How Strict is the Mother Tongue? Using Dialects to Probe Early Speech Perception and Word Recognition.

该项目将：1）推进对幼儿单词表征及其发展前体的了解; 2）为口语的语音与语音特性理论做出贡献; 3）解释环境语言的经验如何塑造儿童的语音和词汇发展。此外，研究结果将4）提供关键的新见解发展障碍（语言延迟，诵读困难）的来源，从而改善早期诊断和治疗; 5）承担第二语言学习的问题;并通过了解年轻学习者处理方言变异的过程，6）提供见解如何使自动语音识别系统对方言和外国口音差异更加鲁棒。

This project will 1)advance knowledge of toddler word representations and their developmental precursors; 2) contribute to theories of phonological vs phonetic properties of spoken language; 3) explain how experience with the ambient language shapes children's phonological and lexical development. Moreover, the findings will 4) offer crucial new insights into sources of developmental disorders (language delay, dyslexia) leading to improved early diagnosis and treatment; 5) bear on issues of second language learning; and by understanding the process by which young learners handle dialect variability, 6) provide insights into how automatic speech recognition systems can be made more robust to dialectal and foreign accent differences.