Origins of Phonology and Lexicon: Abstract representations before 6 months

语言是人类最复杂的能力之一，但婴儿很容易学会。目前的观点是，语言的起源是6-10个月开始形成的辅音和元音的抽象表示。然而，最近的证据表明，抽象开始前3个月，照顾者婴儿的对话是至关重要的过程。这项研究涉及跟踪婴儿从1到18个月的行为和大脑发育，并分析照顾者与婴儿的语言，以确定早期抽象如何支持词汇增长，照顾者的语言如何帮助这一过程，以及什么样的早期条件预测语言发展，从而有利于早期识别语言延迟，并大大节省后期补救。

Language is one of the most sophisticated human abilities, yet infants learn it easily. The current view is that the origins of language are abstract representations of consonants and vowels that start to form at 6-10 months. However, recent evidence shows that abstraction begins before 3 months, and that carer-infant conversations are vital to the process. This study involves tracking infants’ behavioural and brain development from 1 to 18 months and analysing carer-infant speech, to determine how early abstraction supports vocabulary growth, how carer speech assists this process, and what early conditions predict language development, thus benefiting earlier identification of language delay, and saving significantly on later remediation.