Acquisition of vowel duration conditioning in Russian-Scottish

English bilingual children

Olga Gordeeva

5th International Symposium on Bilingualism

March 20-23, 2005 Barcelona

Acquisition of Sound Structure

• Are bilingual’s languages differentiated?“Yes” Genesee, 1989; Genesee et al., 1995; de Houwer, 1995;

Deuchar & Quay, 2000; Petitto, 2001; Keshavarz & Ingram, 2002

– early simultaneous bilinguals (3;4 to 4;5)

– a version of the two systems is already acquired

• Do they interact?“Yes” (Petersen, 1988; Döpke, 1998;Schlyter, 1993; Müller, 1998;

Döpke, 2000; Paradis, 2001; Kehoe, 2002; Lleó, 2002)

• Autonomous or interdependent development? (Paradis &Genessee, 1996)

Acquisition of Sound Structure (cont.)

• What are sources: structure or input (or both)? • Cross-language cue competition hypothesis (Döpke, 1998,

2000)

• Markedness Hypothesis (Müller, 1998)

• Language Dominance Hypothesis (Petersen, 1988)

• What are the patterns of interaction:Kehoe, 2002; Whitworth, 2002 for vowel duration

~ merged categories in L2 acquisition (Mack, 1982)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0;0

to 0

;3

0;4

to 0

;6

0;7

to 0

;9

0;10

to 1

;0

1;1

to 1

;3

1;4

to 1

;6

1;7

to 1

;9

1;10

to 2

;0

2;1

to 2

;3

2;4

to 2

;6

2;7

to 2

;9

2;10

to 3

;0

3;1

to 3

;3

3;4

to 3

;6

3;7

to 3

;9

3;10

to 4

;0

4;1

to 4

;3

4;4

to 4

;5

AN's age%

English

Russian

0

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20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0;0

to 0

;3

0;7

to 0

;9

1;1

to 1

;3

1;7

to 1

;9

2;1

to 2

;3

2;7

to 2

;9

3;1

to 3

;3

3;7

to 3

;9

4;1

to 4

;3

BS's age

%

English

Russian

Background of bilingual subjects

subject BS (3;4 to 4;5) subject AN (3;8 to 4;5)

Crosslinguistic differences in focus

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

SSE MSR SSBE

Language

du

rati

on

(m

s)

+ 1

Std

ev

fric voice+

stop voice+

stop voice-

SSE: A systematic and large in extent postvocalic

conditioning of vowel duration (SVLR): checked and are long before

voiced fricatives and short in other consonantal contexts

(Aitken, 1981; Scobbie et al., 1999a; Scobbie et al., 1999b)

MSR: A less clear-cut system of postvocalic conditioning of vowel

duration (Chen, 1970; Keating,1985;

Gordeeva et al., 2003)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

voiced fricative voiced stop voiceless stop

following consonant

dura

tion

/i/ (m

s) SSE adult

child 3;4 to 3;11

child 4:0 to 4;4

child 4;5 to 4;9

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voiced fricative voiced stop voiceless stop

dura

tion

(ms)

SSE adult

child 3;4 to 3;11

child 4:0 to 4;4

child 4;5 to 4;9

SSE monolingual acquisition of the SVLR

in ‘sheep’ ‘feet’ ‘seed’

‘cheese’ ‘peas’

in ‘cook’ ‘put’ ‘food’‘shoes’

Post-vocalic conditioning of /i/ (more ‘equally balanced’ bilingual AN)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 4;5 to 4;9

AN 4;5

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 4;0 to 4;4

AN 4;2

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 3;4 to 3;11

AN 3;8

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 4;5 SSE

AN 4;5 MSR0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 4;2 SSE

AN 4;2 MSR0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 3;8 SSE

AN 3;8 MSR

SVLR was not significantly different from Scottish English

peers

But in 1st age sample reduced extent for the

“long vowel”

