OLA2 Engl
OLA2. Crosslinguistic study of the consonantal bias in early word learning
Responsible: Thierry Nazzi
Members: Boris New; Judit Gervain, Martine Adda-Decker; Camillia Bouchon; Silvana Poltrock
Other members: Caroline Floccia, Jeremy Goslin, Claire delle Luche (Plymouth U.), Amanda Seidl (Purdue U.), Anders Hojen (Odense U.), Linda Polka (McGill U.)
Description
It has been proposed that consonants play a more important role in lexical processing than vowels, while vowels are more important for syntax and prosody (Nespor et al., 2003). Evidence of a consonantal bias is now supported by studies in adult processing (Carreiras et al., 2009; Cutler et al., 2000; New, Araujo & Nazzi, 2008), neuropsychology (Caramazza et al., 2000), and infant word learning (Havy & Nazzi, 2009; Nazzi, 2005; Nazzi et al., 2009; Nazzi & New, 2007). The aim of the present project is to evaluate three hypotheses that could account for this difference by comparing consonant/vowel asymmetry in infants and toddlers learning different native languages (French, English, Danish, Hungarian, Chinese, Japanese, Yiddish and Polish), and adults. If the origin of this distinction is hard-wired, then the differences should be found in the earliest stages of language development in both languages. Second, the lexical hypothesis posits that the disparity is due to differences in the distributional properties of vowels and consonants in the lexicon. In this case it would be acquired over the course of early language acquisition and reflect the lexical properties of consonant and vowel distribution of a particular language (in particular in terms of neighborhood sizes). Third, the acoustic hypothesis states that vowel and consonant representations are developed differently according to the acoustic properties of these phonemes, and would be dependent upon the properties of the particular language being learnt. As there are significant differences in both the lexical and acoustic properties of vowels and consonants in the various languages that will be investigated, the cross-linguistic comparison of these various languages will allow a direct comparison of the three hypotheses, and will also clarify the conflicting results of previous studies in this area (Mani & Plunkett, 2007; Nazzi et al., 2009).
Publications
(1) Havy, M., Serres, J., & Nazzi, T. (2013 in press). A consonant/vowel asymmetry in word-form processing: Evidence in childhood and in adulthood. Language and Speech.
(2) New, B. & Nazzi, T. (in press). The time course of consonant and vowel processing during word recognition. Language and Cognitive Processes.
(3) Delle Luche, C., Poltrock, S., Goslin, J., New, T., Floccia, C., & Nazzi, T. (in press). Lexical access in the auditory modality: differential processing of consonants and vowels. A cross-linguistic approach. Journal of memory and Language
Other Productions
(1) Bouchon, C., Delle Luche, C., Floccia, C. & Nazzi, T. (2012). Consonantal specificity of name recognition in French- and English-learning 5-month-olds. Poster présenté à la 18th Biennal Meeting of the International Society for Infant Studies, Minneapolis, USA, 7-9 juin.
(2) Bouchon, C., Gervain, J., & Nazzi, T. (2012). Vowels and consonants at birth: a NIRS study. Cognitive Modules & Interfaces workshop, Trieste, Italy, 18-19 September.
(3) Bouchon, C., delle Luche, C., Floccia, C., & Nazzi, T. (2012). Consonantal specificity of name recognition in French- and English-learning 5-month-olds. Poster presented at the 37th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, November 2-4.
(4) Bouchon, C., Gervain, J., & Nazzi, T. (2012). Vowels and Consonants at Birth: a NIRS study. Poster presented at the Second Biennial fNIRS conference, October 26-28th, London, UK.
(5) Bouchon, C., Nazzi, T. & Gervain, J. (2013). Vowels and Consonants at Birth: a NIRS study. Poster presented at Workshop on Infant Language Development, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain & Language, Donostia‐San Sebastian, Espagne, 20-22 Juin 2013.
(6) Bouchon, C., delle Luche, C., Floccia, C. & Nazzi, T. (2013). At 5 months, vowels weigh more than consonants for own name recognition in French‐learning infants. Poster presented at The 38th Annual Boston University Conference On Language Development, 1-3 Novembre 2013, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Linked Projects
Links
