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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2060834
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.
{"title":"The Influence of Exemplar Variability on Young Children’s Construal of Verb Meaning","authors":"Weiyi Ma, Rufan Luo, R. Golinkoff, K. Hirsh-Pasek","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2060834","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2060834","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73438610","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":null,"pages":null},"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 : 2022-05-10DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2047690
D. Kayabaşı, Kadir Gökgöz
ABSTRACT We discuss the causative-inchoative alternation in Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili – TİD), and the age of acquisition effects on multi-predicate, complex constructions that are observed in both causative and inchoative events. We present a picture-description task performed by 24 adult signers, half of which were exposed to TİD from birth (native adult signers) and the other half after the age of 4 (late adult signers). The results show that (i) the causative-inchoative alternation in TİD is attested both as labile alternation and classifier alternation; (ii) there is no significant age of acquisition effects on the choice of alternation types; (iii) both causative and inchoative events have complex event structures that can be overtly expressed through multi-predicate, complex constructions; and (iv) late signers are less likely to produce multi-predicate, complex constructions than native signers. These results support the significance of deaf individuals’ early exposure to a sign language.
摘要:本文讨论了土耳其手语(t rk İşaret Dili - TİD)的致动-始动交替，以及在致动和始动事件中观察到的多谓语复杂结构的习得年龄效应。我们提出了一个由24名成年签名者完成的图片描述任务，其中一半人从出生开始接触TİD(原生成人签名者)，另一半人在4岁之后(晚期成人签名者)。结果表明:(1)TİD的致始交替被证明是不稳定交替和分类交替;(ii)习得年龄对替代类型的选择没有显著影响;(iii)致因事件和起始事件都具有复杂的事件结构，可以通过多谓语、复杂结构来公开表达;(iv)晚期手语使用者比原生手语使用者更不可能产生多谓词、复杂的结构。这些结果支持了失聪个体早期接触手语的重要性。
{"title":"The Causative-Inchoative Alternation and Age-of-Acquisition Effects on Multi-predicate Constructions in Turkish Sign Language","authors":"D. Kayabaşı, Kadir Gökgöz","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2047690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2047690","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We discuss the causative-inchoative alternation in Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili – TİD), and the age of acquisition effects on multi-predicate, complex constructions that are observed in both causative and inchoative events. We present a picture-description task performed by 24 adult signers, half of which were exposed to TİD from birth (native adult signers) and the other half after the age of 4 (late adult signers). The results show that (i) the causative-inchoative alternation in TİD is attested both as labile alternation and classifier alternation; (ii) there is no significant age of acquisition effects on the choice of alternation types; (iii) both causative and inchoative events have complex event structures that can be overtly expressed through multi-predicate, complex constructions; and (iv) late signers are less likely to produce multi-predicate, complex constructions than native signers. These results support the significance of deaf individuals’ early exposure to a sign language.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82700891","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 : 2022-05-06DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2047688
Angela Cooper, Melissa Paquette-Smith, Caterina Bordignon, E. K. Johnson
ABSTRACT Foreign accents can vary considerably in the degree to which they deviate from the listener’s native accent, but little is known about how the relationship between a speaker’s accent and a listener’s native language phonology mediates adaptation. Using an artificial accent methodology, we addressed this issue by constructing a set of three artificial accents (Near, Far, and Farther), varying in the number and magnitude of pronunciation deviations from standard Canadian English. These accents were presented to toddlers and adults in an eye-tracking task. Regardless of accent type, adults readily adapted to the exposed pronunciation change. Adults exposed to the Farther accent were also more willing to accept novel pronunciation changes. Young toddlers exposed to Far or Farther accents showed no evidence of acquiring the exposed pronunciation change and demonstrated worse word recognition for standard Canadian-accented words. These findings suggest that when a speaker’s accent deviates substantially from a young toddler’s native accent, this may lead to a significant decrement in their ability to recognize not only an unfamiliar accent but also native-accented speech. Overall, these findings provide a well-controlled test of competing models of accent adaptation and generate multiple hypotheses to be examined in the future using more ecologically valid stimuli.
