Pub Date : 2022-10-17DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2128483
Published in Language Learning and Development (Vol. 18, No. 4, 2022)
发表于《语言学习与发展》(第18卷第4期，2022年)
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Pub Date : 2022-08-18DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2107522
Alev Senem Ozakin, Xiaotong Xi, Peng Li, P. Prieto
ABSTRACT The present study investigates whether training second language pronunciation with tactile cues facilitates the production of non-native sounds involving accessible articulatory features. In a between-subjects experiment with a pretest-training-posttest design, 50 Turkish learners of English received audiovisual training on a set of target words and sentences containing two English interdental fricatives, /θ/ and /ð/, in one of two conditions, tactile and non-tactile. The tactile condition involved self-touching the tongue as it protruded during pronunciation of the two target sounds. Participants’ pronunciation performance was assessed through a word-imitation task, a sentence-imitation task, and a discourse reading task. Results showed that while both training conditions helped learners to improve their pronunciation performance in all three tasks, the tactile condition triggered greater improvements in the discourse reading task. These results extend previous findings on the benefits of tactile input for speech perception and suggest the efficacy of multisensory training paradigms for improving second language pronunciation.
{"title":"Thanks or Tanks: Training with Tactile Cues Improves Learners’ Accuracy of English Interdental Consonants in an Oral Reading Task","authors":"Alev Senem Ozakin, Xiaotong Xi, Peng Li, P. Prieto","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2107522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2107522","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The present study investigates whether training second language pronunciation with tactile cues facilitates the production of non-native sounds involving accessible articulatory features. In a between-subjects experiment with a pretest-training-posttest design, 50 Turkish learners of English received audiovisual training on a set of target words and sentences containing two English interdental fricatives, /θ/ and /ð/, in one of two conditions, tactile and non-tactile. The tactile condition involved self-touching the tongue as it protruded during pronunciation of the two target sounds. Participants’ pronunciation performance was assessed through a word-imitation task, a sentence-imitation task, and a discourse reading task. Results showed that while both training conditions helped learners to improve their pronunciation performance in all three tasks, the tactile condition triggered greater improvements in the discourse reading task. These results extend previous findings on the benefits of tactile input for speech perception and suggest the efficacy of multisensory training paradigms for improving second language pronunciation.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"15 1","pages":"404 - 419"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90461376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-28DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2071715
E. Castroviejo, José V. Hernández-Conde, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Marta Ponciano, Agustín Vicente
ABSTRACT This paper reports an experiment that investigates interpretive distinctions between two different expressions of generalization in Spanish. In particular, our aim was to find out when the distinction between generic statements (GS) such as Tigers have stripes and universally quantified statements (UQS) such as All tigers have stripes was acquired in Spanish-speaking children of two different age groups (4/5-year-olds and 8/9-year-olds), and then compare these results with those of adults. The starting point of this research was the semantic distinction between GS and UQS in that the former admit exceptions, unlike the latter. On the other hand, several authors have observed a Generic overgeneralization effect (GOG) consisting in allowing for UQS to be felicitous in the face of exceptions, thus proposing that this “error” stems from GS being defaults (simpler, more easily learned and processed). In the current paper we aimed to test the “Generics as Default” (GaD) hypothesis by comparing GS and UQS in three different age ranges. Our data show that, overall, the accuracy of GS is greater than the accuracy of UQS. Moreover, we also confirm a hypothesized interaction between age and NP type (GS vs UQS). Further, we present several data points that are not predicted by the GaD, including an observed decline in the accuracy of GS in the older group of children as well as in adults, and that children fail at rejecting statements that are not considered to be true generalizations.
