Consonants and vowels: different roles in early language acquisition.
TL;DR: It is shown that 12-month-old infants rely more on the consonantal tier when identifying words, but are better at extracting and generalizing repetition-based srtuctures over the vocalic tier, and this suggests that basic speech categories are assigned to different learning mechanisms that sustain early language acquisition.
Abstract: Language acquisition involves both acquiring a set of words (i.e. the lexicon) and learning the rules that combine them to form sentences (i.e. syntax). Here, we show that consonants are mainly involved in word processing, whereas vowels are favored for extracting and generalizing structural relations. We demonstrate that such a division of labor between consonants and vowels plays a role in language acquisition. In two very similar experimental paradigms, we show that 12-month-old infants rely more on the consonantal tier when identifying words (Experiment 1), but are better at extracting and generalizing repetition-based srtuctures over the vocalic tier (Experiment 2). These results indicate that infants are able to exploit the functional differences between consonants and vowels at an age when they start acquiring the lexicon, and suggest that basic speech categories are assigned to different learning mechanisms that sustain early language acquisition.
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TL;DR: It is suggested that some sound-shape mappings precede language learning, and may in fact aid in language learning by establishing a basis for matching labels to referents and narrowing the hypothesis space for young infants.
204 citations
Book•
10 Jan 2013TL;DR: Here, it is suggested that phonological properties emanate from the architecture of the phonological mind, an algebraic system of core knowledge, and are evaluated in light of linguistic evidence, behavioral studies, and comparative animal research that gauges the design of the pharmacological mind and its productivity.
Abstract: Humans weave phonological patterns instinctively. We form phonological patterns at birth, we spontaneously generate them de novo, and we impose phonological design on both our linguistic communication and cultural technologies--reading and writing. Why are humans compelled to generate phonological patterns? Why are phonological patterns intimately grounded in their sensorimotor channels (speech or gesture) while remaining partly amodal and fully productive? And why does phonology shape natural communication and cultural inventions alike? Here, I suggest these properties emanate from the architecture of the phonological mind, an algebraic system of core knowledge. I evaluate this hypothesis in light of linguistic evidence, behavioral studies, and comparative animal research that gauges the design of the phonological mind and its productivity.
89 citations
TL;DR: Investigation of the type of information that newborns retain when they hear words and the brain structures that support word-sound recognition suggests that right frontal areas may support the recognition of speech sequences from the very first stages of language acquisition.
Abstract: Recent research has shown that specific areas of the human brain are activated by speech from the time of birth. However, it is currently unknown whether newborns' brains also encode and remember the sounds of words when processing speech. The present study investigates the type of information that newborns retain when they hear words and the brain structures that support word-sound recognition. Forty-four healthy newborns were tested with the functional near-infrared spectroscopy method to establish their ability to memorize the sound of a word and distinguish it from a phonetically similar one, 2 min after encoding. Right frontal regions—comparable to those activated in adults during retrieval of verbal material—showed a characteristic neural signature of recognition when newborns listened to a test word that had the same vowel of a previously heard word. In contrast, a characteristic novelty response was found when a test word had different vowels than the familiar word, despite having the same consonants. These results indicate that the information carried by vowels is better recognized by newborns than the information carried by consonants. Moreover, these data suggest that right frontal areas may support the recognition of speech sequences from the very first stages of language acquisition.
85 citations
Cites background from "Consonants and vowels: different ro..."
...Newborns encode the properties of vowels, whereas by the end of the first year, infants start making use of consonants to establish phonological representations of words (23)....
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...Although this intriguing developmental change requires further study, it is conceivable that factors, such as the statistical properties of the environmental language (63, 64), maturation of areas of the brain implicated in language processing (40, 41), as well as the emergence of native consonantal categories (23), contribute to this transition....
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TL;DR: Vocabulary size predicted 15-month-olds' identifications for the Jamaican pronunciations, suggesting vocabulary growth is a viable predictor for phonological constancy development.
