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Moore C, Bergelson E. Wordform variability in infants' language environment and its effects on early word learning. Cognition 2024; 245:105694. [PMID: 38309042 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
Most research regarding early word learning in English tends to make the simplifying assumption that there exists a one-to-one mapping between concrete objects and their labels. In the current work, we provide evidence that runs counter to this assumption, aligning English with more morphologically-rich languages. We suggest that even in a morphologically-poor language like English, real world language input to infants does not provide tidy 1-to-1 mappings. Instead, infants encounter many variant wordforms for familiar nouns (e.g. dog∼doggy∼dogs). We explore this wordform variability in 44 English-learning infants' naturalistic environments using a longitudinal corpus of infant-available speech. We look at both the frequency and composition of wordform variability. We find two broad categories of variability: referent-changing alterations, where words were pluralized or compounded (e.g. coat∼raincoats); and wordplay, where words changed form without a notable change in referent (e.g. bird∼birdie). We further find that wordplay occurs with a limited number of lemmas that are usually early-learned, high-frequency, and shorter. When looking at all wordform variability, we find that individual words with higher levels of wordform variability are learned earlier than words with fewer wordforms, over and above the effect of frequency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Moore
- Concordia University, Canada; Duke University, United States of America.
| | - Elika Bergelson
- Harvard University, United States of America; Duke University, United States of America
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Spencer C, Vannest J, Preston JL, Maas E, Sizemore ER, McAllister T, Whalen DH, Maloney T, Boyce S. Neural Changes in Children With Residual Speech Sound Disorder After Ultrasound Biofeedback Speech Therapy. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3223-3241. [PMID: 37524116 PMCID: PMC10558148 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Children with residual speech sound disorders (RSSD) have shown differences in neural function for speech production, as compared to their typical peers; however, information about how these differences may change over time and relative to speech therapy is needed. To address this gap, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine functional activation and connectivity on adaptations of the syllable repetition task (SRT-Early Sounds and SRT-Late Sounds) in children with RSSD before and after a speech therapy program. METHOD Sixteen children with RSSD completed an fMRI experiment before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) a speech therapy program with ultrasound visual feedback for /ɹ/ misarticulation. Progress in therapy was measured via perceptual ratings of productions of untreated /ɹ/ word probes. To control for practice effects and developmental change in patterns of activation and connectivity, 17 children with typical speech development (TD) completed the fMRI at Time 1 and Time 2. Functional activation was analyzed using a region-of-interest approach and functional connectivity was analyzed using a seed-to-voxel approach. RESULTS Children with RSSD showed a range of responses to therapy. After correcting for multiple comparisons, we did not observe any statistically significant cross-sectional differences or longitudinal changes in functional activation. A negative relationship between therapy effect size and functional activation in the left visual association cortex was on the SRT-Late Sounds after therapy, but it did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Significant longitudinal changes in functional connectivity were observed for the RSSD group on SRT-Early Sounds and SRT-Late Sounds, as well as for the TD group on the SRT-Early Sounds. RSSD and TD groups showed connectivity differences near the left insula on the SRT-Late Sounds at Time 2. CONCLUSION RSSD and treatment with ultrasound visual feedback may thus be associated with neural differences in speech motor and visual association processes recruited for speech production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Spencer
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Jennifer Vannest
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cincinnati, OH
| | - Jonathan L. Preston
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Syracuse University, NY
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT
| | - Edwin Maas
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Erin Redle Sizemore
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cincinnati, OH
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Mt. Joseph University, Cincinnati, OH
| | - Tara McAllister
- Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, NY
| | - D. H. Whalen
- Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, City University of New York, NY
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT
- Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT
| | | | - Suzanne Boyce
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cincinnati, OH
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Yang J, Xu L. Acoustic characteristics of sibilant fricatives and affricates in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 153:3501-3512. [PMID: 37378672 DOI: 10.1121/10.0019803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the acoustic features of sibilant fricatives and affricates produced by prelingually deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison to their age-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. The speakers included 21 children with NH aged between 3.25 and 10 years old and 35 children with CIs aged between 3.77 and 15 years old who were assigned into chronological-age-matched and hearing-age-matched subgroups. All speakers were recorded producing Mandarin words containing nine sibilant fricatives and affricates (/s, ɕ, ʂ, ts, tsʰ, tɕ, tɕʰ, tʂ, tʂʰ/) located at the word-initial position. Acoustic analysis was conducted to examine consonant duration, normalized amplitude, rise time, and spectral peak. The results revealed that the CI children, regardless of whether chronological-age-matched or hearing-age-matched, approximated the NH peers in the features of duration, amplitude, and rise time. However, the spectral peaks of the alveolar and alveolopalatal sounds in the CI children were significantly lower than in the NH children. The lower spectral peaks of the alveolar and alveolopalatal sounds resulted in less distinctive place contrast with the retroflex sounds in the CI children than in the NH peers, which might partially account for the lower intelligibility of high-frequency consonants in children with CIs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Yang
- Program of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA
| | - Li Xu
- Hearing, Speech & Language Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
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Capelli E, Silibello G, Provera A, Dall'Ara F, Ajmone PF, Monti F, Scionti N, Zanchi P, Costantino MA, Vizziello PG, Zampini L. Speech Sound Development in 18-Month-Old Children With Sex Chromosome Trisomies. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2023; 32:287-297. [PMID: 36603546 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-22-00118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study aimed to describe speech sound development in a group of 18-month-old children with sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs), compared with a group of typically developing (TD) peers. Concurrent and longitudinal relationships between speech sound abilities and lexical development were examined. METHOD A group of 76 children aged 18 months, 38 children prenatally diagnosed with SCTs (12 with XXY, 12 with XYY, and 14 with XXX) and 38 TD children, participated in the study. From video recordings of semistructured naturalistic parent-child play sessions, quantitative and qualitative measures of speech sound development were collected (e.g., the number of consonants, type and place of articulation, and syllable structures used), and group differences were observed. The relationships between the number of consonants produced and vocabulary size at 18 and 24 months were assessed. RESULTS At 18 months, children with SCTs used a significantly lower number of consonants than TD children. Qualitatively, children with SCTs used significantly fewer articulatory complex consonants (fricative/affricates) and a more restricted inventory of syllable structures. The number of consonants used was significantly correlated with lexical development at 18 months. Moreover, in the SCTs group (but not in the TD group), the children with lower speech sound development at 18 months showed a significantly smaller vocabulary growth between 18 and 24 months than those with higher speech-sound development. CONCLUSIONS Toddlers with SCTs showed a significantly delayed speech sound development pattern rather than an atypical one. Children with SCTs with low speech sound development also showed lower vocabulary growth between 18 and 24 months of age. These results can be clinically relevant for follow-up and treatment planning for children with SCTs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Capelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Gaia Silibello
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Francesca Dall'Ara
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Paola Francesca Ajmone
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Federico Monti
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Nicoletta Scionti
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Paola Zanchi
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Maria Antonella Costantino
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Paola Giovanna Vizziello
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Unit, Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Laura Zampini
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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Aoyama K, Davis BL. Relationship between the target word form and children's productions: place of articulation in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (C 1VC 2) words in American English. PHONETICA 2021; 78:65-94. [PMID: 33651925 DOI: 10.1515/phon-2019-0061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate relationships between characteristics of children's target words and their actual productions during the single-word period in American English. Word productions in spontaneous and functional speech from 18 children acquiring American English were analyzed. Consonant sequences in 3,328 consonant-vowel-consonant (C1VC2) target words were analyzed in terms of global place of articulation (labials, coronals, and dorsals). Children's actual productions of place sequences were compared between target words containing repeated place sequences (e.g., mom, map, dad, not) and target words containing variegated place sequences (e.g., mat, dog, cat, nap). Overall, when the target word contained two consonants at the same global place of articulation (e.g., labial-labial, map; coronal-coronal, not), approximately 50% of children's actual productions matched consonant place characteristics. Conversely, when the target word consisted of variegated place sequences (e.g., mat, dog, cat, nap), only about 20% of the productions matched the target consonant sequences. These results suggest that children's actual productions are influenced by their own production abilities as well as by the phonetic forms of target words.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katsura Aoyama
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
| | - Barbara L Davis
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
