A Challenge to Whole-word Phonology? A Study of Japanese and Mandarin

IF 1.5 2区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
M. Vihman, Mitsuhiko Ota, T. Keren-Portnoy, Rui Qi Choo, Shanshan Lou
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phonological models of early word learning often assume that child forms can be understood as structural mappings from their adult targets. In contrast, the whole-word phonology model suggests that on beginning word production children represent adult targets as holistic units, reflecting not the exact sound sequence but only the most perceptually salient elements or those that align with their own vocal patterns. Here we ask whether the predictions of the whole-word model are supported by data from children learning Japanese or Mandarin, both languages with phonotactic structures differing from any so far investigated from this perspective. The Japanese child word forms are found to include some characteristics suggestive of whole-word representation, but in Mandarin we find little or no such evidence. Instead, some children are found to make idiosyncratic use of whole syllables, substituting them for target syllables that they match in neither onset nor rime. This result, which neither model anticipates, forces reconsideration of a key tenet of the whole-word model – that early word production is based on word-size holistic representations; instead, at least in some languages, the syllable may serve as the basic representational unit for child learners.
对整个单词音韵学的挑战?日语和普通话研究
早期单词学习的音系模型通常假设儿童形式可以被理解为其成人目标的结构映射。相比之下,全词音系模型表明,在开始单词生成时,儿童将成人目标作为整体单位,反映的不是确切的声音序列,而是最明显的感知要素或与他们自己的声音模式相一致的要素。这里我们要问的是,全词模型的预测是否得到了学习日语或普通话的儿童的数据的支持,这两种语言的语音结构都不同于迄今为止从这个角度研究的任何语言。日语儿童词的形式被发现包含一些暗示整个词表示的特征,但在普通话中我们发现很少或没有这样的证据。相反,一些孩子被发现使用特殊的整音节,用它们代替他们在起始和时间上都不匹配的目标音节。这两个模型都没有预料到的结果,迫使人们重新考虑全词模型的一个关键原则——早期的单词生成是基于单词大小的整体表征;相反,至少在某些语言中,音节可能是儿童学习者的基本表征单位。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
26
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