Kemler Nelson D G, Hirsh-Pasek K, Jusczyk P W, Cassidy K W
J Child Lang. 1989 Feb;16(1):55-68. doi: 10.1017/s030500090001343x.
The function of motherese has become a pivotal issue in the language-learning literature. The current research takes the approach of asking whether the prosodic characteristics that are distinctive to motherese could play a special role in facilitating the acquisition of syntax. Hirsh-Pasek, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk, Cassidy, Druss & Kennedy (1987) showed that infants aged 0;7-0;10 are sensitive to prosodic cues that would help them segment the speech stream into perceptual units that correspond to clauses. The present study shows that infants' sensitivity to segment-marking cues in ongoing speech holds for motherese but not for adult-directed speech. The finding is that, for motherese only, infants orient longer to speech that has been interrupted at clausal boundaries than to matched speech that has been interrupted at within-clause locations. This selective preference indicates that the prosodic qualities of motherese provide infants with cues to units of speech that correspond to grammatical units of language-a potentially fundamental contribution of motherese to the learning of syntax.
母亲语的功能已成为语言学习文献中的一个关键问题。当前的研究采用的方法是询问母亲语所特有的韵律特征是否能在促进句法习得方面发挥特殊作用。赫什-帕塞克、凯姆勒·尼尔森、朱斯齐克、卡西迪、德鲁斯和肯尼迪（1987年）表明，7至10个月大的婴儿对韵律线索很敏感，这些线索能帮助他们将语音流分割成与从句相对应的感知单元。本研究表明，婴儿对正在进行的言语中用于划分成分的线索的敏感度在母亲语中存在，但在面向成人的言语中则不存在。研究结果是，仅对于母亲语而言，婴儿对在从句边界处被打断的言语的注视时间比对在从句内部位置被打断的匹配言语的注视时间更长。这种选择性偏好表明，母亲语的韵律特征为婴儿提供了与语言语法单元相对应的言语单元线索——这可能是母亲语对句法学习的一项根本性贡献。