{"title":"The Influence of Accent Distance on Perceptual Adaptation in Toddlers and Adults","authors":"Angela Cooper, Melissa Paquette-Smith, Caterina Bordignon, E. K. Johnson","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2047688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2047688","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Foreign accents can vary considerably in the degree to which they deviate from the listener’s native accent, but little is known about how the relationship between a speaker’s accent and a listener’s native language phonology mediates adaptation. Using an artificial accent methodology, we addressed this issue by constructing a set of three artificial accents (Near, Far, and Farther), varying in the number and magnitude of pronunciation deviations from standard Canadian English. These accents were presented to toddlers and adults in an eye-tracking task. Regardless of accent type, adults readily adapted to the exposed pronunciation change. Adults exposed to the Farther accent were also more willing to accept novel pronunciation changes. Young toddlers exposed to Far or Farther accents showed no evidence of acquiring the exposed pronunciation change and demonstrated worse word recognition for standard Canadian-accented words. These findings suggest that when a speaker’s accent deviates substantially from a young toddler’s native accent, this may lead to a significant decrement in their ability to recognize not only an unfamiliar accent but also native-accented speech. Overall, these findings provide a well-controlled test of competing models of accent adaptation and generate multiple hypotheses to be examined in the future using more ecologically valid stimuli.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83095629","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 : 2022-05-02DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2050235
Yuko Okumura, Y. Oshima-Takane, Tessei Kobayashi, Michelle Ma, Yuhko Kayama
ABSTRACT In successful communication, it is critical to have the ability to identify what a speaker is referring to from previously mentioned information. This ability requires the identification of the topic initially introduced by lexical forms and its continuity in discourse expressed by anaphora such as null and pronominal forms in the subsequent sentences. While Japanese-speaking children are frequently provided with pronominal and null forms, especially the null form, in reference to previously mentioned topics, it remains unclear from what age they understand the anaphoric use of such referential forms. The current study investigated the age at which Japanese-speaking children are able to identify the presence of topic chains connecting null and pronoun anaphora to the topic referred to by a lexical form in the preceding sentence. We tested children’s comprehension of null and pronominal object sentences using an intermodal preferential-looking paradigm. The results demonstrated that the Japanese-speaking children aged 2;7 and 3;2 as a group looked at the target animation reliably longer after hearing the test sentences than before or during the test sentences. This finding provides evidence that Japanese-speaking children’s ability to track topic chains and understand anaphora in the discourse develop by 2;7 years of age. However, unlike the 3;2-year-old group, the 2;7-year-old group showed weaker performance in interpreting pronominal object sentences, suggesting a possibility that young children find the interpretation of null anaphora easier than that of pronoun anaphora.
{"title":"Comprehension of Null and Pronominal Object Sentences in Japanese-speaking Children","authors":"Yuko Okumura, Y. Oshima-Takane, Tessei Kobayashi, Michelle Ma, Yuhko Kayama","doi":"10.1080/15475441.2022.2050235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2050235","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In successful communication, it is critical to have the ability to identify what a speaker is referring to from previously mentioned information. This ability requires the identification of the topic initially introduced by lexical forms and its continuity in discourse expressed by anaphora such as null and pronominal forms in the subsequent sentences. While Japanese-speaking children are frequently provided with pronominal and null forms, especially the null form, in reference to previously mentioned topics, it remains unclear from what age they understand the anaphoric use of such referential forms. The current study investigated the age at which Japanese-speaking children are able to identify the presence of topic chains connecting null and pronoun anaphora to the topic referred to by a lexical form in the preceding sentence. We tested children’s comprehension of null and pronominal object sentences using an intermodal preferential-looking paradigm. The results demonstrated that the Japanese-speaking children aged 2;7 and 3;2 as a group looked at the target animation reliably longer after hearing the test sentences than before or during the test sentences. This finding provides evidence that Japanese-speaking children’s ability to track topic chains and understand anaphora in the discourse develop by 2;7 years of age. However, unlike the 3;2-year-old group, the 2;7-year-old group showed weaker performance in interpreting pronominal object sentences, suggesting a possibility that young children find the interpretation of null anaphora easier than that of pronoun anaphora.","PeriodicalId":46642,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84130848","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}
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