Abstract: By 12 months, children grasp that a phonetic change to a word can change its identity (phonological distinctiveness). However, they must also grasp that some phonetic changes do not (phonological constancy). To test development of phonological constancy, sixteen 15-month-olds and sixteen 19-month-olds completed an eye-tracking task that tracked their gaze to named versus unnamed images for familiar words spoken in their native (Australian) and an unfamiliar non-native (Jamaican) regional accent of English. Both groups looked longer at named than unnamed images for Australian pronunciations, but only 19-month-olds did so for Jamaican pronunciations, indicating that phonological constancy emerges by 19 months. Vocabulary size predicted 15-month-olds' identifications for the Jamaican pronunciations, suggesting vocabulary growth is a viable predictor for phonological constancy development.
73 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated for the first time that infants are sensitive to the distinction between frequent and infrequent acoustic stimuli, showing greater pupil dilation in response to infrequent stimuli, and it is shown that 6-month-olds, but not 3- Montholds, solve the invariance problem.
Abstract: Despite the fact that no invariant acoustic property corresponds to a single stop consonant coupled with different vowels (e.g., [da], [de], and [du]), adults effortlessly identify the same consonant embedded in different syllables. In so doing, they solve the invariance problem. Can 3- and 6-month-olds solve it as well? To answer this question, we developed a novel methodology based on pupillometry. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated for the first time that infants are sensitive to the distinction between frequent and infrequent acoustic stimuli, showing greater pupil dilation in response to infrequent stimuli. Building on this effect, in Experiment 2, we showed that 6-month-olds, but not 3-month-olds, solve the invariance problem. Moreover, this ability develops before, and therefore independently of, the ability to produce well-formed syllables.
56 citations
Cites background from "Consonants and vowels: different ro..."
...…is known to be present shortly after birth (Eimas, Siqueland, Jusczyk, & Vigorito, 1971), whereas consonantal bias and difficulty in perceiving nonnative speech sounds emerge between the ages of 6 and 12 months (Hochmann et al., 2011; Peña et al., 2012; Pons & Toro, 2010; Werker & Tees, 1984)....
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...Categorical perception is known to be present shortly after birth (Eimas, Siqueland, Jusczyk, & Vigorito, 1971), whereas consonantal bias and difficulty in perceiving nonnative speech sounds emerge between the ages of 6 and 12 months (Hochmann et al., 2011; Peña et al., 2012; Pons & Toro, 2010; Werker & Tees, 1984)....
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References
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TL;DR: The present study shows that a fundamental task of language acquisition, segmentation of words from fluent speech, can be accomplished by 8-month-old infants based solely on the statistical relationships between neighboring speech sounds.
Abstract: Learners rely on a combination of experience-independent and experience-dependent mechanisms to extract information from the environment. Language acquisition involves both types of mechanisms, but most theorists emphasize the relative importance of experience-independent mechanisms. The present study shows that a fundamental task of language acquisition, segmentation of words from fluent speech, can be accomplished by 8-month-old infants based solely on the statistical relationships between neighboring speech sounds. Moreover, this word segmentation was based on statistical learning from only 2 minutes of exposure, suggesting that infants have access to a powerful mechanism for the computation of statistical properties of the language input.
4,352 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1995TL;DR: Data from parent reports are used to describe the typical course and the extent of variability in major features of communicative development between 8 and 30 months of age, and unusually detailed information is offered on the course of development of individual lexical, gestural, and grammatical items and features.
Abstract: Data from parent reports on 1,803 children--derived from a normative study of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs)--are used to describe the typical course and the extent of variability in major features of communicative development between 8 and 30 months of age. The two instruments, one designed for 8-16-month-old infants, the other for 16-30-month-old toddlers, are both reliable and valid, confirming the value of parent reports that are based on contemporary behavior and a recognition format. Growth trends are described for children scoring at the 10th-, 25th-, 50th-, 75th-, and 90th-percentile levels on receptive and expressive vocabulary, actions and gestures, and a number of aspects of morphology and syntax. Extensive variability exists in the rate of lexical, gestural, and grammatical development. The wide variability across children in the time of onset and course of acquisition of these skills challenges the meaningfulness of the concept of the modal child. At the same time, moderate to high intercorrelations are found among the different skills both concurrently and predictively (across a 6-month period). Sex differences consistently favor females; however, these are very small, typically accounting for 1%-2% of the variance. The effects of SES and birth order are even smaller within this age range. The inventories offer objective criteria for defining typicality and exceptionality, and their cost effectiveness facilitates the aggregation of large data sets needed to address many issues of contemporary theoretical interest. The present data also offer unusually detailed information on the course of development of individual lexical, gestural, and grammatical items and features. Adaptations of the CDIs to other languages have opened new possibilities for cross-linguistic explorations of sequence, rate, and variability of communicative development.
