Language learning, communication and the emergence of phonotactic constraints

语言学习、交流和语音限制的出现

基本信息

  • 批准号:
    ES/X014312/1
  • 负责人:
  • 金额:
    $ 51.82万
  • 依托单位:
  • 依托单位国家:
    英国
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant
  • 财政年份:
    2024
  • 资助国家:
    英国
  • 起止时间:
    2024 至 无数据
  • 项目状态:
    未结题

项目摘要

All spoken languages make words by combining speech sounds. For example, the English words "tap", "pat", "apt", "at", and "tat" all use the same 3 sounds in different combinations. This combinatoriality contributes to the extraordinary expressive power of human language, allowing us to create thousands of distinct words out of a few tens of speech sounds. But not all combinations of sounds in the language are equally permitted. For instance, no words in English can begin or end with the sequence "tp". Such constraints on permissible sound sequences are known as phonotactics. While phonotactic constraints can be idiosyncratic to each language, some occur across multiple languages. One constraint that is thought to be universal is called Similar Place Avoidance: Consonants separated by vowels are unlikely to have the same or similar place of articulation (i.e., part of the mouth where the consonant is produced). For example, there are fewer than expected words in English like "bop" and "mob" that contain two consonants produced by the lips. Why do languages have phonotactics at all, rather than just allowing maximally free recombination? And why do certain constraints such as Similar Place Avoidance crop up repeatedly? One prominent claim in the literature is that the explanation lies in learning bias, or the tendency for us to learn certain rules for sound combinations more readily than others. Such biases are thought to be part of every learner's underlying knowledge of phonology, enforcing a preference for patterns that are simpler or easier to produce/perceive. This explanation has been tested in many studies that examined how easily new phonotactic constraints can be learned. However, the results have not always been consistent with the prediction that patterns that are commonly found across languages should be easier to learn than those that are uncommon. It appears, then, that learning bias is not the only reason why some phonotactics recur in the world's languages.In this project we explore a new way to explain the ubiquity of some phonotactic constraints. Our approach is different from previous accounts in two important aspects. Firstly, we consider the impact of communication as a critical factor. As well as being learned, languages are also used to communicate, and sound sequences that work well in communication should proliferate. Successful communication requires us to minimise confusability by maximising contrasts between words. There is some evidence that the repetition of similar consonants within a word can lead to misidentification of the word, suggesting that this effect may be behind constraints like Similar Place Avoidance.Secondly, we consider phonotactic constraints to be generalisations about the shapes of words in a language, the composition of which can change in a particular direction as words are learned and used to communicate between speakers. We predict that the direction of such change reflects the interaction between learning (i.e., which types of words are easier to learn) and communication (i.e., which types of words are more accurately recognised).We will examine this theory through 3 sets of experiments, testing whether words violating Similar Place Avoidance are better (or worse) learned by adults and infants, whether they are more (or less) likely to be misidentified, and whether they decrease in number in a vocabulary when they are learned and used in communication across different groups of people.Our project will provide important insights into how language learning and communication account for the presence of phonotactic constraints in general, and Similar Place Avoidance in particular. Findings from the project will also contribute to our understanding of a larger question central to language and cognitive sciences: Where do fundamental characteristics of human language come from?
所有的口语都是通过组合语音来形成单词的。例如,英语单词“tap”,“pat”,“apt”,“at”和“tat”都使用相同的3个音,但组合不同。这种组合促成了人类语言非凡的表达能力,使我们能够从几十个语音中创造出数千个不同的单词。但是并不是所有的发音组合都是允许的。例如,英语中没有单词可以以“tp”开头或结尾。这种对允许的声音序列的限制被称为声部战术。虽然语音趋同的限制可能是每种语言特有的,但有些限制会在多种语言中出现。一个被认为是普遍存在的限制被称为相似的位置避免:被元音分开的辅音不太可能有相同或相似的发音位置(即,发出辅音的口腔部分)。例如,在英语中,像“bop”和“mob”这样包含两个由嘴唇发出的辅音的单词比预期的要少。为什么语言有语音战术,而不是允许最大限度的自由重组?为什么某些约束条件(如相似地点回避)会反复出现?文献中一个突出的说法是,这种现象的解释在于学习偏见,或者说我们比其他人更容易学习某些声音组合规则的倾向。这种偏见被认为是每个学习者对音韵学的潜在知识的一部分,迫使他们偏爱更简单或更容易产生/感知的模式。这种解释已经在许多研究中得到了验证,这些研究考察了学习新的语音定向约束的难易程度。然而,结果并不总是与预测一致,即跨语言普遍发现的模式应该比那些不常见的模式更容易学习。这样看来,学习偏见并不是世界语言中某些语音策略反复出现的唯一原因。在这个项目中,我们探索了一种新的方法来解释一些音致性限制的普遍性。我们的方法在两个重要方面与以前的叙述不同。首先,我们认为沟通的影响是一个关键因素。除了学习之外,语言还用于交流,而在交流中发挥良好作用的声音序列应该会激增。成功的沟通需要我们通过最大化单词之间的对比来减少混淆。有一些证据表明,在一个单词中重复相似的辅音会导致对单词的错误识别,这表明这种影响可能是类似于相似位置避免的限制因素。其次,我们认为语音策略约束是对语言中单词形状的概括,当单词被学习并用于说话者之间的交流时,其组成可以在特定方向上发生变化。我们预测,这种变化的方向反映了学习(即,哪种类型的单词更容易学习)和交流(即,哪种类型的单词更准确地识别)之间的相互作用。我们将通过三组实验来检验这一理论,测试违反相似地点回避的单词在成人和婴儿中是否更好(或更差)学习,它们是否更容易(或更少)被错误识别,以及当它们在不同人群中学习和使用时,它们在词汇中的数量是否减少。我们的项目将为语言学习和交流如何解释语音趋同限制的存在提供重要的见解,特别是类似的地方回避。该项目的发现也将有助于我们理解语言和认知科学的一个更大的核心问题:人类语言的基本特征从何而来?