摘要:本文报道了一项实验，研究了西班牙语中两种不同的概括表达之间的解释差异。特别是，我们的目的是找出在讲西班牙语的两个不同年龄组(4/5岁和8/9岁)的儿童中，什么时候获得了诸如“老虎有条纹”这样的一般陈述(GS)和诸如“所有老虎有条纹”这样的普遍量化陈述(UQS)之间的区别，然后将这些结果与成人的结果进行比较。本研究的出发点是GS和UQS之间的语义区别，因为前者承认例外，而后者则不同。另一方面，一些作者已经观察到一种通用的过度一般化效应(GOG)，包括允许UQS在面对异常时表现得很好，因此提出这种“错误”源于GS是默认的(更简单，更容易学习和处理)。在本论文中，我们旨在通过比较三个不同年龄段的GS和UQS来检验“通用作为默认”(GaD)假设。我们的数据表明，总体而言，GS的精度大于UQS的精度。此外，我们还证实了年龄和NP类型(GS vs UQS)之间的假设相互作用。此外，我们还提供了一些GaD无法预测的数据点，包括观察到的年龄较大的儿童和成人的GS准确性下降，以及儿童无法拒绝不被认为是真实概括的陈述。
{"title":"Are Generics Defaults? A Study on the Interpretation of Generics and Universals in 3 Age-Groups of Spanish-Speaking Individuals","authors":"E. Castroviejo, José V. Hernández-Conde, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Marta Ponciano, Agustín Vicente","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2071715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2071715","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper reports an experiment that investigates interpretive distinctions between two different expressions of generalization in Spanish. In particular, our aim was to find out when the distinction between generic statements (GS) such as Tigers have stripes and universally quantified statements (UQS) such as All tigers have stripes was acquired in Spanish-speaking children of two different age groups (4/5-year-olds and 8/9-year-olds), and then compare these results with those of adults. The starting point of this research was the semantic distinction between GS and UQS in that the former admit exceptions, unlike the latter. On the other hand, several authors have observed a Generic overgeneralization effect (GOG) consisting in allowing for UQS to be felicitous in the face of exceptions, thus proposing that this “error” stems from GS being defaults (simpler, more easily learned and processed). In the current paper we aimed to test the “Generics as Default” (GaD) hypothesis by comparing GS and UQS in three different age ranges. Our data show that, overall, the accuracy of GS is greater than the accuracy of UQS. Moreover, we also confirm a hypothesized interaction between age and NP type (GS vs UQS). Further, we present several data points that are not predicted by the GaD, including an observed decline in the accuracy of GS in the older group of children as well as in adults, and that children fail at rejecting statements that are not considered to be true generalizations.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"22 1","pages":"275 - 302"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85502251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-26DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2086131
Shuyan Wang
ABSTRACT Relatively late mastery of scalar implicatures has been suggested to correlate with children’s immature processing capacities, such as their limited working memory. Yet, many studies that tested for a link between children’s working memory and their computation of scalar implicatures have failed to find any correlation. One possible reason is that the children in these studies showed little individual variation in computing scalar implicatures. The present study therefore tested for an effect of working memory in younger children, who still clearly displayed difficulties with scalar implicatures and showed greater individual variation. Subjects were 4- to 7-year-old children acquiring either English or Mandarin Chinese. A covered-box task was used to investigate the computation of scalar implicatures associated with ‘some’. A digit span task was used to measure their working memory. Neither the Mandarin-speaking children nor the English-speaking children computed scalar implicatures at an adult-like level. Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between children’s computation of scalar implicatures and their digit spans. These results have provided new support for a processing approach to the observed late mastery of scalar implicatures.
{"title":"Effects of Processing Limits on Computing Scalar Implicatures: Evidence from Child English and Child Mandarin","authors":"Shuyan Wang","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2086131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2086131","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Relatively late mastery of scalar implicatures has been suggested to correlate with children’s immature processing capacities, such as their limited working memory. Yet, many studies that tested for a link between children’s working memory and their computation of scalar implicatures have failed to find any correlation. One possible reason is that the children in these studies showed little individual variation in computing scalar implicatures. The present study therefore tested for an effect of working memory in younger children, who still clearly displayed difficulties with scalar implicatures and showed greater individual variation. Subjects were 4- to 7-year-old children acquiring either English or Mandarin Chinese. A covered-box task was used to investigate the computation of scalar implicatures associated with ‘some’. A digit span task was used to measure their working memory. Neither the Mandarin-speaking children nor the English-speaking children computed scalar implicatures at an adult-like level. Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between children’s computation of scalar implicatures and their digit spans. These results have provided new support for a processing approach to the observed late mastery of scalar implicatures.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"22 1","pages":"345 - 368"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74253257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-13DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2099279
Alexandra Mendelsohn, Catalina Suarez-Rivera, Daniel D. Suh, C. Tamis-LeMonda
ABSTRACT Children learn math concepts long before they enter school. Across all cultures, children are exposed to number and spatial language to varying degrees during everyday home routines. Yet most studies of math talk occur in the lab and target non-Hispanic, English-speaking families. We expanded inquiry to the spontaneous math language (i.e., number and spatial language) of Spanish-speaking mothers and their 1- to 2-year-olds (N = 50) during home activities. Mothers varied enormously in their use of math language, and mother math language related to toddler math language, whereas mother non-math language did not. Children’s math language both preceded and followed mother math talk, suggesting imitation and reinforcement as important processes in children’s math language learning. Children also produced math language outside the context of mother input. Findings advance an understanding of children’s early math language in natural settings and have implications for interventions aimed at promoting math skills in toddlers from diverse backgrounds.
