1.Introduction
During language development, children’s word productions are target of a variety of prosodic processes as e.g. syllable deletions, syllable additions and stress shift. Using current phonological theory, investigators have explained the production pattern in a number of different ways.
In this paper, I review two approaches to the development of word stress: Fikkert’s (1994) theory of trochaic template mapping and Demuth & Fee’s (1995) prosodic hierarchy account. Both theories assume that children build up the prosodic representation of words step-by-step, starting with the smallest unit and ending with an adult-like representation. I argue that both theories are problematic because they overgenerate certain structures (e.g. level stress), but that the model of Demuth & Fee can better account for the data presented so far.
This paper is organized as follows: since it is crucial in both theories, paragraph 2 briefly introduces the basic assumptions of the prosodic hierarchy. In paragraph 3, I will give a survey of Fikkert’s (1994) model of stress development and Demuth and Fee’s (1995) model based on the prosodic hierarchy. In paragraph 4, I discuss the problems arising with the models and paragraph 5 concludes.
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