We present novel findings on the acquisition of syllable structure in Polish and explore abilitie... more We present novel findings on the acquisition of syllable structure in Polish and explore abilities of various formulations of frequency to account for the acquisition results. We analyze the spontaneous productions of four children, examining accuracy of syllable margins at several levels of representation (CV, sonority, segment). We use mixed-effects modeling to examine differences in accuracy after controlling for effects of word frequency, age, subject, and word length. We also examine differences in acquisition between children. We then compare the observed differences in accuracy to various frequency measures calculated from the child-directed speech to these children. We consider both type and token frequencies calculated at each representational level as well as versions of these measures calculated from speech directed at each individual child. Our results suggest that while frequency can be a good predictor of accuracy, no single frequency measure can fully explain accuracy differences across children or representational levels.
Phonological rules create alternations in the phonetic realizations of related words. These rules... more Phonological rules create alternations in the phonetic realizations of related words. These rules must be learned by infants in order to identify the phonological inventory, the morphological structure, and the lexicon of a language. Recent work proposes a computational model for the learning of one kind of phonological alternation, allophony (Peperkamp, Le Calvez, Nadal, & Dupoux, 2006). This paper extends the model to account for learning of a broader set of phonological alternations and the formalization of these alternations as general rules. In Experiment 1, we apply the original model to new data in Dutch and demonstrate its limitations in learning nonallophonic rules. In Experiment 2, we extend the model to allow it to learn general rules for alternations that apply to a class of segments. In Experiment 3, the model is further extended to allow for generalization by context; we argue that this generalization must be constrained by linguistic principles.
This paper examines phonological development and its relationship to input statistics. Using nove... more This paper examines phonological development and its relationship to input statistics. Using novel data from a longitudinal corpus of spontaneous child speech in Polish, we evaluate and compare the predictions of a variety of input-based phonotactic models for syllable structure acquisition. We find that many commonly examined input statistics can make dramatically different predictions, as do different assumptions about the representational units over which statistics are calculated. We find that development is sensitive to multiple abstract units of phonological representation, supporting a crucial role for feature-based generalization. We also identify departures between the predictions of the best phonotactic models and children’s production patterns that indicate input sensitivity alone cannot fully explain the developmental patterns. We discuss the role of universal markedness and phonetic difficulty and argue that a full explanation requires reference to these biases.
We present novel findings on the acquisition of syllable structure in Polish and explore abilitie... more We present novel findings on the acquisition of syllable structure in Polish and explore abilities of various formulations of frequency to account for the acquisition results. We analyze the spontaneous productions of four children, examining accuracy of syllable margins at several levels of representation (CV, sonority, segment). We use mixed-effects modeling to examine differences in accuracy after controlling for effects of word frequency, age, subject, and word length. We also examine differences in acquisition between children. We then compare the observed differences in accuracy to various frequency measures calculated from the child-directed speech to these children. We consider both type and token frequencies calculated at each representational level as well as versions of these measures calculated from speech directed at each individual child. Our results suggest that while frequency can be a good predictor of accuracy, no single frequency measure can fully explain accuracy differences across children or representational levels.
Phonological rules create alternations in the phonetic realizations of related words. These rules... more Phonological rules create alternations in the phonetic realizations of related words. These rules must be learned by infants in order to identify the phonological inventory, the morphological structure, and the lexicon of a language. Recent work proposes a computational model for the learning of one kind of phonological alternation, allophony (Peperkamp, Le Calvez, Nadal, & Dupoux, 2006). This paper extends the model to account for learning of a broader set of phonological alternations and the formalization of these alternations as general rules. In Experiment 1, we apply the original model to new data in Dutch and demonstrate its limitations in learning nonallophonic rules. In Experiment 2, we extend the model to allow it to learn general rules for alternations that apply to a class of segments. In Experiment 3, the model is further extended to allow for generalization by context; we argue that this generalization must be constrained by linguistic principles.
This paper examines phonological development and its relationship to input statistics. Using nove... more This paper examines phonological development and its relationship to input statistics. Using novel data from a longitudinal corpus of spontaneous child speech in Polish, we evaluate and compare the predictions of a variety of input-based phonotactic models for syllable structure acquisition. We find that many commonly examined input statistics can make dramatically different predictions, as do different assumptions about the representational units over which statistics are calculated. We find that development is sensitive to multiple abstract units of phonological representation, supporting a crucial role for feature-based generalization. We also identify departures between the predictions of the best phonotactic models and children’s production patterns that indicate input sensitivity alone cannot fully explain the developmental patterns. We discuss the role of universal markedness and phonetic difficulty and argue that a full explanation requires reference to these biases.
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