The role of speech rhythm in language discrimination: further tests with a non-human primate.
The role of speech rhythm in language discrimination: further tests with a non-human primate.
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00390.x
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发表时间：
2005
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
R. Tincoff;M. Hauser;Fritz Tsao;Geertrui M. Spaepen;F. Ramus;J. Mehler
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Tincoff;M. Hauser;Fritz Tsao;Geertrui M. Spaepen;F. Ramus;J. Mehler
人类新生儿能够区分不同节奏类别的语言，无法区分同一节奏类别的语言，并且在倒着播放话语时无法区分语言。最近的证据表明，棉顶狨猴能够区分荷兰语和日语，但在倒着播放话语时却不会，这与节奏辨别基于从灵长类祖先遗传的一般感知机制的假设是一致的。本研究通过测试来自相同和不同节奏类别的语言，进一步探讨了语言辨别的节奏假设。我们发现狨猴能够区分波兰语和日语（不同的节奏类别），无法区分英语和荷兰语（相同的节奏类别），并且无法区分来自不同和相同节奏类别的向后话语。这些结果提供了进一步的证据，表明狨猴的语言辨别是由语言之间的节奏差异促进的，并且表明，在人类中，这种机制不太可能专门针对语言而进化。
Human newborns discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes, fail to discriminate languages from the same rhythmic class, and fail to discriminate languages when the utterances are played backwards. Recent evidence showing that cotton-top tamarins discriminate Dutch from Japanese, but not when utterances are played backwards, is compatible with the hypothesis that rhythm discrimination is based on a general perceptual mechanism inherited from a primate ancestor. The present study further explores the rhythm hypothesis for language discrimination by testing languages from the same and different rhythmic class. We find that tamarins discriminate Polish from Japanese (different rhythmic classes), fail to discriminate English and Dutch (same rhythmic class), and fail to discriminate backwards utterances from different and same rhythmic classes. These results provide further evidence that language discrimination in tamarins is facilitated by rhythmic differences between languages, and suggest that, in humans, this mechanism is unlikely to have evolved specifically for language.