{"title":"Word by Word: Everyday Math Talk in the Homes of Hispanic Families","authors":"Alexandra Mendelsohn, Catalina Suarez-Rivera, Daniel D. Suh, C. Tamis-LeMonda","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2099279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2099279","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Children learn math concepts long before they enter school. Across all cultures, children are exposed to number and spatial language to varying degrees during everyday home routines. Yet most studies of math talk occur in the lab and target non-Hispanic, English-speaking families. We expanded inquiry to the spontaneous math language (i.e., number and spatial language) of Spanish-speaking mothers and their 1- to 2-year-olds (N = 50) during home activities. Mothers varied enormously in their use of math language, and mother math language related to toddler math language, whereas mother non-math language did not. Children’s math language both preceded and followed mother math talk, suggesting imitation and reinforcement as important processes in children’s math language learning. Children also produced math language outside the context of mother input. Findings advance an understanding of children’s early math language in natural settings and have implications for interventions aimed at promoting math skills in toddlers from diverse backgrounds.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"386 - 403"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82796014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2047687
C. Christodoulou, K. Wexler
ABSTRACT This paper explores the nature of copula omission in Cypriot Greek individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Previous studies on DS have attributed high rates of copula omission to an overall grammatical/inflectional impairment without offering further analysis. In order to identify relevant conditioning factors, we examined copula productions and omissions from spontaneous and elicited experimental tasks under five levels of analysis: categorial type of the predicate (nominal vs. adjectival), aspectual interpretation of the predicate (permanent vs. temporary), and a combination of these first two, as well as subject status (overt vs. covert) and experimental design (spontaneous vs. elicited). Results showed that adults with DS had significantly higher rates of copula omission than TD children. We found subject overtness to be the most reliable predictor of copula omission. A comparison of the two experimental methods of data collection also revealed a significant effect. Following an analysis based on the Unique Checking Constraint, we propose that copula omission is facilitated by the restriction that only one EPP feature (either the one in TP or the one in TopicP) can be checked. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of a distinction across a delayed vs. deviant development of the DS grammar.
