Reduplication facilitates early word segmentation.
This study explores the possibility that early word segmentation is aided by infants' tendency to segment words with repeated syllables ('reduplication'). Twenty-four nine-month-olds were familiarized with passages containing one novel reduplicated word and one novel non-reduplicated word. Their central fixation times in response to these as well as new reduplicated and non-reduplicated words introduced at test showed that familiarized reduplicated words were segmented better than familiarized non-reduplicated words. These results demonstrate that infants are predisposed to segment words with repeated phonological elements, and suggest that register-specific words in infant-directed speech may have evolved in response to this learning bias.
University of Edinburgh,UK.
Mitsuhiko
M
Ota
University of Edinburgh,UK.
Barbora
B
Skarabela
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary