University of Delaware, DE 19716, USA.
J Child Lang. 2010 Jun;37(3):487-511. doi: 10.1017/S030500090999050X. Epub 2010 Mar 22.
How do infants find the words in the speech stream? Computational models help us understand this feat by revealing the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies that infants might use. Here, we outline a computational model of word segmentation that aims both to incorporate cues proposed by language acquisition researchers and to establish the contributions different cues can make to word segmentation. We present experimental results from modified versions of Venkataraman's (2001) segmentation model that examine the utility of: (1) language-universal phonotactic cues; (2) language-specific phonotactic cues which must be learned while segmenting utterances; and (3) their combination. We show that the language-specific cue improves segmentation performance overall, but the language-universal phonotactic cue does not, and that their combination results in the most improvement. Not only does this suggest that language-specific constraints can be learned simultaneously with speech segmentation, but it is also consistent with experimental research that shows that there are multiple phonotactic cues helpful to segmentation (e.g. Mattys, Jusczyk, Luce & Morgan, 1999; Mattys & Jusczyk, 2001). This result also compares favorably to other segmentation models (e.g. Brent, 1999; Fleck, 2008; Goldwater, 2007; Johnson & Goldwater, 2009; Venkataraman, 2001) and has implications for how infants learn to segment.
婴儿如何在语音流中找到单词？计算模型通过揭示婴儿可能使用的不同策略的优缺点，帮助我们理解这一壮举。在这里，我们概述了一种旨在结合语言习得研究人员提出的线索，并确定不同线索对分词的贡献的计算模型。我们展示了对 Venkataraman（2001）分词模型的修改版本的实验结果，这些结果检验了以下方面的效用：（1）语言通用的音韵线索；（2）在分割话语时必须学习的语言特定的音韵线索；以及（3）它们的组合。我们表明，语言特定的线索总体上提高了分割性能，但语言通用的音韵线索并没有，并且它们的组合导致了最大的改进。这不仅表明语言特定的限制可以与语音分割同时学习，而且还与实验研究一致，该研究表明有多个音韵线索有助于分割（例如，Mattys、Jusczyk、Luce 和 Morgan，1999；Mattys 和 Jusczyk，2001）。这一结果也优于其他分割模型（例如 Brent，1999；Fleck，2008；Goldwater，2007；Johnson 和 Goldwater，2009；Venkataraman，2001），并对婴儿如何学习分割产生了影响。
