Prosodic information bootstraps language learning in infancy

韵律信息引导婴儿期的语言学习

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-03797
• 负责人: Curtin, Suzanne
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=712587
• 关键词: Prosodic; information; bootstraps; language; learning

Language acquisition is one of the hallmark accomplishments of human development. To successfully acquire language, a child must learn about word meaning (semantics) and how words combine to create sentences (syntax). Prior to this, infants are learning about sounds and sound combinations, recognizing some highly frequent word forms, finding words in speech stream, and building representations. Remarkably, infants acquire a great deal of their language within the first 2 years of life. This complex task is supported by the rich input and statistical mechanisms as the language learning system begins to store and organize information. Our PRIMIR framework (Processing Rich Information from Multidimensional Interactive Representations: Curtin et al., 2011; Werker & Curtin, 2005) includes representational spaces for storing information, learning mechanisms for altering extant representations and building new ones, and dynamic filters (perceptual biases, task demands, and developmental level) that direct information processing. Building on this framework, my NSERC research tests the need to incorporate a prosodic bootstrapping mechanism working in conjunction with general learning mechanisms to facilitate word learning. Specifically, one way for the infant to 'bootstrap' acquisition is by attending to highly salient information in speech. Prosodic information, such as word stress and rhythm, can highlight linguistic structure such as words, their grammatical categories, and sentence boundaries. The overarching goal of my research is to test how prosodic information - specifically word stress - facilitates the detection of linguistic structure in the speech input and bootstraps language learning. A comprehensive exploration of the processes underlying word learning involves consideration of multiple sources of influence, from basic perception of speech, to the use of complex structures to establish word-referent relationships, such as infants' use of sentences to glean grammatical function to determine word meaning. The proposed experiments reflect these multiple levels of influence on early language learning. The findings from this research program will be of interest to cognitive psychologists, developmental psychologists, and psycholinguists. It will be of particular interest to NSE scientists because understanding speech development is necessary for discovering the neurological and physiological underpinnings of the behaviour and for the advancement speech technologies, such as speech recognition systems.

语言习得是人类发展的标志性成就之一。为了成功地学习语言，孩子必须学习单词的含义（语义）和单词如何组合成句子（语法）。在此之前，婴儿正在学习声音和声音组合，识别一些非常频繁的单词形式，在语音流中寻找单词，并建立表征。值得注意的是，婴儿在生命的头两年内习得大量的语言。当语言学习系统开始存储和组织信息时，丰富的输入和统计机制支持了这项复杂的任务。