{"title":"Input Properties Shape Word Segmentation Performance Across Child Development: A Computational Modeling Study","authors":"Jun Ho Chai, Eon-Suk Ko","doi":"10.1111/infa.70046","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>This study investigates how the linguistic properties of child-directed speech (CDS) change across child development and how these changes affect segmentation performance in computational models. We analyzed a cross-sectional corpus of Korean CDS directed at 35 children between 6 and 30 months of age, observing developmental changes in several linguistic properties, including the proportion of one-word utterances, hapax legomena, and monosyllabic words, as well as utterance and word length, lexical diversity (MATTR), entropy, and the use of onomatopoeic and playful words. Simulated word segmentation revealed an inverse U-shaped trajectory in segmentability, with a group-level peak during the early speech stage. This developmental pattern was largely explained by changes in the linguistic properties of the input. These findings highlight the importance of modeling input–learnability dynamics and suggest that shifts in CDS structure systematically shape the learnability of linguistic units during early language development.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":47895,"journal":{"name":"Infancy","volume":"30 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Infancy","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/infa.70046","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigates how the linguistic properties of child-directed speech (CDS) change across child development and how these changes affect segmentation performance in computational models. We analyzed a cross-sectional corpus of Korean CDS directed at 35 children between 6 and 30 months of age, observing developmental changes in several linguistic properties, including the proportion of one-word utterances, hapax legomena, and monosyllabic words, as well as utterance and word length, lexical diversity (MATTR), entropy, and the use of onomatopoeic and playful words. Simulated word segmentation revealed an inverse U-shaped trajectory in segmentability, with a group-level peak during the early speech stage. This developmental pattern was largely explained by changes in the linguistic properties of the input. These findings highlight the importance of modeling input–learnability dynamics and suggest that shifts in CDS structure systematically shape the learnability of linguistic units during early language development.
期刊介绍：
Infancy, the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, emphasizes the highest quality original research on normal and aberrant infant development during the first two years. Both human and animal research are included. In addition to regular length research articles and brief reports (3000-word maximum), the journal includes solicited target articles along with a series of commentaries; debates, in which different theoretical positions are presented along with a series of commentaries; and thematic collections, a group of three to five reports or summaries of research on the same issue, conducted independently at different laboratories, with invited commentaries.
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