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Kim N, Davis BL. Vowel Context Effects on Consonant Repetition in Early Words. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:40-50. [PMID: 33351667 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Consonant repetitions within words are a well-attested speech error pattern in children's early speech acquisition. We investigated the role of intervening vowel context in understanding speech forms containing consonant repetitions in early words. Intrasyllabic consonant-vowel (CV) sequences within consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) and consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) forms containing consonant repetitions were analyzed to evaluate whether children's lack of independent movement control for the tongue in word-level sequences might contribute to these observed speech patterns. Method Spontaneous speech data produced by 10 typically developing children learning American English were analyzed longitudinally from the onset of word use to 36 months. Overall patterns and word shape effects for nine CV combinations occurring in their CVC and CVCV word shapes that contained repeated nonadjacent consonants and the intervening vowel were analyzed. Results Three CV combinations-coronal-front vowel, labial-central vowel, and dorsal-back vowel-occurred at above-chance levels. Preference for these CV patterns was strong in CVCV but not in CVC word shapes. These CV combinations occurred frequently at all time periods analyzed for CVCV's while decreasing across time for CVC's. Conclusions Analysis of intrasyllabic patterns within word forms containing consonant repetitions revealed that consonant repetitions in many early words occurred at above-chance levels in the context of articulatorily compatible vowels. Results suggest that children's production system capacities are an important contributing principle accounting for vowel context effects within word forms containing consonant repetitions during earliest speech acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Namhee Kim
- Program of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Allied Health Professions, California Baptist University, Riverside
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Canault M, Yamaguchi N, Paillereau N, Krzonowski J, Roy JP, Dos Santos C, Kern S. Syllable duration changes during babbling: a longitudinal study of French infant productions. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2020; 47:1207-1227. [PMID: 32347197 DOI: 10.1017/s030500092000015x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
At the babbling stage, the syllable does not have the temporal characteristics of adult syllables because of the infant's limited oro-motor skills. This research aims to further our knowledge of syllable duration and temporal variability and their evolution with age as an indicator of the development of articulatory skills. The possible impact of syllable position, as well as that of type of intrasyllabic associations and intersyllabic articulatory changes on these parameters has also been tested. Oral productions of 22 French infants were recorded monthly from 8 to 14 months. 11 261 Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables were annotated and temporally analyzed. The mean duration varied according to syllable position, but not to the intrasyllabic or intersyllabic articulatory changes. Moreover, the syllable duration decreased significantly from the age of 10 months onwards, whereas the temporal variability remained the same.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mélanie Canault
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
| | - Naomi Yamaguchi
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, UMR 7018 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle & CNRS), 75005Paris, France
| | - Nikola Paillereau
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, UMR 7018 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle & CNRS), 75005Paris, France
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jennifer Krzonowski
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
| | - Johanna-Pascale Roy
- Laboratoire de phonétique - Département de langues, linguistique et traduction - Université Laval - Quebec, Canada
| | | | - Sophie Kern
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
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Case J, Grigos MI. A Framework of Motoric Complexity: An Investigation in Children With Typical and Impaired Speech Development. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:3326-3348. [PMID: 32946304 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Introduction The current work presents a framework of motoric complexity where stimuli differ according to movement elements across a sound sequence (i.e., consonant transitions and vowel direction). This framework was then examined in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), other speech sound disorders (SSDs), and typical development (TD). Method Twenty-four children (CAS, n = 8; SSD, n = 8; TD, n = 8), 5-6 years of age, participated in this study. The children produced words that varied in motoric complexity while transcription, acoustic, and kinematic data were collected. Multidimensional analyses were conducted to examine speech production accuracy, speech motor variability, and temporal control. Results Analyses revealed poorer accuracy, longer movement duration, and greater speech motor variability in children with CAS than TD (across all measures) and other SSDs (accuracy and variability). All children demonstrated greater speech motor variability and longer duration as movement demands increased within the framework of motoric complexity. Diagnostic grouping did not mediate performance on this task. Conclusions Results of this study are believed to reveal gradations of complexity with increasing movement demands, thereby supporting the proposed framework of motoric complexity. This work also supports the importance of considering motoric properties of sound sequences when evaluating speech production skills and designing experimental and treatment stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Case
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
| | - Maria I Grigos
- Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, New York
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Lipkind D, Geambasu A, Levelt CC. The Development of Structured Vocalizations in Songbirds and Humans: A Comparative Analysis. Top Cogn Sci 2019; 12:894-909. [PMID: 30761767 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2018] [Revised: 12/27/2018] [Accepted: 01/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Humans and songbirds face a common challenge: acquiring the complex vocal repertoire of their social group. Although humans are thought to be unique in their ability to convey symbolic meaning through speech, speech and birdsong are comparable in their acoustic complexity and the mastery with which the vocalizations of adults are acquired by young individuals. In this review, we focus on recent advances in the study of vocal development in humans and songbirds that shed new light on the emergence of distinct structural levels of vocal behavior and point to new possible parallels between both groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dina Lipkind
- Department of Psychology, Hunter College, The City University of New York.,Department of Biology, York College, The City University of New York
| | - Andreea Geambasu
- Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University
| | - Clara C Levelt
- Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University
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van der Merwe A, Steyn M. Model-Driven Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Positive Effects of the Speech Motor Learning Approach. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2018; 27:37-51. [PMID: 29222568 DOI: 10.1044/2017_ajslp-15-0193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2015] [Accepted: 07/21/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of the study was to propose the speech motor learning approach (Van der Merwe, 2011) as a treatment for childhood apraxia of speech and to determine if it will effect positive change in the ability of a 33-month-old child to produce untreated nonwords and words containing treated age-appropriate consonants (Set 1 sounds), untreated age-appropriate consonants (Set 2), and untreated age-inappropriate consonants (Set 3) and also to determine the nature and number of segmental speech errors before and after treatment. METHOD An A-B design with multiple target measures and follow-up was implemented to assess the effects of treatment of Set 1. Effect sizes for whole-word accuracy were determined, and two criterion lines were generated following the conservative dual criterion method. Speech errors were judged perceptually. RESULTS Conservative dual criterion analyses indicated no reliable treatment effect due to rising baseline scores. Effect sizes showed significant improvement in whole-word accuracy of untreated nonwords and real words containing age-appropriate treated sounds and real words containing age-appropriate untreated sounds. The number of errors for all three sound sets declined. Sound distortion was the most frequent error type. CONCLUSIONS Preliminary evidence suggests potentially positive treatment effects. However, rising baseline scores limit causal inference. Replication with more children of different ages is necessary. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5596708.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anita van der Merwe
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield, South Africa
| | - Mollie Steyn
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield, South Africa
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James LS, Sakata JT. Learning Biases Underlie "Universals" in Avian Vocal Sequencing. Curr Biol 2017; 27:3676-3682.e4. [PMID: 29174890 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2017] [Revised: 09/11/2017] [Accepted: 10/06/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Biological predispositions in vocal learning have been proposed to underlie commonalities in vocal sequences, including for speech and birdsong, but cultural propagation could also account for such commonalities [1-4]. Songbirds such as the zebra finch learn the sequencing of their acoustic elements ("syllables") during development [5-8]. Zebra finches are not constrained to learn a specific sequence of syllables, but significant consistencies in the positioning and sequencing of syllables have been observed between individuals within populations and between populations [8-10]. To reveal biological predispositions in vocal sequence learning, we individually tutored juvenile zebra finches with randomized and unbiased sequences of syllables and analyzed the extent to which birds produced common sequences. In support of biological predispositions, birds tutored with randomized sequences produced songs with striking similarities. Birds preferentially started and ended their song sequence with particular syllables, consistently positioned shorter and higher frequency syllables in the middle of their song, and sequenced their syllables such that pitch alternated across adjacent syllables. These patterns are reminiscent of those observed in normally tutored birds, suggesting that birds "creolize" aberrant sequence inputs to produce normal sequence outputs. Similar patterns were also observed for syllables that were not used for tutoring (i.e., unlearned syllables), suggesting that motor biases could contribute to sequence learning biases. Furthermore, zebra finches spontaneously produced acoustic patterns that are commonly observed in speech and music, suggesting that sensorimotor processes that are shared across a wide range of vertebrates could underlie these patterns in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Logan S James
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada.
