in terms of VOT and post-plosive f0 in the Afrikaans and Dutch of early bilingual Afrikaans heritage speakers in the...Show moreThis study documented the realisation of the plosive voicing contrast in terms of VOT and post-plosive f0 in the Afrikaans and Dutch of early bilingual Afrikaans heritage speakers in the Netherlands. In partial replication of Coetzee et al. (2018)’s documentation of the contrast in Afrikaans, where f0 is an increasingly more important cue than VOT, this study found effects of the homeland cue reweighting in heritage speakers’ productions. They were more likely to produce phonologically voiced plosives without prevoicing in Afrikaans than in Dutch, but showed large and systematic f0 differences between the two categories in both languages. Their realisations resembled those of older speakers in the homeland most, pointing to slower spread of language innovations to the heritage language community. Findings also suggest that the representations of similar but distinct phonological contrasts in early bilingual speakers’ different phoneme inventories are distinct, but influence each other and may overlap partially.Show less
The rapid development of language that occurs in childhood is unparalleled. In their second year, children start learning how to produce onset consonant clusters. It has been proposed that children...Show moreThe rapid development of language that occurs in childhood is unparalleled. In their second year, children start learning how to produce onset consonant clusters. It has been proposed that children’s deviant cluster productions may be due to an incomplete underlying representation. The present study investigates this proposition by adapting the study done by Baese-Berk and Goldrick (2009) and employing a picture-naming paradigm with two conditions: a Minimal Pair condition wherein the critical difference between the two labels is the onset consonant cluster versus a singleton identical onset consonant and a Random Pair condition in which the target cluster word is paired with a completely different label. It was expected that if children possessed a specified underlying representation of onset clusters, there would be a notable difference in their attempts to produce the onset cluster between experimental conditions. Results from the 8 participants show that the Minimal Pair condition triggered a small increase in complete cluster production, thereby revealing that the representation of minimal pair cluster and non-cluster words are underlyingly different. This supports the claim that 2-year-old Dutch children possess an underlying representation of onset consonant clusters. Hence, children’s deviant production of clusters must be due to problems later in the speech production mechanism.Show less
This research paper investigated the influence of introversion and extraversion on speech production. Psychological studies showed differences in human behaviour between extraverts and introverts ...Show moreThis research paper investigated the influence of introversion and extraversion on speech production. Psychological studies showed differences in human behaviour between extraverts and introverts (e.g. in social interaction and in being talkative). The field of linguistics focused more on the use of language, and found differences between the two personality traits on, among others, speech production and second language acquisition. However, in-depth research on the differences between extraverts and introverts in making speech errors during speech production was missing. Therefore, this study was carried out to answer the following research question: ‘To what extent differ extraverts and introverts in the amount of speech errors they make during speech production?’. To examine this research question, the following method was used. Forty-four participants were recruited and divided into 22 extravert participants and 22 introvert participants, based on the Quest-questionnaire. The SLIP paradigm was used to elicit and investigate the amount of speech errors the two groups made. Speech errors were analysed in terms of spoonerisms, non-responses, miscellaneous errors and other false responses. Significant results were found between the two groups, resulting in the claim that introverts make more speech errors during speech production on population level. However, further research on this topic is still needed.Show less
Previous literature suggests that musicality benefits the perception of prosody in a second language. However, there is less literature that covers the effect of musicality on the production of...Show morePrevious literature suggests that musicality benefits the perception of prosody in a second language. However, there is less literature that covers the effect of musicality on the production of prosody in L2. This study examined 134 Dutch bilingual speakers of English with varying musical experience in their production of 11 English words during a reading-aloud task. This experiment was done in order to find out if Dutch native speakers acquire English prosody more easily when having experience with musical training. The pitch contours were measured and analyzed together with the amount of musical experience using a multi-level regression. The results that were found were insignificant and argue that the Dutch participants did not benefit from the musical training. This result contradicts previous literature, leading to an evaluation of previous results and theories.Show less
Reduplication can express a multitude of semantic or grammatical changes within languages, and can occur in more than one form. Per language there are its own phonological and/or morphosyntactic...Show moreReduplication can express a multitude of semantic or grammatical changes within languages, and can occur in more than one form. Per language there are its own phonological and/or morphosyntactic rules reduplication has to abide by. This thesis is written based on data of the Papuan languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar, found in the collective sketch grammars edited by Antoinette Schapper (Ed.) Volume 1 (2014), Volume 2 (2017), and Volume 3 (2020), comparing the data on reduplication in those languages aiming to formulate typological similarities and differences.Show less
This study aims to evaluate and compare the performance of automatic transcription systems for the ToBI (Tones and Breaks Indices) and ToDI (Transcription of Dutch Intonation) frameworks....Show moreThis study aims to evaluate and compare the performance of automatic transcription systems for the ToBI (Tones and Breaks Indices) and ToDI (Transcription of Dutch Intonation) frameworks. Specifically, the focus is on matching or surpassing the results achieved by previous systems using a relatively small data set for training. By employing recent advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), this research demonstrates the potential to achieve comparable or superior performance in generating ToDI transcriptions of intonational phonology with limited labelled data available for boundary detection and boundary classification, while, for accent detection and accent classification, no results substantially better than the majority class baseline were obtained.Show less
This thesis is an exploratory corpus study on the origins of single segment speech errors in child language. The central question is which phonological factors other than markedness influence the...Show moreThis thesis is an exploratory corpus study on the origins of single segment speech errors in child language. The central question is which phonological factors other than markedness influence the acquisition of fricatives, more specifically word-initial labiodental fricatives. Through examination of Dutch and U.S. English child speech data of approximately 1-3 years old, patterns emerged that indeed suggest an influence of markedness on the phonemes that children substitute for targets /f/ and /v/. A cross-linguistic difference in the produced phonemes, along with a salient faster and more consistent development of the U.S. English participants, could not be explained by markedness. An influence of neighbourhood density is proposed in addition to the influence of markedness.Show less