2,467 citations
TL;DR: This article showed that infants can discriminate non-native speech contrasts without relevant experience, and that there is a decline in this ability during ontogeny, which is a function of specific language experience.
Abstract: Previous work in which we compared English infants, English adults, and Hindi adults on their ability to discriminate two pairs of Hindi (non-English) speech contrasts has indicated that infants discriminate speech sounds according to phonetic category without prior specific language experience (Werker, Gilbert, Humphrey, & Tees, 1981), whereas adults and children as young as age 4 (Werker & Tees, in press), may lose this ability as a function of age and or linguistic experience. The present work was designed to (a) determine the generalizability of such a decline by comparing adult English, adult Salish, and English infant subjects on their perception of a new non-English (Salish) speech contrast, and (b) delineate the time course of the developmental decline in this ability. The results of these experiments replicate our original findings by showing that infants can discriminate non-native speech contrasts without relevant experience, and that there is a decline in this ability during ontogeny. Furthermore, data from both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies shows that this decline occurs within the first year of life, and that it is a function of specific language experience. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Inc.
2,438 citations
Book•
03 Jul 1984TL;DR: A fundamentally new approach to the theory of phonology and its relation to syntax is developed in this book, which is the first to address the question of the relation between syntax and phonology in a systematic way.
Abstract: A fundamentally new approach to the theory of phonology and its relation to syntax is developed in this book, which is the first to address the question of the relation between syntax and phonology in a systematic way.This general theory differs from its predecessors in the generative tradition in several respects. By arguing that the intonational structure of a sentence determines certain aspects of its stress pattern or rhythmic structure, and not vice versa, it provides a novel view of the intonation-stress relation. It also offers a new theory of the focus-prosody relation that solves a variety of classic puzzles and involves an appeal to the place of a focused constituent in the predicate-argument structure of the sentence. The book also includes other novel features, among them a development of the metrical grid theory of stress (including a complete treatment of English word stress in this framework), the representation of juncture in terms of "silent" positions in the metrical grid (with a treatment of sandhi in terms of this rhythmic juncture), and a "rhythmic" nonsyntactic approach to the basic phonology of function words in EnglishElisabeth 0. Selkirk is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This book is tenth in the series, Current Studies in Linguistics.
2,182 citations
"Consonants and vowels: different ro..." refers background in this paper
...Vowels, in contrast, carry prosodic variations and provide cues to determine the boundaries and the organization of syntactic constituents (Nespor & Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1984)....
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...That is, vowels are more affected than consonants by prosody, which provides signals to syntactic constituency (Gleitman & Wanner, 1982; Morgan & Demuth, 1996; Nespor & Vogel, 2008; Selkirk, 1984)....
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...Consequently, 12-month-old and possibly younger infants ought to be capable of extracting the structural information carried by vowels, including prosodic information that informs syntax (Nespor & Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1984)....
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...Third, prosodic and rhythmic information provides cues that correlate with important morphosyntactic properties (Morgan & Demuth, 1996; Nespor, Shukla & Mehler, 2011; Nespor & Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1984)....
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TL;DR: This study of 6-month-old infants from two countries, the United States and Sweden, shows that exposure to a specific language in the first half year of life alters infants' phonetic perception.
Abstract: Linguistic experience affects phonetic perception. However, the critical period during which experience affects perception and the mechanism responsible for these effects are unknown. This study of 6-month-old infants from two countries, the United States and Sweden, shows that exposure to a specific language in the first half year of life alters infants' phonetic perception.
1,862 citations