| | - Jon T Sakata
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada; Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 2A8, Canada.
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Aoyama K, Davis BL. Non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in English target words during the first-word period. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2017; 44:1065-1087. [PMID: 27523171 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000916000404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in target words during the first-word period in infants learning American English. In the spontaneous speech of eighteen participants, target words with a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (C1VC2) shape were analyzed. Target words were grouped into nine types, categorized by place of articulation (labial, coronal, dorsal) of initial and final consonants (e.g. mom, labial-labial; mat, labial-coronal; dog, coronal-dorsal). The results indicated that some consonant sequences occurred much more frequently than others in early target words. The two most frequent types were coronal-coronal (e.g. dad) and labial-coronal (e.g. mat). The least frequent type was dorsal-dorsal (e.g. cake). These patterns are consistent with phonotactic characteristics of English and infants' production capacities reported in previous studies. This study demonstrates that infants' expressive vocabularies reflect both ambient language characteristics and their own production capacities, at least for consonant sequences in C1VC2 word forms.
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Diepstra H, Trehub SE, Eriks-Brophy A, van Lieshout PH. Imitation of Non-Speech Oral Gestures by 8-Month-Old Infants. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2017; 60:154-166. [PMID: 28326993 DOI: 10.1177/0023830916647080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates the oral gestures of 8-month-old infants in response to audiovisual presentation of lip and tongue smacks. Infants exhibited more lip gestures than tongue gestures following adult lip smacks and more tongue gestures than lip gestures following adult tongue smacks. The findings, which are consistent with predictions from Articulatory Phonology, imply that 8-month-old infants are capable of producing goal-directed oral gestures by matching the articulatory organ of an adult model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi Diepstra
- Department of Speech and Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Sandra E Trehub
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
| | - Alice Eriks-Brophy
- Department of Speech and Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Canada
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Abstract
To become language users, infants must embrace the integrality of speech perception and production. That they do so, and quite rapidly, is implied by the native-language attunement they achieve in each domain by 6-12 months. Yet research has most often addressed one or the other domain, rarely how they interrelate. Moreover, mainstream assumptions that perception relies on acoustic patterns whereas production involves motor patterns entail that the infant would have to translate incommensurable information to grasp the perception-production relationship. We posit the more parsimonious view that both domains depend on commensurate articulatory information. Our proposed framework combines principles of the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and Articulatory Phonology (AP). According to PAM, infants attune to articulatory information in native speech and detect similarities of nonnative phones to native articulatory patterns. The AP premise that gestures of the speech organs are the basic elements of phonology offers articulatory similarity metrics while satisfying the requirement that phonological information be discrete and contrastive: (a) distinct articulatory organs produce vocal tract constrictions and (b) phonological contrasts recruit different articulators and/or constrictions of a given articulator that differ in degree or location. Various lines of research suggest young children perceive articulatory information, which guides their productions: discrimination of between- versus within-organ contrasts, simulations of attunement to language-specific articulatory distributions, multimodal speech perception, oral/vocal imitation, and perceptual effects of articulator activation or suppression. We conclude that articulatory gesture information serves as the foundation for developmental integrality of speech perception and production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine T. Best
- MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University
- School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University
- Haskins Laboratories
| | - Louis M. Goldstein
- Haskins Laboratories
- Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California
| | - Hosung Nam
- Haskins Laboratories
- Department of English Language and Literature, Korea University
| | - Michael D. Tyler
- MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University
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Faes J, Gillis S. Word initial fricative production in children with cochlear implants and their normally hearing peers matched on lexicon size. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2016; 30:959-982. [PMID: 27599559 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2016.1213882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Fricative production is affected in children with cochlear implants (CI) as compared to age-matched normally hearing (NH) children. However, the phonological development of children with CI is rarely compared to that of NH peers matched on lexicon size. We compare the early word initial fricative development of 10 children with CI and 30 NH children matched on lexicon size and on chronological age. Children with CI are expected to differ from their NH peers when they are matched on chronological age. But, are lexical development and phonological development commensurate in children with CI as they have been shown to be in NH children? Results show that fricative production in children with CI deviates from that of age-matched NH peers. The differences between both groups disappear when they were matched on lexicon size. Thus, phonological development in children with CI is similar to that of their NH peers with comparable lexicon sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolien Faes
- a Computational Linguistics & Psycholinguistics (CLiPS) Research Center , University of Antwerp , Antwerp , Belgium
| | - Steven Gillis
- a Computational Linguistics & Psycholinguistics (CLiPS) Research Center , University of Antwerp , Antwerp , Belgium
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Warlaumont AS, Finnegan MK. Learning to Produce Syllabic Speech Sounds via Reward-Modulated Neural Plasticity. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0145096. [PMID: 26808148 PMCID: PMC4726623 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2015] [Accepted: 11/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
At around 7 months of age, human infants begin to reliably produce well-formed syllables containing both consonants and vowels, a behavior called canonical babbling. Over subsequent months, the frequency of canonical babbling continues to increase. How the infant's nervous system supports the acquisition of this ability is unknown. Here we present a computational model that combines a spiking neural network, reinforcement-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity, and a human-like vocal tract to simulate the acquisition of canonical babbling. Like human infants, the model's frequency of canonical babbling gradually increases. The model is rewarded when it produces a sound that is more auditorily salient than sounds it has previously produced. This is consistent with data from human infants indicating that contingent adult responses shape infant behavior and with data from deaf and tracheostomized infants indicating that hearing, including hearing one's own vocalizations, is critical for canonical babbling development. Reward receipt increases the level of dopamine in the neural network. The neural network contains a reservoir with recurrent connections and two motor neuron groups, one agonist and one antagonist, which control the masseter and orbicularis oris muscles, promoting or inhibiting mouth closure. The model learns to increase the number of salient, syllabic sounds it produces by adjusting the base level of muscle activation and increasing their range of activity. Our results support the possibility that through dopamine-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity, the motor cortex learns to harness its natural oscillations in activity in order to produce syllabic sounds. It thus suggests that learning to produce rhythmic mouth movements for speech production may be supported by general cortical learning mechanisms. The model makes several testable predictions and has implications for our understanding not only of how syllabic vocalizations develop in infancy but also for our understanding of how they may have evolved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne S. Warlaumont
