title: An Articulatory Phonology Account of Preferred Consonant-Vowel Combinations.
abstract: Certain consonant/vowel combinations (labial/central, coronal/front, velar/back) are more frequent in babbling as well as, to a lesser extent, in adult language, than chance would dictate. The "Frame then Content" (F/C) hypothesis (Davis & MacNeilage, 1994) attributes this pattern to biomechanical vocal-tract biases that change as infants mature. Articulatory Phonology (AP; Browman and Goldstein 1989) attributes preferences to demands placed on shared articulators. F/C implies that preferences will diminish as articulatory control increases, while AP does not. Here, babbling from children at 6, 9 and 12 months in English, French and Mandarin environments was examined. There was no developmental trend in CV preferences, although older ages exhibited greater articulatory control. A perception test showed no evidence of bias toward hearing the preferred combinations. Modeling using articulatory synthesis found limited support for F/C but more for AP, including data not originally encompassed in F/C. AP thus provides an alternative biomechanical explanation.
authors.affiliation: Haskins Laboratories ; DSLO - University of Bologna.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giulivi
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Whalen
authors.forename: Louis M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Hosung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Andrea G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Levitt