‘Is Bnafe better than Shrabe?’

Acceptability judgements of frequent, infrequent, marginal and absent consonantal sequences in Brazilian Portuguese

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2022.1.42637

Keywords:

Laboratory Phonology, phonotactics, syllable, branching onsets, acceptability judgements

Abstract

This research explores the phonotactic grammar of CCV (Consonant1+Consonant2+Vowel) branching onsets in Brazilian Portuguese by investigating their combinatorial properties and constraints. The study measures the acceptability judgment of native speakers about high (/tɾ, pɾ, bɾ/), low (/dɾ, kl, gl/) and marginal (/tl, dl, vl/) frequency consonant clusters, comparing them with unattested unmarked clusters (rising sonority, /bn, ʃɾ/) and unattested marked clusters (descending sonority, /lb, řt/; plateaus /xl, ft/). Our aim is to outline the speaker’s phonotactic intuition, analyzing the effects of the Lexicon (frequency) and Phonology (Sound Scale) in the phonotactic grammar of BP. The results show distinct acceptability judgements between high and low frequency sequences, pointing to a Lexicon effect. However, zero frequency sequences also present different acceptability judgments, due to the Sonority Scale effectThese results point to an interrelationship between Phonotactics↔Lexicon. /tl, dl, vl/, in turn, are different from attested and unattested sequences, revealing a marginal character. The following phonotactic gradient scale was found: /pɾ, bɾ/≻/tɾ/≻/gl/≻/dɾ/≻/kl/≻/vl, dl/≻/tl/ ≻/ʃɾ, bn/≻/ft/ ≻/řt/≻/xl/≻/lb/.

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Author Biography

Andressa Toni, Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste (Unicentro), Guarapuava, PR, Brasil.

Doutora em Letras pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), em São Paulo, SP, Brasil, com período-sanduíche na Universidade da Pensilvânia. Professora Colaboradora na Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste (UNICENTRO), em Guarapuava, PR, Brasil.

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Published

2022-12-20

How to Cite

Toni, A. (2022). ‘Is Bnafe better than Shrabe?’: Acceptability judgements of frequent, infrequent, marginal and absent consonantal sequences in Brazilian Portuguese. Letrônica, 15(1), e42637. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2022.1.42637

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022): Single volume

Section

Fonologia e Interfaces

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