From the Editors - Gradus (Revista Brasileira de Fonologia de Laboratório) v. 1, n.1

gradus — revista brasileira de fonologia de laboratório

From the Editors We are very pleased to present the irst issue of Gradus — Brazilian Journal of Laboratory Phonology. Gradus relects our aim to foster the interaction among Brazilian and foreign researchers who have worked with “Laboratory Phonology”. In general terms, this ield is characterized for its use of experimental methods to test hypotheses on the knowledge that speakers and listeners have not only of their mother languages and other language systems they acquire, but also of the principles that guide the functioning of these systems. In this sense, Laboratory Phonology might be conceived as a multidisciplinary ield, as it interacts with diferent areas of knowledge, such as psychology or computer science, to fulill its objectives. Laboratory Phonology has been established as a subield of Phonology since the 1980s, through studies such as the ones by Mary Beckman, John Kingston and also John Ohala. Its great contribution to the study of sound systems consists in recognizing the fundamental importance of experimentally collected data to the interpretation of the phonological facts that characterize diferent languages. This importance of the empirical data gives rise to a core epistemological view: the representations, i.e. the phonology of the system, are strictly linked to the empirical data. This said, it should be made clear that we conceive that Laboratory Phonology can be compatible with other models of phonological analysis, as long as these other models also acknowledge the fundamental role of empirical data in phonological representation. The empirical data can be obtained in diferent ways: they can be obtained from production tasks (that allow for an articulatory analysis, an acoustic analysis or both) or from perceptual tasks. It is worth emphasizing that the common aspect to all discussions embraced by Laboratory Phonology is the importance of empirical data in the discussions on the organization of the phonological component. This is the common thread in Gradus; departing from this conception, we believe that the articles in this irst issue conirm the tone described above, which corresponds to the editorial line that the journal will follow. In the irst article of this issue, entitled “What is and what is not an articulatory gesture in speech production. The case of lateral, rhotic and (alveolo)palatal consonants”, based on articulatory data, Daniel Recasens

12

gradus — revista brasileira de fonologia de laboratório (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) discusses the representational nature of dark /l/ and the trill /r/. The central argument in this article in that they are not complex gestures, as they are articulated with a single articulatory gesture. According to the author, spatio-temporal characteristics of the language, degrees of resistance to coarticulation, sound changes and phonological processes associated with these consonants should be attributed to other factors and are not evidence of a complex nature of the sounds in question. The second article, entitled “Há tendência para agrupamento segmental em classes naturais no balbucio e nas palavras iniciais?” (Is there a tendency for segmental grouping in natural classes in babbling and in initial words?), by Maria de Fátima de Almeida Baia (Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia), approaches the L1 acquisition of syllable patterns in Brazilian Portuguese, investigating the hypothesis of a preference for a combination of sounds belonging to the same natural class in late babbling and in initial words. This hypothesis is based on models such as the Frame/Content theory, which predicts that the content of a CV frame consists of sounds that share common articulatory characteristics. However, the great variability found in the longitudinal data leads the author to conclude that the hypothesis is not supported, as the CV frame is not illed in by sounds belonging to the same phonological class. This very same variability is taken as an argument in favor of the claim that language can be conceived of as a complex, adaptive system. In this sense, the instability of the system, revealed by the variability of the data, suggests the testing of new phonic categories, which are produced until the stabilization of the system. Stabilization, in turn, results from a process of self-organization, which is shown in the spontaneous formation of phonotactic patterns. These, in turn, would emerge based on the input that the child receives in the process of language acquisition. The following article, by Mariana Hungria and Eleonora Albano (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), even though through an indirect interaction, complements and deepens the discussion started in the previous text. Entitled “CV co-ocurrence and articulatory control in three Brazilian children from 0:06 to 1:07”, the paper argues that a theory such as the Frame/Content Model — which predicts a preference for sounds in the same natural class in a CV pattern produced by children in their language development — fails to explain cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The authors suggest that one of the

