The languages of the world show wide variation in how they combine vowels and consonants. The basic unit of organization for vowels and consonants within words is the syllable, which is subdivided into onset and rime, containing the nucleus and an optional coda after the nucleus.
Languages vary in the combinatorial options for these units.
In theories of syllable structure, the concept of sonority (relative audibility) is central. The sonority of a sound places it on a scale with other sounds, the sonority hierarchy, from most to least sonorous. Syllables are assumed to be organized on the basis of this hierarchy, with the nucleus being the most sonorous sound in the sequence and sonority decreasing outwards towards the margins if there is an onset and a coda.
This approach is not without problems, as shown by recent discussions in the literature. Most studies on sonority, however, are based on case studies or a handful of languages.
We will contribute to this discussion in two ways, with a large-scale cross-linguistic comparison of patterns and a detailed case study of their acquisition. The resulting database of 500 languages will also be useful for other researchers.
The investigation of the acquisition of syllable structure will provide insights that advance research on disorders and developmental delay in children and in adults.
The main objective of the project was "to investigate the role of sonority, the sonority hierarchy and the sonority sequencing principle in the internal organisation of syllables." The main findings, as laid out in the result report, are that the sonority hierarchy and sonority sequencing are irrelevant in the shaping of syllables and the cross-linguistic variation of syllables or the acquisition of syllable structure and related constraints. Another ground-breaking finding was that syllable structure is more complex than hitherto thought. These findings first and foremost will have an impact on the scientific discussion of syllable phonotactics. The theory of segmental markedness and syntagmatic contrast maximisation sketched in the works that have come out of this project will be controversially discussed and fruitfully used to further our understanding of human language, it is hoped.
Another long-term impact is expected in the applied fields of speech therapy and language learning. Sonority theory is used in the analysis of the error patterns of children with untypical linguistic development, but it makes wrong predictions and therefore raises wrong expectations among practitioners who use it. The new insights generated in the SALT project could eventually lead to a better understanding of phonotactic disorders.
In this project we intend to investigate the role of sonority, the sonority hierarchy and the sonority sequencing principle in the internal organisation of syllables. Preliminary typological findings by the applicant and a collaborator suggest that the current mainstream theory of syllable organisation is not well-founded empirically and in need of revision.
To investigate these theoretical issues and to be able to develop a more appropriate theory with a better empirical foundation we intend to create a database of the syllable phonotactics of 500 languages and to conduct research on children acquiring a language with complex syllable structure and a large consonant inventory as well as on subjects who lost competence in such a language to some degree, as in aphasia. Theories of phonotactic organisation have been developed and tested to date in individual case studies, or in typological studies with a very limited number of languages. Such studies always focus on very specific aspects of syllable structure or individual classes in the sonority hierarchy. While we appreciate in-depth case studies and narrow theoretical focus we have all reason to believe that these methodological approaches do not lead to appropriate scientific progress in the long run. We think it is necessary for theory development to keep the general picture in sight and test hypotheses on very different types of data (i.e., from acquisition, loss and cross-linguistic variation). The results as well as the data to be obtained in this project will be made publicly available to further scientific discussion of methodologies and development of theoretical models.
Since we intend to carry out research on acquisition and loss we expect that the results of this project will have practical repercussions for the wider population in the development of new diagnostic tests and therapies for language impairment based on the collected data and the theoretical insights gained in this project.
