About this Research Topic

Background

Over the past 30 years, formal approaches to second (and additional) language acquisition (SLA) have made great advances in understanding the nature of the multilingual mind. However, it is undeniable that most of the research into the speech of learners and multilinguals has focused on more phonetic (rather than phonological) approaches. These phonetic approaches, among other contributions, enrich our understanding of surface variation in the production and perception of various sound phenomena. Complementing these phonetic approaches, phonological approaches seek to describe mental representations that connect sound and meaning and may tell us about both universal and language-specific patterns in non-native development and use. Studies undertaking these objectives, however, are comparatively scarce in the literature, particularly those whose empirical examination of SLA seek to further develop complex linguistic models of the mental representation of phonology, and to inform phonological theory.

In this Research Topic, we seek to inform principled (psycho)linguistic phenomena within a formal framework of phonological theory to describe and account for learner knowledge and behavior. Specifically, we aim to further our understanding of fundamental notions such as phonological features, syllabic and metrical structure, markedness and complexity, and phonological processes (e.g., assimilation, syllable repair, vowel harmony), as well as dynamic (e.g., allophonic variation) and static (e.g., phonotactic patterns) sound distributions in the lexicon. These articles will provide empirical data to evaluate phonological theory and, at the same time, shed light on cognitive aspects of non-native speech perception and production.

This Research Topic invites original empirical studies that represent the latest insights into formal approaches to multilingual phonology, corroborate current theoretical accounts of phonological representation, and/or test different approaches against one another in light of multilingual data. The umbrella of multilingual phonology in this topic covers second language acquisition/use, third language acquisition/use, early bi- and multilingualism (including heritage speaker bilingualism), and attrition. Unrestricted to a specific theoretical approach to phonology, we welcome papers that address one or more of the fundamental notions above via the empirical investigation of:
• subsegmental phenomena (e.g., representational aspects of phonological features)
• segmental phenomena and phonological processes (e.g., phonemic contrasts, allophonic alternations, assimilation, lenition, etc.; vowel and nasal harmony systems)
• suprasegmental phenomena (e.g., prosodic constituency, suprasegmental units and metrical structure; word- and higher-level prosodic prominence; tonal patterns in tonal and intonational languages alike, etc.)
• interface phenomena (phonetics-phonology, morphophonology, phonology-syntax mapping, etc.)

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: phonology, generative phonology, learnability, generative second language acquisition, third language acquisition, attrition, bilingualism, multilingualism, heritage speaker bilingualism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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