{"title":"Learning biases in proper nouns","authors":"Yu Tanaka","doi":"10.1017/s0952675724000046","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"It has been proposed that there are cognitive biases in language learning that favour certain patterns over others. This study examines the effects of such bias factors on the learning of the phonology of proper nouns. I take up the phenomenon of compound voicing in Japanese surnames. The results of two judgment experiments show that, while Japanese speakers replicate various kinds of statistical regularities in existing names, they tend to extend only phonologically motivated patterns to novel names. This suggests that phonological naturalness plays a role even in the learning of a highly faithful category of words, namely proper nouns, and provides evidence for the relevance of learning biases in synchronic grammar.","PeriodicalId":46804,"journal":{"name":"Phonology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Phonology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675724000046","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
It has been proposed that there are cognitive biases in language learning that favour certain patterns over others. This study examines the effects of such bias factors on the learning of the phonology of proper nouns. I take up the phenomenon of compound voicing in Japanese surnames. The results of two judgment experiments show that, while Japanese speakers replicate various kinds of statistical regularities in existing names, they tend to extend only phonologically motivated patterns to novel names. This suggests that phonological naturalness plays a role even in the learning of a highly faithful category of words, namely proper nouns, and provides evidence for the relevance of learning biases in synchronic grammar.
期刊介绍:
Phonology, published three times a year, is the only journal devoted exclusively to the discipline, and provides a unique forum for the productive interchange of ideas among phonologists and those working in related disciplines. Preference is given to papers which make a substantial theoretical contribution, irrespective of the particular theoretical framework employed, but the submission of papers presenting new empirical data of general theoretical interest is also encouraged. The journal carries research articles, as well as book reviews and shorter pieces on topics of current controversy within phonology.