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3.2.Demuth & Fee (1995)

Demuth & Fee propose a more abstract approach which, although primarily based on data of English acquiring children, aims to capture the prosodic development universally. The basic assumption in Demuth & Fee’s model is that prosodic development goes along the prosodic hierarchy (see Figure 1). In contrast to Fikkert, Demuth & Fee avoid the notion of prosodic circumscription and trochaic template mapping. According to them, sensitivity to the moraic structure of the mother tongue is already there from the onset of word production on. They distinguish between the following stages:

Stage 1

The first stage is characterized by sub-minimal (monomoraic) words. The productions consist of a single CV-syllable and there are no vowel length distinctions yet. Thus, the phonological representation of the words also is CV.

Stage 2

At stage 2, children realize words of foot-size (Minimal Words). Stage 2 is characterized by three successional sub-stages: at the beginning, the foot is disyllabic as for example in  ‘papa’. Second, as soon as the child is able to produce coda consonants the foot can also have a monosyllabic form, e.g.  ‘duck’. Third, the vowel length distinction becomes phonemic. The child is now aware of the fact that the stressed syllable of Dutch  ‘banana’ has to be realized with a long vowel , while in  ‘giraffe’ the second vowel remains short (examples from Robin, see Fikkert, 1994). Demuth & Fee assume a direct relationship between distinctive vowel length and the appearance of coda consonants. Thus, a CVV structure counts as sub-minimal, and a CVVCVV structure as minimal as long as the child does not produce coda consonants.

Stage 3

Beyond the minimal word stage, syllable structure can be more complex and words can have a larger size than a single foot. This is also the stage where the largest progress in the development of the word stress is predicted. The child seems to become aware that feet have to be stressed and that there are language-specific stress rules. Demuth & Fee do not assume a trochaic template. However, they adopt Fikkert’s assumption of an obligatory intermediate stage of level stress where two feet are produced with primary stress.

At the end of stage 3, children acquire stress at the word level and they realize one primary stress per word.

Stage 4

At the final stage, extrametrical (i.e. unfooted) syllables are permitted. Children at this stage operate at the level of the prosodic word.