Utterance-Final Lengthening Is Predictive of Infants' Discrimination of English Accents
Utterance-Final Lengthening Is Predictive of Infants' Discrimination of English Accents
复制标题
话语最后的延长预示着婴儿对英语口音的辨别
DOI：
10.1111/lang.12060
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
White L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
White L
一岁的婴儿表现出对不同语言和同一语言的不同口音的选择性区分。韵律差异被认为是重要的，在是否可以区分语言，连同婴儿的熟悉程度与一个或两个听到的口音。然而，韵律线索的性质，实际上促进婴儿的歧视还没有直接检查。我们分析了5个月和7个月大的英国英语婴儿的口音辨别，寻找可以使用头转向偏好程序预测一系列辨别结果的持续特征。我们之前发现，普利茅斯的5个月和7个月奥尔兹都能区分普利茅斯口音和威尔士口音的英语，而5个月奥尔兹不能区分威尔士口音和苏格兰口音的英语。最令人惊讶的是，7个月奥尔兹无法区分普利茅斯口音和法国口音的英语。从这四个实验中使用的所有话语的一半，我们计算了一系列的持续时间度量，包括全局跨话语和局部在话语最终边缘。话语边缘指标是最后一个辅音+元音间隔（nfinalCV）和最后一个元音单独（nfinalV）的相对持续时间。分别对于5个月和7个月奥尔兹，我们确定了所有持续时间指标的得分差异：（a）熟悉的训练和新的测试话语和（B）熟悉的测试和新的测试话语。回归分析显示了独特的预测歧视。对于5个月奥尔兹，预测因素是熟悉的训练和新的测试话语之间的nfinalCV差异。对于7个月奥尔兹，预测因素是熟悉的测试话语和新的测试话语之间的finalV差异。这证明了对那些跨语言用于分割的本地化时间特征的早期敏感性。因此，我们预测，类似的敏感性应该在其他语言背景的婴儿。
Infants in their first year manifest selective patterns of discrimination between languages and between accents of the same language. Prosodic differences are held to be important in whether languages can be discriminated, together with the infant's familiarity with one or both of the accents heard. However, the nature of the prosodic cues that actually facilitate infant discrimination has not been directly examined. We analyzed the accent discrimination of 5‐ and 7‐month‐old British English infants, looking for durational features that could predict a range of discrimination results using the Headturn Preference Procedure. We previously found that both 5‐ and 7‐month‐olds based in Plymouth could discriminate Plymouth‐accented and Welsh‐accented English, while 5‐month‐olds could not discriminate Welsh‐accented and Scottish‐accented English. Most surprisingly, 7‐month‐olds failed to discriminate Plymouth‐accented and French‐accented English. From half of all utterances used in these four experiments, we calculated a range of durational metrics, both globally across utterances and locally at utterance‐final edges. Utterance‐edge metrics were the relative duration of the final consonant+vowel interval (nfinalCV) and the final vowel alone (nfinalV). Separately for 5‐ and 7‐month‐olds, we determined the difference in scores for all durational metrics between: (a) familiar training and novel test utterances and (b) familiar test and novel test utterances. Regression analyses showed unique predictors of discrimination. For 5‐month‐olds, the predictor was the difference in nfinalCV between familiar training and novel test utterances. For 7‐month‐olds, the predictor was the difference in finalV between familiar test and novel test utterances. This demonstrates an early sensitivity to precisely those localized timing features that are useful across languages for segmentation. We therefore predict that similar sensitivity should be shown in infants of other language backgrounds.