On syllable structure and phonological variation: The case of i-epenthesis by Brazilian Portuguese learners of English

Abstract Our study employs nonword-learning tasks to examine i-epenthesis in the speech output of 53 Brazilian Portuguese learners of English. One aim is to investigate conflicting views on the syllabification of consonants in various word-medial and final contexts, where they can be parsed as either codas or onsets of empty nuclei. Another aim is to test a proposal (John & Cardoso, 2017) concerning the source of L2 phonological variation: we suggest that L2 variation is lexical rather than derivational, stemming from individual items having dual underlying representations which compete for selection at the moment of speaking. The results of a multivariate statistical analysis indicate: i) a hierarchy of difficulty in the acquisition of the stops /p k/ in different lexical locations; and ii) simultaneous development of dual representations for single lexical items.

摘要 本研究采用无词学习任务（nonword-learning tasks），对53名巴西葡萄牙语背景的英语学习者的语音输出中的i增音（i-epenthesis）现象展开考察。本研究包含两大研究目标：其一，针对词中与词尾不同语境下的辅音音节划分争议，验证两种对立观点——此类辅音可被解析为空核的音节尾或音节首；其二，检验John与Cardoso（2017）提出的关于第二语言（L2）语音变异来源的假说：我们认为第二语言语音变异产生于词汇层面而非派生层面，源于单个词汇项目拥有双重底层表征，且这些表征会在说话瞬间竞争选择。多元统计分析结果显示：其一，爆破音/p/、/k/在不同词汇位置的习得存在难度层级；其二，单个词汇项目的双重表征会同步发展。