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, United States of America
| | - Megan K. Finnegan
- Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States of America
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Gonzalez-Gomez N, Nazzi T. Delayed acquisition of non-adjacent vocalic distributional regularities. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2016; 43:186-206. [PMID: 25786491 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000915000112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
The ability to compute non-adjacent regularities is key in the acquisition of a new language. In the domain of phonology/phonotactics, sensitivity to non-adjacent regularities between consonants has been found to appear between 7 and 10 months. The present study focuses on the emergence of a posterior-anterior (PA) bias, a regularity involving two non-adjacent vowels. Experiments 1 and 2 show that a preference for PA over AP (anterior-posterior) words emerges between 10 and 13 months in French-learning infants. Control experiments show that this bias cannot be explained by adjacent or positional preferences. The present study demonstrates that infants become sensitive to non-adjacent vocalic distributional regularities between 10 and 13 months, showing the existence of a delay for the acquisition of non-adjacent vocalic regularities compared to equivalent non-adjacent consonantal regularities. These results are consistent with the CV hypothesis, according to which consonants and vowels play different roles at different linguistic levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez
- Oxford Brookes University,Department of Psychology,Oxford,England,and Université Paris Descartes,Sorbonne Paris Cité,Paris,France
| | - Thierry Nazzi
- Université Paris Descartes,Sorbonne Paris Cité,Paris,France,and CNRS (Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8158),Paris,France
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Tsuji S, Nishikawa K, Mazuka R. Segmental distributions and consonant-vowel association patterns in Japanese infant- and adult-directed speech. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2014; 41:1276-1304. [PMID: 24229534 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000913000469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Japanese infant-directed speech (IDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS) were compared on their segmental distributions and consonant-vowel association patterns. Consistent with findings in other languages, a higher ratio of segments that are generally produced early was found in IDS compared to ADS: more labial consonants and low-central vowels, but fewer fricatives. Consonant-vowel associations also favored the early produced labial-central, coronal-front, coronal-central, and dorsal-back patterns. On the other hand, clear language-specific patterns included a higher frequency of dorsals, affricates, geminates, and moraic nasals in IDS. These segments are frequent in adult Japanese, but not in the early productions or the IDS of other studied languages. In combination with previous results, the current study suggests that both fine-tuning (an increased use of early produced segments) and highlighting (an increased use of language-specifically relevant segments) might modify IDS on the segmental level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sho Tsuji
- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen,International Max-Planck Research School for Language Sciences,and Laboratory for Language Development,RIKEN Brain Sciences Institute
| | - Kenya Nishikawa
- Laboratory for Language Development,RIKEN Brain Sciences Institute
| | - Reiko Mazuka
- Laboratory for Language Development,RIKEN Brain Sciences Institute, and Duke University
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The role of the input on the development of the LC bias: a crosslinguistic comparison. Cognition 2014; 132:301-11. [PMID: 24858107 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2013] [Revised: 04/11/2014] [Accepted: 04/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have described the existence of a phonotactic bias called the Labial-Coronal (LC) bias, corresponding to a tendency to produce more words beginning with a labial consonant followed by a coronal consonant (i.e. "bat") than the opposite CL pattern (i.e. "tap"). This bias has initially been interpreted in terms of articulatory constraints of the human speech production system. However, more recently, it has been suggested that this presumably language-general LC bias in production might be accompanied by LC and CL biases in perception, acquired in infancy on the basis of the properties of the linguistic input. The present study investigates the origins of these perceptual biases, testing infants learning Japanese, a language that has been claimed to possess more CL than LC sequences, and comparing them with infants learning French, a language showing a clear LC bias in its lexicon. First, a corpus analysis of Japanese IDS and ADS revealed the existence of an overall LC bias, except for plosive sequences in ADS, which show a CL bias across counts. Second, speech preference experiments showed a perceptual preference for CL over LC plosive sequences (all recorded by a Japanese speaker) in 13- but not in 7- and 10-month-old Japanese-learning infants (Experiment 1), while revealing the emergence of an LC preference between 7 and 10 months in French-learning infants, using the exact same stimuli. These crosslinguistic behavioral differences, obtained with the same stimuli, thus reflect differences in processing in two populations of infants, which can be linked to differences in the properties of the lexicons of their respective native languages. These findings establish that the emergence of a CL/LC bias is related to exposure to a linguistic input.
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Gonzalez-Gomez N, Nazzi T. Effects of prior phonotactic knowledge on infant word segmentation: the case of nonadjacent dependencies. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2013; 56:840-849. [PMID: 23275409 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0138)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE In this study, the authors explored whether French-learning infants use nonadjacent phonotactic regularities in their native language, which they learn between the ages of 7 and 10 months, to segment words from fluent speech. METHOD Two groups of 20 French-learning infants were tested using the head-turn preference procedure at 10 and 13 months of age. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with 2 passages: 1 containing a target word with a frequent nonadjacent phonotactic structure and the other containing a target word with an infrequent nonadjacent phonotactic structure in French. During the test phase, infants were presented with 4 word lists: 2 containing the target words presented during familiarization and 2 other control words with the same phonotactic structure. In Experiment 2, the authors retested infants' ability to segment words with the infrequent phonotactic structure. RESULTS Ten- and 13-month-olds were able to segment words with the frequent phonotactic structure, but it is only by 13 months, and only under the circumstances of Experiment 2, that infants could segment words with the infrequent phonotactic structure. CONCLUSION These results provide new evidence showing that infant word segmentation is influenced by prior nonadjacent phonotactic knowledge.
