Emergence of Functional Flexibility in Infant Vocalizations of the First 3 Months
Emergence of Functional Flexibility in Infant Vocalizations of the First 3 Months
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00300
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发表时间：
2017-03-24
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Oller, D. Kimbrough
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jhang, Yuna;Oller, D. Kimbrough
功能灵活性是语言交际的基本特征，表现为在不同的场合使用不同的词语或句子来表达不同的情感配价。早期婴儿发声（原声），被认为是言语的前兆，发生在第一个月，在功能上不同于非言语样信号（例如，哭和笑）。Oller等人（2013年）表明，3个月大的婴儿使用三种不同的原生电话类型，其面部表情表现出从积极到中性到消极的全方位情感。这些情感上的差异也被证明与不同的以言行事功能相对应，而不像固定信号或植物音那样表现出功能刚性。本研究调查了婴儿在原声器中是否表现出功能灵活性，甚至早于Oller等人（2013）研究的年龄。数据来自前3个月的6名婴儿。结果表明，早在第一个月，婴儿原音已经伴随着可变的面部情感价，并继续在以后的年龄情感灵活。因此，本研究记录了人类通信的基础设施属性的早期出现。
Functional flexibility, as manifest in the use of any word or sentence to express different affective valences on different occasions, is required in linguistic communication and can be said to be an infrastructural property of language. Early infant vocalizations (protophones), believed to be precursors to speech, occur in the first month and are functionally different from non-speech-like signals (e.g., cries and laughs). Oller et al. (2013) showed that infants by 3 months used three different protophone types with a full range of affect as manifest in facial expression, from positive to neutral to negative. These differences in affect were also shown to correspond to different illocutionary functions, unlike fixed signals, or vegetative sounds, which showed functional rigidity. The present study investigated whether infants show functional flexibility in protophones even earlier than the ages studied by Oller et al. (2013). Data were obtained from 6 infants across the first 3 months. Results showed that as early as the first month, infant protophones were already accompanied by variable facial affect valences and continued to be affectively flexible at the later ages. The present study thus documents the very early emergence of an infrastructural property of human communication.