Iverson Paul, Kuhl Patricia K, Akahane-Yamada Reiko, Diesch Eugen, Tohkura Yoh'ich, Kettermann Andreas, Siebert Claudia
Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK.
Cognition. 2003 Feb;87(1):B47-57. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(02)00198-1.
This article presents an account of how early language experience can impede the acquisition of non-native phonemes during adulthood. The hypothesis is that early language experience alters relatively low-level perceptual processing, and that these changes interfere with the formation and adaptability of higher-level linguistic representations. Supporting data are presented from an experiment that tested the perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese, German, and American adults. The underlying perceptual spaces for these phonemes were mapped using multidimensional scaling and compared to native-language categorization judgments. The results demonstrate that Japanese adults are most sensitive to an acoustic cue, F2, that is irrelevant to the English /r/-/l/ categorization. German adults, in contrast, have relatively high sensitivity to more critical acoustic cues. The results show how language-specific perceptual processing can alter the relative salience of within- and between-category acoustic variation, and thereby interfere with second language acquisition.
本文阐述了早期语言经历如何在成年期阻碍非母语音素的习得。其假设是，早期语言经历会改变相对较低层次的感知处理，且这些变化会干扰更高层次语言表征的形成与适应性。文中呈现了一项实验的支持数据，该实验测试了日本、德国和美国成年人对英语/r/和/l/的感知。利用多维标度法绘制了这些音素的潜在感知空间，并将其与母语分类判断进行比较。结果表明，日本成年人对一个与英语/r/-/l/分类无关的声学线索F2最为敏感。相比之下，德国成年人对更关键的声学线索敏感度相对较高。结果显示了特定语言的感知处理如何改变类别内和类别间声学变异的相对显著性，从而干扰第二语言习得。