项目成果

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Mitsuhiko Ota其他文献

Early Feeding After Cancer Surgery.
癌症手术后的早期喂养。
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2017
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Ryoji Fukushima;Hironori Ishigami;Hiroto Miwa;Motohiro Imano;Daisuke Kobayashi;Yasushi Tsuji;Akio Hidemura;Tetsuya Kusumoto;Takeshi Omori;Hiroshi Yabusaki;Norifumi Ohashi;Mitsuhiko Ota;Hironori Yamaguchi;Joji Kitayama;Fukushima R;Fukushima R;Fukushima R
  • 通讯作者:
    Fukushima R
The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Linguistics
牛津发展语言学手册
  • DOI:
    10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199601264.001.0001
  • 发表时间:
    2016
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Mitsuhiko Ota
  • 通讯作者:
    Mitsuhiko Ota
Skewed distributions facilitate infants' word segmentation
偏态分布有助于婴儿的单词切分
  • DOI:
    10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106221
  • 发表时间:
    2025-10-01
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    2.800
  • 作者:
    Lucie Wolters;Mitsuhiko Ota;Inbal Arnon
  • 通讯作者:
    Inbal Arnon
Phonological theory and the acquisition of prosodic structure: Evidence from child
音系理论与韵律结构的习得:来自儿童的证据
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    1999
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Mitsuhiko Ota
  • 通讯作者:
    Mitsuhiko Ota
Segmentals and global foreign accent: The Japanese flap in EFL
音节和全球外国口音:EFL 中的日语风格
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2000
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    T. Riney;Mari Takada;Mitsuhiko Ota
  • 通讯作者:
    Mitsuhiko Ota

Mitsuhiko Ota的其他文献

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{{ truncateString('Mitsuhiko Ota', 18)}}的其他基金

The role of baby-talk words in early language development
儿语词汇在早期语言发展中的作用
  • 批准号:
    ES/J023825/1
  • 财政年份:
    2012
  • 资助金额:
    $ 51.82万
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant
Lexical representation of variable prosodic patterns in infants
婴儿可变韵律模式的词汇表征
  • 批准号:
    AH/E000320/1
  • 财政年份:
    2006
  • 资助金额:
    $ 51.82万
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant

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