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Markedness in Acquisition. Is there evidence for innate markedness-based bias in language processing? Look to see whether young infants are sensitive to markedness before they’ve had sufficient relevant experience
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Markedness in Acquisition • Is there evidence for innate markedness-based bias in language processing? • Look to see whether young infants are sensitive to markedness before they’ve had sufficient relevant experience • Before 6 months, infants have not shown sensitivity to language-particular phonotactics University of Amsterdam
Experimental Exploration of the Initial State Collaborators: Peter Jusczyk Theresa AlloccoLanguage Acquisition, 2002 Karen Arnold Elliott Moretonin progress Grammar at 4.5 months? University of Amsterdam
The Initial State OT-general:MARKEDNESS ≫ FAITHFULNESS • Learnability demands (Richness of the Base) (Alan Prince, p.c., ’93; Smolensky ’96a) Child production: restricted to the unmarked Child comprehension: not so restricted (Smolensky ’96b) University of Amsterdam
Testing the Initial State • Linking hypothesis: More harmonic phonological stimuli ⇒ Longer listening time • More harmonic: • M ≻ *M, when equal on F • F ≻ *F, when equal on M • When must choose one or the other, more harmonic to satisfy M: M ≫ F • M = Nasal Place Assimilation (NPA) University of Amsterdam
um...b...umb um...b...iŋgu • iŋ…..gu...iŋgu vs. iŋ…..gu…umb • … … Experimental Paradigm • Headturn Preference Procedure (Kemler Nelson et al. ‘95; Jusczyk ‘97) • X/Y/XYparadigm (P. Jusczyk) • un...b...umb • un...b...umb *FNP ℜ p = .006 ∃FAITH • Highly general paradigm: Main result University of Amsterdam
4.5 Months (NPA) University of Amsterdam
4.5 Months (NPA) University of Amsterdam
4.5 Months (NPA) University of Amsterdam
5 Experiments University of Amsterdam