Phonological development and disorder of Putonghua (modern standard Chinese)-speaking children
This thesis investigates the influence of universal tendencies and language-specific features on phonological development of Putonghua-speaking children in both normally developing and exceptional circumstances (i.e. children with speech disorder, with hearing impairment, and twins). It provides the first normative data on this population as well as cross-linguistic evidence on issues raised by research on English-speaking children. A cross-sectional study of 129 normally developing children aged 1 ;6-4;6 and a longitudinal study of four children between the age of 1;0 and 2;0 showed that Putonghua-speaking children completed the acquisition of the four elements of Putonghua syllables in the following order: tone first, then syllable-final consonant and vowel, and syllable-initial consonant last. The age and order of phoneme acquisition and the chronology of phonological processes were derived and subsequently employed as an assessment tool in the study of disordered phonology. It was found that the frequency of the phonemes across the world languages, the biological constraints or articulatory limitations of young children, the theoretical concept of universal 'markedness' or 'default features' and the current
Zhu, Hua
Speech disorder; Hearing impairment
Phonological development and disorder of Putonghua (modern standard Chinese)-speaking children. This thesis investigates the influence of universal tendencies and language-specific features on phonological development of Putonghua-speaking children in both normally developing and exceptional circumstances (i.e. children with speech disorder, with hearing impairment, and twins). It provides the first normative data on this population as well as cross-linguistic evidence on issues raised by research on English-speaking children. A cross-sectional study of 129 normally developing children aged 1 ;6-4;6 and a longitudinal study of four children between the age of 1;0 and 2;0 showed that Putonghua-speaking children completed the acquisition of the four elements of Putonghua syllables in the following order: tone first, then syllable-final consonant and vowel, and syllable-initial consonant last. The age and order of phoneme acquisition and the chronology of phonological processes were derived and subsequently employed as an assessment tool in the study of disordered phonology. It was found that the frequency of the phonemes across the world languages, the biological constraints or articulatory limitations of young children, the theoretical concept of universal 'markedness' or 'default features' and the current
phonological_development disorder modern_standard chinese speaking_child investigates influence universal tendency language_specific feature phonological_development speaking_child normally develop exceptional circumstance child speech disorder hear impairment twin provide_first normative data population well cross_linguistic evidence issue_raise english_speaking child cross_sectional study normally develop child_age longitudinal_study child show speaking_child complete acquisition four_element syllable follow order tone first syllable final consonant_vowel syllable initial consonant last age order phoneme acquisition chronology phonological_process derive subsequently employ assessment tool study disorder phonology find frequency phoneme across_world language biological constraint articulatory limitation young_child theoretical concept universal markedness default feature current