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EDY VENEZIANO
not been considered PAEs as they could simply be part of the word itself6. The corre-
sponding productions have been classified as vowel-initial lexical items.
Is there selectivity in the production of PAEs as a function of the type of word they
precede? More specifically, do children produce PAEs differently, be it in terms of
quantity and/or quality, in the prelexical position of words that are nouns and verbs in
the adult language?
4.1. Selectivity in the production of PAEs
4.1.1. Selectivity in Child-Directed Speech (CDS)
French morphosyntax clearly differentiates nouns and verbs. Do traces of this
difference remain visible if only PAEs are taken into account? Earlier work has shown
that this is the case in the speech the mother of C addresses to her child (Veneziano &
Sinclair, 2000). In particular, we found that nouns are preceded significantly more
than verbs by a grammatical morpheme (98,6 of nouns vs. 87,3% of verbs, a highly
significant difference7). Moreover, when taking into consideration only the first most
adjacent prelexical vocalic element occurring in prenominal and in preverbal posi-
tions, we found that in prenominal position there is a massive occurrence of /ə,e/ (44%
of the prenominal positions) and a sizeable occurrence of /a/ (19%), whereas in the
preverbal position there is a greater variety of vocalic sounds, distributed about evenly
for /a/, /e,ə/, /wi,i/ /y/ and /ε/. The difference between the two distributions is highly
significant8. Another difference between nouns and verbs is greater stability of the
prenominal compared to the preverbal environment. Indeed, while 48% of the noun
types are preceded by the same grammatical morpheme in all of their occurrences,
only 27% of the verb types are preceded by the same grammatical morpheme; 34%
are preceded by three or more different grammatical morphemes, compared to only
13% of the noun types. As expected, nouns are practically invariable, whereas 38% of
the verbs occur in at least two different phonomorphological forms.
Thus, on the whole, in CDS, nouns are more stable in their lexical form and have
a more stable and recurrent prelexical environment than verbs do.
4.1.2. Selectivity in children S production of PAEs
Is a similar differentiation present in children’s production of PAEs?
During the first months of PAE production, neither child produces them differently
before noun-words and verb-words. Between 1;7 and 1;10, for C, and between 1;9 and
2;2, for G, PAEs are produced in the same proportions in prenominal and in preverbal
positions (the chi-square tests are all non-significant at these sessions). At 2;2 for the
6 A denasalized sound is considered as similar to the corresponding nasalized, and thus as belonging to the
target word. For example, the sound ∕o∕ in ∕o'be∕ for /'tð'be/, «fallen, to fall».
7 The chi square value for the difference is: c2(2x2) - 33.52, p<<.001, df - 1.
8 The chi square value for the difference between the two distributions is: c2(10x2) - 142.11, p < 0.001,
df=9.