{"title":"Copula Omission in Down Syndrome","authors":"C. Christodoulou, K. Wexler","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2047687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2047687","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores the nature of copula omission in Cypriot Greek individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Previous studies on DS have attributed high rates of copula omission to an overall grammatical/inflectional impairment without offering further analysis. In order to identify relevant conditioning factors, we examined copula productions and omissions from spontaneous and elicited experimental tasks under five levels of analysis: categorial type of the predicate (nominal vs. adjectival), aspectual interpretation of the predicate (permanent vs. temporary), and a combination of these first two, as well as subject status (overt vs. covert) and experimental design (spontaneous vs. elicited). Results showed that adults with DS had significantly higher rates of copula omission than TD children. We found subject overtness to be the most reliable predictor of copula omission. A comparison of the two experimental methods of data collection also revealed a significant effect. Following an analysis based on the Unique Checking Constraint, we propose that copula omission is facilitated by the restriction that only one EPP feature (either the one in TP or the one in TopicP) can be checked. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of a distinction across a delayed vs. deviant development of the DS grammar.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"9 1","pages":"49 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85012649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2074852
M. Pronina, P. Prieto, L. Bischetti, V. Bambini
ABSTRACT Pragmatics lies at the point where language meets the social world and encompasses both the linguistic and the social dimensions of communication. However, the relationship between pragmatic abilities, other language skills, and socio-cognitive aspects such as mentalizing is still a matter of wide debate. This study sets out to investigate the status of pragmatic abilities by testing from a developmental angle their relationship with other linguistic skills and mentalizing. We examined the role of structural language and mentalizing on both expressive pragmatic and prosodic skills in typically developing preschool children. A total of 105 3-to 4-year-old children were assessed on pragmatics and prosody with the Audiovisual Pragmatic Test, as well as on structural language skills (vocabulary and syntax) and a series of mentalizing measures (false belief, emotion understanding, and metacognitive vocabulary). A combined approach including correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Structural language was a strong positive predictor of both pragmatic and prosodic scores, while mentalizing predicted neither pragmatic nor prosodic performance. We suggest that in preschool years, expressive pragmatics and prosodic skills are more closely related to structural language skills than to mentalizing.
{"title":"Expressive Pragmatics and Prosody in Young Preschoolers are More Closely Related to Structural Language than to Mentalizing","authors":"M. Pronina, P. Prieto, L. Bischetti, V. Bambini","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2074852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2074852","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Pragmatics lies at the point where language meets the social world and encompasses both the linguistic and the social dimensions of communication. However, the relationship between pragmatic abilities, other language skills, and socio-cognitive aspects such as mentalizing is still a matter of wide debate. This study sets out to investigate the status of pragmatic abilities by testing from a developmental angle their relationship with other linguistic skills and mentalizing. We examined the role of structural language and mentalizing on both expressive pragmatic and prosodic skills in typically developing preschool children. A total of 105 3-to 4-year-old children were assessed on pragmatics and prosody with the Audiovisual Pragmatic Test, as well as on structural language skills (vocabulary and syntax) and a series of mentalizing measures (false belief, emotion understanding, and metacognitive vocabulary). A combined approach including correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Structural language was a strong positive predictor of both pragmatic and prosodic scores, while mentalizing predicted neither pragmatic nor prosodic performance. We suggest that in preschool years, expressive pragmatics and prosodic skills are more closely related to structural language skills than to mentalizing.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"23 1","pages":"323 - 344"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79267734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2050237
Gyu-Ho Shin, K. Deen
ABSTRACT The present study investigates the role of three structural factors (word order, case-marking, and verbal morphology) in the comprehension of the Korean suffixal passive by Korean-speaking children. To measure the relative impact of each factor on the comprehension of the passive, we devise a novel method where these factors are obscured systematically by employing acoustic masking – chewing and coughing. Results from three picture selection tasks show that (i) the Agent-First preference is not ubiquitously employed by young children, but is dependent on other grammatical cues, (ii) despite mediocre accuracy rates on passive sentences, we nonetheless find evidence that children have some knowledge about the passive construction, and (iii) scrambling of passive sentences does not aid in comprehension. These findings suggest that, in order to understand the acquisition of the passive, all these structural factors need to be considered.
