{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025903939557474366, 'fraction_numerical': 0.016189962223421478, 'mean_word_length': 5.4825174825174825, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Child Chain Shifts as Faithfulness toInput Prominence

Certain chain shifts of this type spontaneously arise and then subside in the developing phonological systems of language learners, contrary to the predictions of most current phonological and acquisition theories. This paper addresses the issue from within the framework of Optimality Theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995, Prince & Smolensky 2004), arguing that developmental chain shifts are natural intermediate stages driven by specific faithfulness constraints referencing perceptually-prominent input feature combinations. These specific faithfulness constraints demand the preservation of key features on input /A/, preventing /A/ from being realized as unmarked [C] in the output. Input /B/ is not subject to these specific faithfulness constraints and thus freely surfaces as [C]. With these perceptually-motivated specific faithfulness constraints in place and biased toward high ranking, chain shifts naturally develop as positive target-language evidence drives learning. Section 2 presents data from the L1 puzzle-puddle-pickle chain shift of Amahl (Smith 1973; see also Dinnsen, O’Connor & Gierut 2001, Macken 1980) and clarifies the theoretical challenges posed by such opaque developmental patterns. Section 3 introduces the specific IDENT constraints at work here and provides an analysis of the puzzle-puddle-pickle data. Section 4 considers further interactions of the relevant constraints and demonstrates that an OT approach can account for aspects of Amahl’s chain shift that have proven challenging for previous analyses. Section 5 discusses the development of chain shift patterns and introduces data from the s f chain shift (Dinnsen & Barlow 1998) as further support for the approach developed here. Finally, Section 6 discusses the main typological predictions of this account.