The clarity of word repetitions in American English infant-directed speech.

Abstract

Words in infant-directed speech (IDS) are often phonetically reduced. This likely renders words harder for infants to learn and recognize. This difficulty might be mitigated by the repetitive nature of IDS, in particular if reduced instances are often preceded by clear instances (i.e., the first-mention effect). To characterize phonetic clarity in American English word repetitions, words were extracted from the IDS of eight mothers and presented to adults (n = 36) who judged their clarity. First mentions of repeated words were found to be clearer than second mentions, though this effect was small. Clarity was rated as greater for less common words and for utterance-final words. Clarity was also greater for words parents thought their child knew. The results help guide intuitions about the phonetic problem infants face when learning their first words.