The phonological-distributional coherence hypothesis: cross-linguistic evidence in language acquisition

Psychology

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.12.001
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Keywords

Child, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Cues, France, Great Britain, Humans, Japan, Language Development, Netherlands, Phonetics, Speech, Speech Production Measurement, Verbal Learning, Vocabulary

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The phonological-distributional coherence hypothesis: cross-linguistic evidence in language acquisition. / Monaghan, Padraic; Christiansen, Morten H; Chater, Nick.
In: Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 55, No. 4, 2007, p. 259-305.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{15e2c6d99b7049ac9de3abdde359f2fe,

title = "The phonological-distributional coherence hypothesis: cross-linguistic evidence in language acquisition",

abstract = "Several phonological and prosodic properties of words have been shown to relate to differences between grammatical categories. Distributional information about grammatical categories is also a rich source in the child's language environment. In this paper we hypothesise that such cues operate in tandem for developing the child's knowledge about grammatical categories. We term this the Phonological-Distributional Coherence Hypothesis (PDCH). We tested the PDCH by analysing phonological and distributional information in distinguishing open from closed class words and nouns from verbs in four languages: English, Dutch, French, and Japanese. We found an interaction between phonological and distributional cues for all four languages indicating that when distributional cues were less reliable, phonological cues were stronger. This provides converging evidence that language is structured such that language learning benefits from the integration of information about category from contextual and sound-based sources, and that the child's language environment is less impoverished than we might suspect.",

keywords = "Child, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Cues, France, Great Britain, Humans, Japan, Language Development, Netherlands, Phonetics, Speech, Speech Production Measurement, Verbal Learning, Vocabulary",

author = "Padraic Monaghan and Christiansen, {Morten H} and Nick Chater",

year = "2007",

doi = "10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.12.001",

language = "English",

volume = "55",

pages = "259--305",

journal = "Cognitive Psychology",

issn = "0010-0285",

publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",

number = "4",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The phonological-distributional coherence hypothesis: cross-linguistic evidence in language acquisition

AU - Monaghan, Padraic

AU - Christiansen, Morten H

AU - Chater, Nick

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - Several phonological and prosodic properties of words have been shown to relate to differences between grammatical categories. Distributional information about grammatical categories is also a rich source in the child's language environment. In this paper we hypothesise that such cues operate in tandem for developing the child's knowledge about grammatical categories. We term this the Phonological-Distributional Coherence Hypothesis (PDCH). We tested the PDCH by analysing phonological and distributional information in distinguishing open from closed class words and nouns from verbs in four languages: English, Dutch, French, and Japanese. We found an interaction between phonological and distributional cues for all four languages indicating that when distributional cues were less reliable, phonological cues were stronger. This provides converging evidence that language is structured such that language learning benefits from the integration of information about category from contextual and sound-based sources, and that the child's language environment is less impoverished than we might suspect.

AB - Several phonological and prosodic properties of words have been shown to relate to differences between grammatical categories. Distributional information about grammatical categories is also a rich source in the child's language environment. In this paper we hypothesise that such cues operate in tandem for developing the child's knowledge about grammatical categories. We term this the Phonological-Distributional Coherence Hypothesis (PDCH). We tested the PDCH by analysing phonological and distributional information in distinguishing open from closed class words and nouns from verbs in four languages: English, Dutch, French, and Japanese. We found an interaction between phonological and distributional cues for all four languages indicating that when distributional cues were less reliable, phonological cues were stronger. This provides converging evidence that language is structured such that language learning benefits from the integration of information about category from contextual and sound-based sources, and that the child's language environment is less impoverished than we might suspect.

KW - Child

KW - Cross-Cultural Comparison

KW - Cues

KW - France

KW - Great Britain

KW - Humans

KW - Japan

KW - Language Development

KW - Netherlands

KW - Phonetics

KW - Speech

KW - Speech Production Measurement

KW - Verbal Learning

KW - Vocabulary

U2 - 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.12.001

DO - 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.12.001

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 17291481

VL - 55

SP - 259

EP - 305

JO - Cognitive Psychology

JF - Cognitive Psychology

SN - 0010-0285

IS - 4

ER -

Research

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