STRESS ERROR PATTERNS IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING CHILDRENS WORD PRODUCTIONS

This study examined the patterns of stress errors in English-speaking children's productions of multisyllabic words to determine whether the y were consistent with the rule-based acquisition of stress. Children (aged 22-34 months) produced three-syllable novel and real words and f our-syllable real words which varied across stress pattern. Children's productions were examined acoustically and perceptually. Results indi cated significantly greater numbers of stress errors in SWS words and a tendency for greater numbers of stress errors in SWSW words, finding s consistent with the increased association of stress errors with exce ptional forms. Additional findings indicated that stress errors were m ore frequent in imitated compared to spontaneous productions, and that stress errors may be associated with articulatory and phonetic-contro l factors. The relevance of these findings to disordered populations i s explored in the discussion.