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Nam H, Goldstein LM, Giulivi S, Levitt AG, Whalen DH. Computational simulation of CV combination preferences in babbling. JOURNAL OF PHONETICS 2013; 41:63-77. [PMID: 24496111 PMCID: PMC3564651 DOI: 10.1016/j.wocn.2012.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
There is a tendency for spoken consonant-vowel (CV) syllables, in babbling in particular, to show preferred combinations: labial consonants with central vowels, alveolars with front, and velars with back. This pattern was first described by MacNeilage and Davis, who found the evidence compatible with their "frame-then-content" (F/C) model. F/C postulates that CV syllables in babbling are produced with no control of the tongue (and therefore effectively random tongue positions) but systematic oscillation of the jaw. Articulatory Phonology (AP; Browman & Goldstein) predicts that CV preferences will depend on the degree of synergy of tongue movements for the C and V. We present computational modeling of both accounts using articulatory synthesis. Simulations found better correlations between patterns in babbling and the AP account than with the F/C model. These results indicate that the underlying assumptions of the F/C model are not supported and that the AP account provides a better and account with broader coverage by showing that articulatory synergies influence all CV syllables, not just the most common ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hosung Nam
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Louis M. Goldstein
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CT, USA
| | - Sara Giulivi
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
- DSLO-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Andrea G. Levitt
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
- Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
| | - D. H. Whalen
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
- City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
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Yamashita Y, Nakajima Y, Ueda K, Shimada Y, Hirsh D, Seno T, Smith BA. Acoustic analyses of speech sounds and rhythms in Japanese- and english-learning infants. Front Psychol 2013; 4:57. [PMID: 23450824 PMCID: PMC3584442 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2012] [Accepted: 01/25/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore developmental changes, in terms of spectral fluctuations and temporal periodicity with Japanese- and English-learning infants. Three age groups (15, 20, and 24 months) were selected, because infants diversify phonetic inventories with age. Natural speech of the infants was recorded. We utilized a critical-band-filter bank, which simulated the frequency resolution in adults' auditory periphery. First, the correlations between the power fluctuations of the critical-band outputs represented by factor analysis were observed in order to see how the critical bands should be connected to each other, if a listener is to differentiate sounds in infants' speech. In the following analysis, we analyzed the temporal fluctuations of factor scores by calculating autocorrelations. The present analysis identified three factors as had been observed in adult speech at 24 months of age in both linguistic environments. These three factors were shifted to a higher frequency range corresponding to the smaller vocal tract size of the infants. The results suggest that the vocal tract structures of the infants had developed to become adult-like configuration by 24 months of age in both language environments. The amount of utterances with periodic nature of shorter time increased with age in both environments. This trend was clearer in the Japanese environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuko Yamashita
- Graduate School of Design, Kyushu UniversityFukuoka, Japan
| | - Yoshitaka Nakajima
- Department of Human Science, Center for Applied Perceptual Research, Kyushu UniversityFukuoka, Japan
| | - Kazuo Ueda
- Department of Human Science, Center for Applied Perceptual Research, Kyushu UniversityFukuoka, Japan
| | - Yohko Shimada
- Graduate School of Asian and African Studies, Kyoto UniversityKyoto, Japan
| | - David Hirsh
- Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of SydneySydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Takeharu Seno
- Faculty of Design, Institute for Advanced Study, Kyushu UniversityFukuoka, Japan
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Whalen DH, Giulivi S, Nam H, Levitt AG, Hallé P, Goldstein LM. Biomechanically preferred consonant-vowel combinations fail to appear in adult spoken corpora. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2012; 55:503-515. [PMID: 23420980 PMCID: PMC3580796 DOI: 10.1177/0023830911434123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Certain consonant/vowel (CV) combinations are more frequent than would be expected from the individual C and V frequencies alone, both in babbling and, to a lesser extent, in adult language, based on dictionary counts: Labial consonants co-occur with central vowels more often than chance would dictate; coronals co-occur with front vowels, and velars with back vowels (Davis & MacNeilage, 1994). Plausible biomechanical explanations have been proposed, but it is also possible that infants are mirroring the frequency of the CVs that they hear. As noted, previous assessments of adult language were based on dictionaries; these "type" counts are incommensurate with the babbling measures, which are necessarily "token" counts. We analyzed the tokens in two spoken corpora for English, two for French and one for Mandarin. We found that the adult spoken CV preferences correlated with the type counts for Mandarin and French, not for English. Correlations between the adult spoken corpora and the babbling results had all three possible outcomes: significantly positive (French), uncorrelated (Mandarin), and significantly negative (English). There were no correlations of the dictionary data with the babbling results when we consider all nine combinations of consonants and vowels. The results indicate that spoken frequencies of CV combinations can differ from dictionary (type) counts and that the CV preferences apparent in babbling are biomechanically driven and can ignore the frequencies of CVs in the ambient spoken language.
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Affiliation(s)
- D H Whalen
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
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24
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25
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Tsuji S, Gomez NG, Medina V, Nazzi T, Mazuka R. The labial-coronal effect revisited: Japanese adults say pata, but hear tapa. Cognition 2012; 125:413-28. [PMID: 22921188 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.07.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2011] [Revised: 06/15/2012] [Accepted: 07/20/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
The labial-coronal effect has originally been described as a bias to initiate a word with a labial consonant-vowel-coronal consonant (LC) sequence. This bias has been explained with constraints on the human speech production system, and its perceptual correlates have motivated the suggestion of a perception-production link. However, previous studies exclusively considered languages in which LC sequences are globally more frequent than their counterpart. The current study examined the LC bias in speakers of Japanese, a language that has been claimed to possess more CL than LC sequences. We first conducted an analysis of Japanese corpora that qualified this claim, and identified a subgroup of consonants (plosives) exhibiting a CL bias. Second, focusing on this subgroup of consonants, we found diverging results for production and perception such that Japanese speakers exhibited an articulatory LC bias, but a perceptual CL bias. The CL perceptual bias, however, was modulated by language of presentation, and was only present for stimuli recorded by a Japanese, but not a French, speaker. A further experiment with native speakers of French showed the opposite effect, with an LC bias for French stimuli only. Overall, we find support for a universal, articulatory motivated LC bias in production, supporting a motor explanation of the LC effect, while perceptual biases are influenced by distributional frequencies of the native language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sho Tsuji
- Laboratory for Language Development, RIKEN Brain Sciences Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako City, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
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Steeve RW. Effects of changing jaw height on F1 during babble: a case study at 9 months. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2012; 26:311-329. [PMID: 22372626 DOI: 10.3109/02699206.2011.626887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
An empirical gap exists in our understanding of the extent that mandibular kinematics modulate acoustic changes in natural babble productions of infants. Data were recorded from a normal developing 9-month-old infant. Mandibular position was tracked from the infant during vowel and canonical babble. Linear predictive coding analysis was used to track estimates of formant center-frequency for F1. For each sample, a correlation coefficient was computed between changes in jaw height and formant history for F1. A Mann-Whitney rank sum test reached significance for differences among coefficients for vowel and canonical babble. Coefficients for vowel babble productions were nearest to -1 with a median of r=-0.76, showing the strongest relationship between jaw position and formant history, while the median for canonical babble coefficients was r=-0.54, indicating greater contribution of the tongue and lips. This 9-month-old infant exhibited plasticity for coordinating the jaw, tongue and lips among babble types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger W Steeve
- Division of Communication Disorders, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
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Zanobini M, Viterbori P, Saraceno F. Phonology and language development in Italian children: an analysis of production and accuracy. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2012; 55:16-31. [PMID: 22199193 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0228)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The principal aims of this study were to detect phonetic measures (consonant inventory, intelligibility, frequency, and types of phonological errors) associated with lexical and morphosyntactic ability and to analyze the types of phonological processes in children with different language skills. METHOD The sample was composed of 30 children between the ages of 36 and 42 months. Two tests were administered, one investigating phonological ability and one investigating general linguistic ability. RESULTS A strong relationship between phonetic measures and language performance was found. The proportion of unintelligible productions and simplified words correlated with all the linguistic measures considered. A comparison of the phonological processes used by children with low, average, and high linguistic performance showed that phonotactic structure errors discriminated better than did system errors between the three groups. In particular, the less competent talkers were more likely to delete weak syllables, omit consonants and vowels, reduce diphthongs, and make consonant harmony errors. CONCLUSIONS The results emphasize the importance of phonetic measures in explaining differences in language performance and suggest the possibility of identifying children with low linguistic competence on the basis of phonetic measures, such as the level of intelligibility and the type of errors committed.
