Distributional Cues and the Onset Bias in Early Word Segmentation

Autor/inn/en	Babineau, Mireille; Shi, Rushen
Titel	Distributional Cues and the Onset Bias in Early Word Segmentation
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 50 (2014) 12, S.2666-2674 (9 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/a0038105
Schlagwörter	Cues; Bias; Infants; Phonemes; Vowels; French; Statistics; Language Acquisition; Foreign Countries; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Stichwort; Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Fonem; Französisch; Statistik; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Ausland; Kanada
Abstract	In previous infant studies on statistics-based word segmentation, the unit of statistical computation was always aligned with the syllabic edge, which had a consonant onset. The current study addressed whether the learning system imposes a constraint that favors word forms beginning with a consonant onset over those beginning with an onsetless sub-syllable, by examining infants' segmentation of vowel-initial non-words in French liaison. French-learning 20- and 24-month-old infants ("N" = 64) were familiarized with sentences containing variable liaison consonants preceding the same vowel-initial non-word (e.g., /n/"onche", /z/"onche", /r/"onche", /t/"onche"), such that the distributional cues supported the sub-syllabic target (e.g., "onche"). After familiarization, we tested sub-syllabic statistical segmentation by presenting the vowel-initial target (e.g., "onche") versus another non-familiarized vowel-initial word (e.g., "èque"). Another group of infants was tested with a consonant-initial mis-segmentation of the target (e.g., "zonche") versus another non-familiarized consonant-initial word (e.g., "zèque"). Results showed that 20-month-olds failed to segment the vowel-initial targets, but they mis-segmented the targets as consonant-initial, indicating that the onset bias dominated over sub-syllabic statistics for word segmentation at this age. Twenty-four-month-olds showed ambiguous interpretations (i.e., both vowel-initial segmentation and consonant-initial mis-segmentation), suggesting that the use of statistics to segment sub-syllabic words was emerging while the onset bias continued to have an impact. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01