13

gradus — revista brasileira de fonologia de laboratório reasons for this failure lies in the focus on the role of the upper vocal tract in the acquisition of sounds in babbling and in the irst words. Through the analysis of data from three children, Hungria and Albano go further and state that even a more recent approach, which acknowledges the importance of the lower vocal tract in the language acquisition process, does not prove suicient to account for the combinatory patterns found in the data. Thus, the authors claim that an understanding of the interaction of the upper and the lower vocal tracts may lead to a more satisfactory analysis of the data. The article then proposes an explanation of how both tracts interact and how they act in the vocalization produced by the babies. Therefore, whereas Baia’s article tests a hypothesis originated from a traditional phonological model, which sees language as unimodal and predicts the formation of language patterns based on aspects such as natural classes, the article by Hungria and Albano departs from a dynamic view of language, as the authors observe the co-occurrence of factors that prove responsible for the emergence of the varied sound combinations in the CV structure and aim to discuss the interaction between two of these factors. The article by André Nogueira Xavier (Universidade Federal do Paraná), entitled “A variação na produção de sinais da Libras à luz da fonologia gestual” (Variation in the production of the Brazilian sign language under the framework of Gestural Phonology) is innovative in its attempt to approximate Gestural Phonology — or Articulatory Phonology – proposed in the early 90s by Catherine Browman and Louis Goldstein — to Libras, the Brazilian Sign Language. Based on experimental data evidencing the presence of coarticulation, characterized by the use of both hands in the production of single-handed gestures due to the phonological environment of adjacent signs, Xavier proposes a representation of coarticulation via Gestural Phonology, which tries to account for the movements that lead to the implementation of the signs in his data. The remaining three articles deal with the process of L2 development. Although the three studies may be considered to belong to the same ield (L2 phoneticphonological acquisition), their diferent epistemological conceptions show us the diverse character of the umbrella term ‘Laboratory Phonology’. In the article “A question of syllable structure: contextual L2 acquisition of English /p/ and /k/ in a laboratory setting”, Walcir Cardoso (Concordia University) and Paul

14

gradus — revista brasileira de fonologia de laboratório John (Université du Québec) analyze the acquisition of English /p/ and /k/ by Brazilian learners in three phonological contexts: word-mid position, before (i) /t/ and (ii) /n/, and word-inal position. Using a laboratory approach, based on the results of a word-learning experiment, the authors aim to ind empirical arguments for a well-known discussion in phonological theory, which refers to the syllabic status of these consonants when not followed by a vowel: whether they belong to the coda or to the onset of an empty nucleus. This study provides an excellent example of how laboratory methodologies can contribute to some “old” questions that remain unsolved in phonological theory. The article by Ronaldo Lima Júnior (Universidade Federal do Ceará), entitled “Análise longitudinal de vogais do Inglês-L2 de Brasileiros: dados preliminares” (A longitudinal analysis of the development of L2 vowels by Brazilians: preliminary data), is based on a view of language as a Complex, Adaptive System. The adoption of this view of language will imply a diferent approach to the data description and analysis. The author argues for a description of individual data and advocates the need of longitudinal data analyses of the L2 developmental process. In view of the methodological challenges imposed by the necessary consonance between theory and method, Lima Jr. presents the initial results of a longitudinal study, in which the vowel development of Brazilian learners is investigated in two data collections that took place throughout one year. In this article, one of the main tenets of Laboratory Phonology is noticeable: the need for a convergence between the methodology employed and the theoretical background which guides the study. This convergence should result in an inseparable relationship in all studies in the ield. In the last article of this issue, entitled “Processamento de priming grafo-fônico-fonológico em multilíngues em imersão x contexto acadêmico” (Grapho-phonicphonological priming in multilinguals in immersion x academic environments), Cintia Blank (Universidade Federal de Pelotas) e Raquel Llama (University of Ottawa) conduct a lexical decision task with priming in order to investigate the role of the immersion context on the transfer of grapho-phonic-phonological patterns by multilinguals. This study, which is also grounded on a dynamic view of language, represents a good example of the interdisciplinarity of the area of Laboratory Phonology, since it shows how phonetic-phonological variables are related to language processing phenomena. This multifaceted

15

gradus — revista brasileira de fonologia de laboratório nature of Laboratory Phonology is a key motivating factor for the launching of this journal. Besides publishing research articles, Gradus also presents a “Debates” section, which aims to raise discussions on controversial, but rather important, issues to the ield of Laboratory Phonology. In the debates section, we close this irst issue with a text by Luiz Cláudio Silveira Duarte and Adriano Furtado Holanda (Universidade Federal do Paraná). We believe this text marks the provocative tone that will hopefully characterize this section. Although not directly related to Laboratory Phonology, this article brings very important questions for researchers dealing with experiments and, therefore, has to be widely discussed in academia. Entitled “Ética em pesquisas: considerações jurídicas e práticas” (“Ethics in research: legal and practical considerations”), the text points out problems with the normative foundations of the research ethics committees and, consequently, with the practical application of these norms in the Brazilian scenario. As argued by the authors, the problems arise from the fact that the norms tend to be “universal”, i.e., that the norms are intended to regulate any sort of experiment involving human beings, disregarding the speciicities brought by diferent areas of knowledge. In view of this fact, the authors argue that the norms cannot adequately protect the research participants, and at the same time they are characterized by a sufocating bureaucracy which does not even have legal grounds. In conclusion, the eight papers in this irst issue demonstrate the diversity (and, why not say, richness) of the broad conception of Laboratory Phonology that guides this journal. This irst issue also represents an invitation to researchers, from Brazil and abroad, to contribute to the ield with their research indings. These contributions will allow for a collective construction of the area, helping researchers determine not only the basic aspects, but also the intersection limits of this subield of Phonology. We hope the reading of this irst issue may represent a pleasant experience as well as a great opportunity for the development of scientiic knowledge.

Adelaide Hercilia Pescatori Silva Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves Editors

16