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Gonzalez-Gomez N, Nazzi T. Acquisition of Nonadjacent Phonological Dependencies in the Native Language During the First Year of Life. INFANCY 2011; 17:498-524. [PMID: 32693545 DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00104.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Languages instantiate many different kinds of dependencies, some holding between adjacent elements and others holding between nonadjacent elements. In the domain of phonology-phonotactics, sensitivity to adjacent dependencies has been found to appear between 6 and 10 months. However, no study has directly established the emergence of sensitivity to nonadjacent phonological dependencies in the native language. The present study focuses on the emergence of a perceptual Labial-Coronal (LC) bias, a dependency involving two nonadjacent consonants. First, Experiment 1 shows that a preference for monosyllabic consonant-vowel-consonant LC words over CL (Coronal-Labial) words emerges between 7 and 10 months in French-learning infants. Second, two experiments, presenting only the first or last two phonemes of the original stimuli, establish that the LC bias at 10 months cannot be explained by adjacent dependencies or by a preference for more frequent coronal consonants (Experiment 2a & b). At 7 months, by contrast, infants appear to react to the higher frequency of coronal consonants (Experiment 3a & b). The present study thus demonstrates that infants become sensitive to nonadjacent phonological dependencies between 7 and 10 months. It further establishes a change between these two ages from sensitivity to local properties to nonadjacent dependencies in the phonological domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez
- Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité & CNRS
| | - Thierry Nazzi
- Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité & CNRS
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Stout G, Hardin-Jones M, Chapman KL. An analysis of the frame-content theory in babble of 9-month-old babies with cleft lip and palate. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2011; 44:584-594. [PMID: 21889772 PMCID: PMC3215842 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2011.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2010] [Revised: 08/03/2011] [Accepted: 08/04/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to examine the consonant-vowel co-occurrence patterns predicted by the Frame-Content theory in 16 nine-month-old babies with unrepaired cleft palate (±cleft lip) and 16 age-matched non-cleft babies. Babble from these babies was phonetically transcribed and grouped according to the intrasyllabic predictions of the theory (labial-central, alveolar-front, and velar-back). Both groups demonstrated the three consonant-vowel co-occurrence patterns predicted by the Frame-Content theory. Other patterns not predicted by the Frame-Content theory emerged as strong patterns as well. LEARNING OUTCOMES The reader will be able to: • Describe consonant-vowel co-occurrence patterns produced by babies with and without cleft palate. • Describe vowel inventories of babies with cleft palate. • Identify possible therapy targets for babies with cleft palate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gwendolyn Stout
- University of Wyoming, Division of Communication Disorders, Laramie, WY 82072, USA.
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Giulivi S, Whalen DH, Goldstein LM, Nam H, Levitt AG. An Articulatory Phonology Account of Preferred Consonant-Vowel Combinations. LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 2011; 7:202-225. [PMID: 23505343 PMCID: PMC3596049 DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2011.564569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Certain consonant/vowel combinations (labial/central, coronal/front, velar/back) are more frequent in babbling as well as, to a lesser extent, in adult language, than chance would dictate. The "Frame then Content" (F/C) hypothesis (Davis & MacNeilage, 1994) attributes this pattern to biomechanical vocal-tract biases that change as infants mature. Articulatory Phonology (AP; Browman and Goldstein 1989) attributes preferences to demands placed on shared articulators. F/C implies that preferences will diminish as articulatory control increases, while AP does not. Here, babbling from children at 6, 9 and 12 months in English, French and Mandarin environments was examined. There was no developmental trend in CV preferences, although older ages exhibited greater articulatory control. A perception test showed no evidence of bias toward hearing the preferred combinations. Modeling using articulatory synthesis found limited support for F/C but more for AP, including data not originally encompassed in F/C. AP thus provides an alternative biomechanical explanation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Giulivi
- Haskins Laboratories
- DSLO – University of Bologna
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31
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Whalen DH, Giulivi S, Goldstein LM, Nam H, Levitt AG. Response to MacNeilage and Davis and to Oller. LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 2011; 7:243-249. [PMID: 23825933 PMCID: PMC3697154 DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2011.578547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The article by MacNeilage and Davis in this issue, entitled "In Defense of the 'Frames, then Content' (FC) Perspective on Speech Acquisition: A Response to Two Critiques" appears to assume that the only alternative to segment-level control is oscillation specifically of the jaw; however, other articulators could be oscillated by infants as well. This allows the preferred CV combinations to emerge without positing a level of segmental control in babbling. Their response does not address our modeling work, which, rather similarly to Davis's own modeling (Serkhane, Schwartz, Boë, Davis, & Matyear, 2007), shows little support for the Frame-then-Content (F/C) account. Our results show substantial support for the Articulatory Phonology (AP) one. A closer look at feeding in infants shows substantial control of the tongue and lips, casting further doubt on the foundation of the F/C account.
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Affiliation(s)
- D H Whalen
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut and Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, City University of New York
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Floccia C, Nazzi T, Austin K, Arreckx F, Goslin J. Lexical stress and phonetic processing in word learning in20- to 24-month-old English-learning children. Dev Sci 2010; 14:602-13. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01006.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Évolution de l’inventaire de contours de Fo chez deux enfants français de 10 à 12 mois : l’importance du contexte pour décrire le stade pré-linguistique. ENFANCE 2009. [DOI: 10.4074/s001375450900305x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Nazzi T, Bertoncini J, Bijeljac-Babic R. A perceptual equivalent of the labial-coronal effect in the first year of life. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2009; 126:1440-1446. [PMID: 19739757 DOI: 10.1121/1.3158931] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Several studies have investigated infants' acquisition of the phonological (prosodic or phonotactic) regularities of their native language at the lexical level, by showing that infants around 910 months of age start preferring lists of words that have a more versus less frequent phonological structure. The present study investigates whether a similar acquisition pattern of preferences can be found for labial-coronal (LC) words over coronal-labial (CL) words, a bias classically interpreted in terms of production constraints but that could also be explained in terms of relative frequency of frequent LC and less frequent CL words in many languages including French, the language used here. Results show that a preference for bisyllabic LC words emerges between 6 and 10 months of age in French-learning infants (Experiment 1), and that the non-preference at 6 months is not due to the infants' inability to discriminate the two lists of words (Experiment 2). The present study thus establishes an early perceptual equivalent of the LC bias initially found at the onset of word production. Implications of this finding for an understanding of the perception-production relationship are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thierry Nazzi
- Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS, Universite Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
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Nip ISB, Green JR, Marx DB. Early speech motor development: Cognitive and linguistic considerations. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2009; 42:286-98. [PMID: 19439318 PMCID: PMC2892123 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2009.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2009] [Accepted: 03/26/2009] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED This longitudinal investigation examines developmental changes in orofacial movements occurring during the early stages of communication development. The goals were to identify developmental trends in early speech motor performance and to determine how these trends differ across orofacial behaviors thought to vary in cognitive and linguistic demands (i.e., silent spontaneous movements, babble, and first words). Movements of the lower lip and jaw were recorded using a three-dimensional motion capture system. Twenty-four infants were observed every 3 months, from 9 to 21 months of age. Jaw and lower lip speed, and lower lip range of movement increased with age. Silent spontaneous movements were consistently slower than words, whereas kinematic measures associated with babble did not differ from those associated with words. These findings suggest that speech movements may reflect linguistic and cognitive processing demands and that the continuity hypothesis between babbling and words may also be observed at the kinematic level. LEARNING OUTCOMES Readers will be able to: (1) describe the potential role of cognition and language in early speech development, (2) describe kinematic changes in the orofacial system from 9 to 21 months of age, and (3) identify the differences in kinematic characteristics for silent spontaneous orofacial movements, babbles and words between 15 to 21 months of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ignatius S B Nip
- School of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182-1518, USA.