{"title":"One Is Not Enough: Interactive Role of Word Order, Case-marking, and Verbal Morphology in Children’s Comprehension of Suffixal Passive in Korean","authors":"Gyu-Ho Shin, K. Deen","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2050237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2050237","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The present study investigates the role of three structural factors (word order, case-marking, and verbal morphology) in the comprehension of the Korean suffixal passive by Korean-speaking children. To measure the relative impact of each factor on the comprehension of the passive, we devise a novel method where these factors are obscured systematically by employing acoustic masking – chewing and coughing. Results from three picture selection tasks show that (i) the Agent-First preference is not ubiquitously employed by young children, but is dependent on other grammatical cues, (ii) despite mediocre accuracy rates on passive sentences, we nonetheless find evidence that children have some knowledge about the passive construction, and (iii) scrambling of passive sentences does not aid in comprehension. These findings suggest that, in order to understand the acquisition of the passive, all these structural factors need to be considered.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"79 2 1","pages":"188 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91101465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-18DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2071717
Katie Von Holzen, Sandrien van Ommen, Katherine S White, T. Nazzi
ABSTRACT Successful word recognition requires that listeners attend to differences that are phonemic in the language while also remaining flexible to the variation introduced by different voices and accents. Previous work has demonstrated that American-English-learning 19-month-olds are able to balance these demands: although one-off one-feature mispronunciations typically disrupt English-learning toddlers’ lexical access, they no longer do after toddlers are exposed to a novel accent in which these changes occur systematically. The flexibility to deal with different types of variation may not be the same for toddlers learning different first languages, however, as language structure shapes early phonological biases. We examined French-learning 19-month-olds’ sensitivity and adaptation to a novel accent that shifted either the standard pronunciation of /a/ from [a] to [ɛ] (Experiment 1) or the standard pronunciation of /p/ from [p] to [t] (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, French-learning toddlers recognized words with /a/ produced as [ɛ], regardless of whether they were previously exposed to an accent that contained this vowel shift or not. In Experiment 2, toddlers did not recognize words with /p/ pronounced as [t] at test unless they were first familiarized with an accent that contained this consonant shift. These findings are consistent with evidence that French-learning toddlers privilege consonants over vowels in lexical processing. Together with previous work, these results demonstrate both differences and similarities in how French- and English-learning children treat variation, in line with their language-specific phonological biases.
{"title":"The Impact of Phonological Biases on Mispronunciation Sensitivity and Novel Accent Adaptation","authors":"Katie Von Holzen, Sandrien van Ommen, Katherine S White, T. Nazzi","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2071717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2071717","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Successful word recognition requires that listeners attend to differences that are phonemic in the language while also remaining flexible to the variation introduced by different voices and accents. Previous work has demonstrated that American-English-learning 19-month-olds are able to balance these demands: although one-off one-feature mispronunciations typically disrupt English-learning toddlers’ lexical access, they no longer do after toddlers are exposed to a novel accent in which these changes occur systematically. The flexibility to deal with different types of variation may not be the same for toddlers learning different first languages, however, as language structure shapes early phonological biases. We examined French-learning 19-month-olds’ sensitivity and adaptation to a novel accent that shifted either the standard pronunciation of /a/ from [a] to [ɛ] (Experiment 1) or the standard pronunciation of /p/ from [p] to [t] (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, French-learning toddlers recognized words with /a/ produced as [ɛ], regardless of whether they were previously exposed to an accent that contained this vowel shift or not. In Experiment 2, toddlers did not recognize words with /p/ pronounced as [t] at test unless they were first familiarized with an accent that contained this consonant shift. These findings are consistent with evidence that French-learning toddlers privilege consonants over vowels in lexical processing. Together with previous work, these results demonstrate both differences and similarities in how French- and English-learning children treat variation, in line with their language-specific phonological biases.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":"29 1","pages":"303 - 322"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75899618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-18DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2060834
Weiyi Ma, Rufan Luo, R. Golinkoff, K. Hirsh-Pasek
ABSTRACT Verbs serve as the architectural centerpiece of sentences, making verb learning pivotal for language acquisition. Verb learning requires both the formation of a verb-action mapping and the abstraction of relations between an object and its action. Two competing positions have been proposed to explain the process of verb learning: (a) seeing a highly variable range of exemplars allows children to detect and abstract the commonalities across actions—the action invariants; and (b) seeing a less variable range of exemplars enables children to focus on and extract the action invariants. Using manner—a major component of verb meaning in English—as a test case, this study addressed this debate by examining the influence of manner variability on the ability to fast-map new verbs and extend them to novel exemplars in 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old English-speaking children. Results contribute to this debate by showing that high manner variability hindered fast-mapping but facilitated extension to manner variations in the 2- and 3-year-olds. Thus, high exemplar variability may affect verb fast-mapping and extension differently. Furthermore, manner variability did not affect 4-year-olds’ (or adults’) fast-mapping or extension, suggesting that the influence of exemplar variability on verb learning attenuates with age. Finally, manner variability did not affect agent or object extension, revealing a component-specific effect of exemplar variability on verb extension.
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