Doctoral dissertation research: Infants' ability to discriminate statements and questions

在英语和许多其他语言中，问句和陈述句在结构上有所不同。 例如，在英语中，疑问句通常开始以wh-words（例如，who，what，where等）开头。助动词和主语位置互换（比较“我能看见吉姆”和“我能看见吉姆吗？"). 此外，陈述句和疑问句的韵律（语音的旋律和节奏）也不同：陈述句通常以最后一个音高下降结束，疑问句以最后一个音高上升结束。 当婴儿掌握一种语言时，能够区分陈述句和疑问句是很重要的，否则他们就无法学习与每种类型相关的不同语法规则和模式。虽然许多语言习得理论认为学习者在语言习得的早期阶段就能区分这些句子类型，但很少有证据表明他们何时以及如何做到这一点。在一系列的四个实验中，这个项目探讨了婴儿何时对陈述和问题之间的差异产生敏感性，以及他们用来区分它们的信息类型。 该项目测试了一个假设，即婴儿最初使用韵律信息区分陈述和问题，然后通过注意最初的单词来学习区分句子类型（例如，“我能不能... ?“vs.“我可以... .“）。这个项目将提供关于婴儿何时以及如何开始区分陈述和问题的关键证据。这些发现将对婴儿的语音处理以及语法习得理论产生影响。 这个项目可以为语言前婴儿对语法不同的句子类型的区分增加重要的新知识，这可能对儿童语言习得理论产生更广泛的影响。通过在典型发育儿童中绘制这些能力，这些实验也可以转化为对语言障碍风险儿童的评估和干预。

In English and many other languages, questions and statements differ structurally. For example, in English, questions often begin with wh-words (e.g. who, what, where, etc.) and auxiliary verbs switch positions with subjects (compare "I can see Jim" with "Can I see Jim?"). In addition, statements and questions differ in their prosody (the melody and rhythmic qualities of speech): Statements generally end with a final pitch drop and questions with a final pitch rise. As infants acquire a language, it is important for them to be able to differentiate statements and questions, otherwise they would not be able to learn the distinct grammatical rules and patterns associated with each type. Although many language acquisition theories assume that learners can differentiate these sentence types in the early stages of language acquisition, there is little evidence of when and how they do so. In a series of four experiments, this project explores when infants develop sensitivity to the differences between statements and questions, and the types of information they use to distinguish between them. The project tests the hypothesis that infants initially differentiate statements and questions using prosodic information, then learn to distinguish sentence types by attending to the initial words (e.g., "Can I ... ?" vs. "I can ... .").This project will provide critical evidence about when and how infants begin to distinguish between statements and questions. The findings will have implications for speech processing in infants, as well as theories of grammatical acquisition. This project could add significant new knowledge to the types of distinctions pre-verbal infants can make about grammatically different sentence types, which could have broader impacts in theories of child language acquisition. By mapping out these abilities in typically developing children, these experiments could also translate to assessment and intervention of children at risk for language impairments.