Production constraints on learning novel onset phonotactics

Redford, Melissa A.

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.11.014

Cited by 29 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Substantively based patterns are learned more accurately and on the b asis of lesser evidence; this is consistent with their common occurrence in the world's languages . We reason that the learner's experience with her perceptual and production system helps her to generalize alternations to more abstract levels of representation; in this way the emergence of constraints is influenced by phonetics (Redford 2008). This bias toward phonetically grounded patterns has recently become a matter of discussion and is argued to have a more (Becker, Ketrez, and Nevins 2011) or less strong influence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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On the role of substance, locality, and amount of exposure in the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations

Baer-Henney¹,

Vijver

2012

Laboratory Phonology

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We discuss what factors influence the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations. What mechanisms are available to the learner; what is the basis for grammatical generalizations? Using the Artificial Language Paradigm we compared the acquisition of three alternations differing in phonetic substance, locality, and amount of exposure: one alternation was substantively based and structurally l ocal, another one was structurally local but not substantively based, and the last alternation was neither substantively based nor structurally local. Within each alternation we exposed the experimental groups to a greater or smaller number of instances. Results show a clear advantage for the substantively based alternation during acquisition. In addition, the local dependency has an advantage over the non-local one and alternations that are presented frequently have an advantage over those that are presented infrequently. We show that all three factors influence the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations, but they do so to a different d egree. Phonetic substance causes the strongest boost in the acquisition process and builds on locality, which also plays a role, and amount of exposure influences the acquisition process independent of the nature of the alternation. We argue that acquisition models should take the interaction of these factors into account.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…An alternation that facilitates either perception or production is learned with more ease than an alternation that does not (Wilson 2006;Redford 2008;van de Vijver and Baer-Henney 2011). L ocality is another factor that plays a role in the acquisition of alternations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

On the role of substance, locality, and amount of exposure in the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations

Baer-Henney¹,

Vijver

2012

Laboratory Phonology

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“…For example, Nittrouer et al (1988) show that patterns of articulatory timing between singleton labial consonants and following vowels vary systematically and discretely as a function of rate, stress, consonant identity ([m] or [p]) and syllable position. In consonant clusters, timing can be affected by the identity of the consonants in a cluster (Byrd 1996, Chitoran et al 2002, Redford 2008, by word position (Wright 1996, Gafos et al 2010 or by prosodic phrase position (Bombien et al 2010), and, moreover, each of these factors can interact with syllable structure in shaping temporal patterns (Byrd & Choi 2010). These studies demonstrate cases in which patterns of temporal organisation characteristic of syllabic structure are perturbed by linguistic and non-linguistic factors, leading, in some cases, to ambiguous phonetic diagnostics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic invariance in the phonetic expression of syllable structure: a case study of Moroccan Arabic consonant clusters

et al. 2011

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We asked whether invariant phonetic indices for syllable structure can be identified in a language where word-initial consonant clusters, regardless of their sonority profile, are claimed to be parsed heterosyllabically. Four speakers of Moroccan Arabic were recorded, using Electromagnetic Articulography. Pursuing previous work, we employed temporal diagnostics for syllable structure, consisting of static correspondences between any given phonological organisation and its presumed phonetic indices. We show that such correspondences offer only a partial understanding of the relation between syllabic organisation and continuous * We would like to thank the editors, the associate editor and four anonymous reviewers for comments that greatly improved the paper. 455 indices of that organisation. We analyse the failure of the diagnostics and put forth a new approach in which different phonological organisations prescribe different ways in which phonetic indices change as phonetic parameters are scaled. The main finding is that invariance is found in these patterns of change, rather than in static correspondences between phonological constructs and fixed values for their phonetic indices.

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“…These results suggest that onsets with large sonority clines are preferred to those with smaller clines, which, in turn, are preferred to sonority plateaus. Least preferred are onsets that fall in sonority.A large body of experimental research indicates that onsets with large sonority clines are, indeed preferable (for reviews, see Berent et al, 2007;Berent et al, 2009; but c.f., Davidson, 2006a but c.f., Davidson, , 2006bPeperkamp, 2007;Redford, 2008), but because such onsets also tend to be more frequent in language use, the precise source of such preferences-sonority or frequency-is difficult to ascertain. A recent series of experiments, however, demonstrated that speakers favor onsets with large sonority clines to those with smaller clines even when both types of onsets are unattested in their language (Berent et al, 2007;Berent et al, 2008;Berent et al, 2009;Berent, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Phonological universals constrain the processing of nonspeech stimuli

Berent¹,

Balaban²,

Lennertz³

et al. 2009

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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Domain-specific systems are hypothetically specialized with respect to the outputs they compute and the inputs they allow (Fodor, 1983). Here, we examine whether these two conditions for specialization are dissociable. An initial experiment suggests that English speakers could extend a putatively universal phonological restriction to inputs identified as nonspeech. A subsequent comparison of English and Russian participants indicates that the processing of nonspeech inputs is modulated by linguistic experience. Striking, qualitative differences between English and Russian participants suggest that they rely on linguistic principles, both universal and languageparticular, rather than generic auditory processing strategies. Thus, the computation of idiosyncratic linguistic outputs is apparently not restricted to speech inputs. This conclusion presents various challenges to both domain-specific and domain-generalist accounts of cognition.The nature of the human capacity for language is one of the most contentious issues in cognitive science. The debate specifically concerns the specialization of the language system -whether people are innately equipped with mechanisms dedicated to the computation of linguistic structure (e.g., Chomsky, 1980;, or whether language processing relies only on domain-general systems (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986;Elman et al., 1996;McClelland, 2009).Of the various behavioral hallmarks of specialization, the test from design is arguably the strongest. If language were the product of a specialized system, then one would expect all languages to share universal design principles (Chomsky, 1980;Fodor, 1983;Jackendoff, 2002;. Moreover, if the language system emerged by natural selection, these principles should be functionally adaptive (Pinker & Bloom, 1994;Pinker, 2003). To the extent that such universal adaptive principles exist, and they are demonstrably robust with respect to the statistical properties of linguistic experience and input modality, this would Address for correspondence: Iris Berent, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, 360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115-5000, i.berent@neu.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xge NIH Public Access Author Manuscript J Exp Psychol Gen. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 January 13. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript provide strong suggestive evidence for constraints inherent to the language system itself (but cf. Blevins, 2004;Bybee, 2008;E...

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Production constraints on learning novel onset phonotactics

Cited by 29 publications

References 47 publications

On the role of substance, locality, and amount of exposure in the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations

On the role of substance, locality, and amount of exposure in the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations

Dynamic invariance in the phonetic expression of syllable structure: a case study of Moroccan Arabic consonant clusters

Phonological universals constrain the processing of nonspeech stimuli

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