Polka Linda, Sundara Megha
School of Communication Sciences & Disorders Centre for Research on Language, Mind and Brain McGill University.
Department of Linguistics University of California at Los Angeles.
Infancy. 2012 Mar;17(2):198-232. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00075.x. Epub 2011 Apr 5.
In five experiments, we tested segmentation of word forms from natural speech materials by 8-month-old monolingual infants who are acquiring Canadian French or Canadian English. These two languages belong to different rhythm classes; Canadian French is syllable-timed and Canada English is stress-timed. Findings of Experiments 1, 2, and 3 show that 8-month-olds acquiring either Canadian French or Canadian English can segment bi-syllable words in their native language. Thus, word segmentation is not inherently more difficult in a syllable-timed compared to a stress-timed language. Experiment 4 shows that Canadian French-learning infants can segment words in European French. Experiment 5 shows that neither Canadian French- nor Canadian English-learning infants can segment two syllable words in the other language. Thus, segmentation abilities of 8-month-olds acquiring either a stress-timed or syllable-timed language are language specific.
在五项实验中，我们测试了正在学习加拿大法语或加拿大英语的8个月大的单语婴儿从自然语音材料中对单词形式进行切分的能力。这两种语言属于不同的节奏类型；加拿大法语是音节计时型的，加拿大英语是重音计时型的。实验1、2和3的结果表明，学习加拿大法语或加拿大英语的8个月大婴儿能够切分其母语中的双音节单词。因此，与重音计时型语言相比，在音节计时型语言中，单词切分在本质上并非更难。实验4表明，学习加拿大法语的婴儿能够切分欧洲法语中的单词。实验5表明，学习加拿大法语或加拿大英语的婴儿都不能切分另一种语言中的双音节单词。因此，学习重音计时型或音节计时型语言的8个月大婴儿的切分能力是特定于语言的。