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Lee S, Davis BL, Macneilage PF. Segmental properties of input to infants: a study of Korean. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2008; 35:591-617. [PMID: 18588716 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000908008684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Segmental distributions of Korean infant-directed speech (IDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS) were compared. Significant differences were found in both consonant and vowel patterns. Korean-speaking mothers using IDS displayed more frequent labial consonantal place and less frequent coronal and glottal place and fricative manner. They showed more use of mid and low central vowels in IDS as well as more use of language-specific Korean phonemes. Mothers produced significantly more fortis and geminate and less lenis consonant phonemes in IDS than in ADS. Findings suggest that Korean mothers speaking to infants in the IDS speech style use sounds that more closely match infant production propensities as well as highlighting perceptually salient properties. IDS may serve to facilitate infant learning of ambient language phonological regularities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soyoung Lee
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA.
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37
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Production constraints on learning novel onset phonotactics. Cognition 2008; 107:785-816. [PMID: 18237726 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.11.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2007] [Revised: 11/15/2007] [Accepted: 11/24/2007] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Lee S, Davis BL, MacNeilage P. 'Frame dominance' and the serial organization of babbling, and first words in Korean-Learning infants. PHONETICA 2008; 64:217-236. [PMID: 18421244 DOI: 10.1159/000121374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2005] [Accepted: 09/15/2007] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Korean-learning infant patterns in babbling and single words were compared with those of English-learning infants and with Korean adult-directed and infantdirected speech to evaluate the roles of intrinsic production constraints proposed by the frame dominance hypothesis versus early learning mechanisms based on input regularities. Intrasyllabic patterns in babbling of Korean-learning infants were like those of English-learning infants. These patterns were not present in Korean infant-directed speech, providing evidence for the assertion that they are intrinsic to infants, and not triggered by input. Unlike English-learning infants, however, Korean-learning infants did not show the expected intrasyllabic patterns in their first words, suggesting that the intrinsic constraints can be overcome in first words if they conflict with ambient speech patterns as they do in Korean. Intersyllabic patterns of Korean-learning infants were mostly similar to those of English-learning infants, showing preferences for consonant manner and vowel height variegation in babbling though only a vowel variegation preference in words. Some implications of the results for generative phonology are considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soyoung Lee
- The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex., USA.
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von Hapsburg D, Davis BL, MacNeilage PF. Frame dominance in infants with hearing loss. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2008; 51:306-320. [PMID: 18367679 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2008/023)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE According to the frames then content (f/c) hypothesis (P. F. MacNeilage & B. L. Davis, 1990), the internal structure of syllables with consonant plus vowel structure (CV) during canonical babbling is determined primarily by production system properties related to rhythmic mandibular oscillations (motor frames). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether auditory sensitivity affects the internal organization of CV syllables in infants identified in the 1st year of life with hearing loss. METHOD CV co-occurrence patterns were analyzed for 13 infants with varying degrees of hearing sensitivity (normal hearing [n = 4], mild-to-moderately severe hearing loss (n = 6), and severe-to-profound hearing loss [n = 3]). Consonants and vowels within CV syllables were grouped according to place of articulation. Thus, an inventory of CV syllables with labial, coronal, and dorsal consonant onsets was created. RESULTS 77% of predicted frames were confirmed above chance. Additionally, there was no association between pure-tone average and any CV co-occurrence. Finally, co-occurrences that were not predicted by the hypothesis were statistically confirmed in very few instances. CONCLUSIONS Auditory sensitivity may not influence intrasyllabic organization within CV syllables once infants begin canonical babbling, as the co-occurrences observed are primarily those predicted by the f/c hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deborah von Hapsburg
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 548 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
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Edwards J, Beckman ME. Some cross-linguistic evidence for modulation of implicational universals by language-specific frequency effects in phonological development. LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 2008; 4:122-156. [PMID: 19890438 PMCID: PMC2772077 DOI: 10.1080/15475440801922115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
While broad-focus comparisons of consonant inventories across children acquiring different language can suggest that phonological development follows a universal sequence, finer-grained statistical comparisons can reveal systematic differences. This cross-linguistic study of word-initial lingual obstruents examined some effects of language-specific frequencies on consonant mastery. Repetitions of real words were elicited from 2- and 3-year-old children who were monolingual speakers of English, Cantonese, Greek, or Japanese. The repetitions were recorded and transcribed by an adult native speaker for each language. Results found support for both language-universal effects in phonological acquisition and for language-specific influences related to phoneme and phoneme sequence frequency. These results suggest that acquisition patterns that are common across languages arise in two ways. One influence is direct, via the universal constraints imposed by the physiology and physics of speech production and perception, and how these predict which contrasts will be easy and which will be difficult for the child to learn to control. The other influence is indirect, via the way universal principles of ease of perception and production tend to influence the lexicons of many languages through commonly attested sound changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Edwards
- Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Goodnight Hall, 1975 Willow Dr. Madison, WI 53706, PHONE: 608 262-6474, FAX: 608 262-6466
| | - Mary E. Beckman
- Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, 1912 Neil Ave., 222 Oxley Hall, Columbus, OH 43220, PHONE: 614 292-9752, FAX: 614 292-8833
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Redford MA. Word-internal versus word-peripheral consonantal duration patterns in three languages. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2007; 121:1665-78. [PMID: 17407903 DOI: 10.1121/1.2431339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Segmental duration patterns have long been used to support the proposal that syllables are basic speech planning units, but production experiments almost always confound syllable and word boundaries. The current study tried to remedy this problem by comparing word-internal and word-peripheral consonantal duration patterns. Stress and sequencing were used to vary the nominal location of word-internal boundaries in American English productions of disyllabic nonsense words with medial consonant sequences. The word-internal patterns were compared to those that occurred at the edges of words, where boundary location was held constant and only stress and sequence order were varied. The English patterns were then compared to patterns from Russian and Finnish. All three languages showed similar effects of stress and sequencing on consonantal duration, but an independent effect of syllable position was observed only in English and only at a word boundary. English also showed stronger effects of stress and sequencing across a word boundary than within a word. Finnish showed the opposite pattern, whereas Russian showed little difference between word-internal and word-peripheral patterns. Overall, the results suggest that the suprasegmental units of motor planning are language-specific and that the word may be more a relevant planning unit in English.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa A Redford
- Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
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Abstract
When humans talk without conventionalized arrangements, they engage in conversation--that is, a continuous and largely nonsimultaneous exchange in which speakers take turns. Turn-taking is ubiquitous in conversation and is the normal case against which alternatives, such as interruptions, are treated as violations that warrant repair. Furthermore, turn-taking involves highly coordinated timing, including a cyclic rise and fall in the probability of initiating speech during brief silences, and involves the notable rarity, especially in two-party conversations, of two speakers' breaking a silence at once. These phenomena, reported by conversation analysts, have been neglected by cognitive psychologists, and to date there has been no adequate cognitive explanation. Here, we propose that, during conversation, endogenous oscillators in the brains of the speaker and the listeners become mutually entrained, on the basis of the speaker's rate of syllable production. This entrained cyclic pattern governs the potential for initiating speech at any given instant for the speaker and also for the listeners (as potential next speakers). Furthermore, the readiness functions of the listeners are counterphased with that of the speaker, minimizing the likelihood of simultaneous starts by a listener and the previous speaker. This mutual entrainment continues for a brief period when the speech stream ceases, accounting for the cyclic property of silences. This model not only captures the timing phenomena observed inthe literature on conversation analysis, but also converges with findings from the literatures on phoneme timing, syllable organization, and interpersonal coordination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret Wilson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064, USA.