AN’s MSR/SSE production of

postvocalic conditioning was significantly

different

But 1st age sample non-differentiated

Postvocalic conditioning of / (more equally ‘balanced’ bilingual AN)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 4;5 to 4;9

AN 4;5

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 4;0 to 4;4

AN 4;2

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 3;4 to 3;11

AN 3;8

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 4;5 SSE

AN 4;5 MSR0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 4;2 SSE

AN 4;2 MSR0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 3;8 SSE

AN 3;8 MSR

SVLR was not significantly different from Scottish

English peers

But in the 1st age sample she produced a reduced

extent for the “long vowel”

AN’s MSR/SSE production of postvocalic conditioning was significantly different

But in the 1st / 2nd age samples it was

differentiated in the unexpected direction

Postvocalic conditioning of /i/ (Russian ‘dominant’ bilingual BS)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 4;2 to 4;9

BS 4;5

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 3;9 to 4;1

BS 3;10

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 3;4 to 3;8

BS 3;4

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

BS 4;5 SSE

BS 4;5 MSR

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

BS 3;10 SSE

BS 3;10 MSR

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

BS 3;4 SSE

BS 3;4 MSR

SVLR different from Scottish English peers

(factor bilinguality)

Russian/Scottish English are not differentiated

Statistically insignificant difference towards the 3rd

age sample

Patterns of Language Interaction

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

SSE child 3;9 to 4;1

BS 3;100

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

BS 4;5 SSE

BS 4;5 MSR

‘Transfer’ or ‘Delay’? (Genessee & Paradis,

1996;)Kehoe (2002) ‘Delay’

• both BS & AN produced unidirectional effects from MSR to SSE: a merged system

• the effect is similar to those observed L2-acquisition(Mack,1982; Markus & Bond, 1999)

Patterns of Language Interaction (cont.)

• ANproduced bi-directional patterns for postvocalic conditioning of SSE MSR

• similar to patterns observed in L2 acquisitionintonation (Mennen, 2004); VOT studies (Caramazza et al. 1973; Flege, 1987; Williams, 1980)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 4;5 SSE

AN 4;5 MSR0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

voicedfricative

voicedstop

voicelessstop

AN 3;8 SSE

AN 3;8 MSR

The bi-directionality is problematic for: CCCH (Döpke, 1998, 2000)Markedness Hypothesis (Müller, 1998) Language Dominance Hypothesis(Petersen, 1988)

Systematicity of Language Interaction

• Contextually inappropriate mixed utterances have been explained as “unrepaired slips of the tongue”

(De Houwer, 1995)• The data on vowel duration in this study suggests

systematicity rather than an incidental occurrence:– present longitudinally in 2 out of 3 age samples– present in the speech of both subjects despite individual

differences in language exposure– patterns are coherent to L2-studies and other simultaneous

bilingual acquisition studies

Structure or Exposure? or both?

• Formal structural complexity does not necessarily determine the direction of language interaction– The presence of bi-directional effects contradicts unidirectional

language interaction hypotheses Cross-language cue competition hypothesis (Döpke, 1998, 2000); Markedness Hypothesis (Müller, 1998);

• Language exposure seems important, but can produce “fuzzy” bi-directional language interaction effects for structurally ambiguous sound structures– This contradicts unidirectional Language Dominance Hypothesis

(Petersen, 1988)

Longitudinal effects on language differentiation

lack of language

differentiation involved only

variables involving

vowel duration (not vowel

quality or vocal effort)

Conclusions• The amount of language differentiation differs with

changing language input conditions: depending on the amount language exposure and its longitudinal accumulation.

• Observed language interaction effects were systematic.• Both subjects seem to acquire the majority variety (SSE)

despite the presence of other English varieties in their input• “Differences in temporal aspects of speech phenomena are

relatively easily mastered”? (Jenkins &Yeni-Komishian, 1995)

• Does the relationship between “autonomous” and “interdependent” development have to be categorical?