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43
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Butcher A, Tabain M. On the back of the tongue: dorsal sounds in Australian languages. PHONETICA 2004; 61:22-52. [PMID: 15258456 DOI: 10.1159/000078661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2003] [Accepted: 04/16/2004] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
In this paper we provide an overview of dorsovelar articulations and acoustics in several Australian Aboriginal languages, and we compare these results with data from English. We examine languages that have a single dorsal, as well as languages that have two dorsal places of articulation. Using direct palatography and F2 transition measures, we show that Australian languages appear to have a distinct velar target for each of the three major vowel contexts, with a high degree of coarticulation between each velar allophone and its following vowel target, whilst English has only two velar targets--back and non-back, with a lower degree of coarticulation between velar allophones and their corresponding vowel targets. Thus, whilst the range of allophonic variation for velars extends further back in the Australian Aboriginal languages than in English, there appears to be no difference in the articulation of velars in the front vowel context. Drawing on results from the biomechanics, language acquisition, speech perception and acoustics literatures, we suggest that this result may be due to conflict between systemic constraints imposed by the place-rich consonant systems of Aboriginal languages and universal acoustic constraints on the identity of front-velar sounds, which may contribute to the instability of such articulations and the relative infrequency of velar + high vowel combinations in the world's languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Butcher
- Human Communication Research Group, Flinders Institute for Health and Medical Research, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
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Walsh B, Smith A. Articulatory movements in adolescents: evidence for protracted development of speech motor control processes. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2002; 45:1119-33. [PMID: 12546482 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2002/090)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
In order to contribute to a more comprehensive model of speech motor development, we examined the movement trajectories of the upper lip, lower lip, and jaw to determine (a) if there are changes in articulatory motor control in late adolescence; (b) if there are sex differences during this developmental period, perhaps related to differences in craniofacial growth rates; (c) if control of jaw motion is adultlike earlier than control of the upper and lower lip; and (d) if control of spatial and temporal aspects of articulatory movement co-develop in adolescence. Participants were 12-, 14-, and 16-year-olds, and young adults (mean age 21.2 years), with 15 males and 15 females per group. A measure reflecting spatiotemporal consistency in trajectory formation for repeated productions of a phrase was calculated for the upper lip, lower lip, and jaw movements. Overall trajectory variability was higher for adolescents compared to young adults. Jaw trajectories were less variable than upper lip or lower lip trajectories, but all effectors showed parallel decreases in variability as age increased, suggesting that control of jaw movement does not reach adult performance before control of the lips. Separate temporal and spatial measures revealed that adolescents had significantly longer movement durations, lower velocities, smaller displacements, and greater variability on these measures than young adults. There were no sex differences on any measure examined, suggesting that peripheral growth factors do not account for this protracted developmental time course. These results provide initial evidence of significant changes in speech motor control processes during adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bridget Walsh
- Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
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45
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Davis BL, MacNeilage PF, Matyear CL. Acquisition of serial complexity in speech production: a comparison of phonetic and phonological approaches to first word production. PHONETICA 2002; 59:75-107. [PMID: 12232462 DOI: 10.1159/000066065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Comparison was made between performance-based and competence-based approaches to the understanding of first word production. The performance-related frame/content approach is representative of the biological/functional perspective of phonetics in seeking explanations based on motor, perceptual and cognitive aspects of speech actions. From this perspective, intrasyllabic consonant-vowel (CV) co-occurrence patterns and intersyllabic sequence patterns are viewed as reflective of biomechanical constraints emerging from mandibular oscillation cycles. A labial-coronal sequence effect involved, in addition, the problem of interfacing the lexicon with the motor system, as well as the additional problem of initiation of movement complexes. Competence-based approaches to acquisition are within the generative phonological tradition; involving an initial assumption of innate, speech-specific mental structures. While various current phonological approaches to acquisition involve consideration of sequence effects and intrasyllabic patterns, they do not adequately establish the proposed mental entities in infants of this age, and are nonexplanatory in the sense of not considering the causes of the structures and constraints that they posit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara L Davis
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Texas at Austin, Tex 78712, USA.
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MacNeilage PF, Davis BL. Motor mechanisms in speech ontogeny: phylogenetic, neurobiological and linguistic implications. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2001; 11:696-700. [PMID: 11741020 DOI: 10.1016/s0959-4388(01)00271-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The rhythmic mandible-generated close-open alternations of the mouth, responsible for the series of consonant-vowel alternations characteristic of babbling and of languages, is receiving increased attention as a possible manifestation of an ontogenetic and phylogenetic 'frame' underlying the serial organization of speech. The supplementary motor area appears important for production of this consonant-vowel frame in adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- P F MacNeilage
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Abstract
This study shows that a corpus of proto-word forms shares four sequential sound patterns with words of modern languages and the first words of infants. Three of the patterns involve intrasyllabic consonant-vowel (CV) co-occurrence: labial (lip) consonants with central vowels, coronal (tongue front) consonants with front vowels, and dorsal (tongue back) consonants with back vowels. The fourth pattern is an intersyllabic preference for initiating words with a labial consonant-vowel-coronal consonant sequence (LC). The CV effects may be primarily biomechanically motivated. The LC effect may be self-organizational, with multivariate causality. The findings support the hypothesis that these four patterns were basic to the origin of words.
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Affiliation(s)
- P F MacNeilage
- Department of Psychology, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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MacNeilage PF, Davis BL. Deriving speech from nonspeech: a view from ontogeny. PHONETICA 2000; 57:284-296. [PMID: 10992148 DOI: 10.1159/000028481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
A comparison of babbling and early speech, word patterns of languages, and, in one instance, a protolanguage corpus, reveals three basic movement patterns: (1) a 'Frame' provided by the cycles of mandibular oscillation underlying the basic mouth close-open alternation of speech; this Frame appears in relatively 'pure' form in the tendency for labial consonants to co-occur with central vowels; (2) two other intracyclical consonant-vowel (CV) co-occurrence patterns sharing the alternation: coronal consonants with front vowels and dorsal consonants with back vowels; (3) an intercyclical tendency towards a labial consonant-vowel-coronal consonant (LC) sequence preference for word initiation. The first two patterns were derived from oral movement capabilities which predated speech. The Frame (1) may have evolved from ingestive cyclicities (e.g. chewing). The intracyclical consonant-vowel (CV) co-occurrence patterns involving tongue position constraints common to consonants and vowels (2) may result from the basic biomechanical property of inertia. The third pattern (LC) was a self-organizational result of pressures for interfacing cognition with action - a result which must have numerous analogs in other domains of movement organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- P F MacNeilage
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA
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49
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Goldfield EC. Exploration of vocal tract properties during serial production of vowels by full term and preterm infants. Infant Behav Dev 2000. [DOI: 10.1016/s0163-6383(01)00053-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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