Seminar 1
From broken input children create a new language, for example Afrikaans
We don’t “learn” a language we acquire (acquisition) it:
- Learning > intentional process, presupposes teaching, teacher controls pace
- Acquisition > unconscious process, does not presuppose teaching, child
controls pace
The first part of learning a language for a child is sound, learning how to produce the
sounds.
Babies (6/9 months) can notice the difference between words/sounds. E.g. vis or vies
Depends on the language what is relevant for them.
Bilingual children need to learn more different sounds, like vowels. They retain more
sounds.
Second step is words > lexical acquisition:
- Dividing up the speech stream into word-sized units
- Associating these with meaning
Every language has a certain rhythm, that’s why when a speaker speaks the 2nd
language, they may not stress certain parts correctly.
Third step is forming words into a sentence > sentence structure > turn sentence
structure into meaning.
Seminar 2 (H3 & 4)
Phonemes = words that sound alike > lip and rib
When there are no rules, you must memorize them, for example irregular verbs.
The speech organs comprise:
- The lungs
- The glottis (where your vocal cords are)
- The vocal tract (everything in the mouth)
- The nasal tract (some sounds are nasal, /m/ and /n/)
Consonants: narrow or complete closure somewhere in the vocal tract
Vowels (a, e, i, o, u): very little obstruction in the vocal tract
3 basic properties of a consonant:
- Voiced/voiceless: what are the vocal cords doing? Vibrating or not?
- Place of articulation: where is the airflow blocked? /p/ is on the lips
- Manner of articulation: how/where is the air flowing? /p/ is plosive
Vowels are specified by the highest point of the tongue and rounding of lips, the 3 main
labels are:
1. High/low > position of the tongue
, 2. Front/back > is the tongue in the back or in the front?
3. Rounded/unrounded > position of the lips
4. Open/close > is the mouth more opened or closed?
Everyone their vocal tract is different, but we perceive sounds the same.
Early speech development/speech perception:
- Discrimination = Het vermogen om verschil te horen tussen klanken, zoals /b/ en
/p/.
- Categorization = Het groeperen van verschillende klankvariaties als éénzelfde
spraakklank, bijvoorbeeld alle variaties van de /a/-klank herkennen als één
categorie. Een baby hoort [pʰ] (met sterke adem), [p] (kort), [p̚] (bijna niet
hoorbaar).
- Segmentation = het proces waarbij een baby of kind leert om de lopende
spraakstroom op te knippen in losse woorden. “Ikhouvanje” → eigenlijk “Ik hou
van je”.
- Word recognition = Het proces waarbij een kind een reeks klanken herkent als
een bekend woord met een betekenis.
Infants hearing is not as sensitive as adults’, however they to hear quite well and
remember what they hear. For example, their mother’s voice is preferred.
- The high-amplitude sucking technique (HAS) goes up.
- The sucking rate goes up; the child is stimulated or excited. They perceive a
change in stimuli.
Infant discrimination of speech sounds:
- They can discriminate contrasts that are not used in their input → een Japanse
baby kan onderscheid maken tussen de Engelse /r/ en /l/, ook al komt dat
verschil niet in het Japans voor. Dit betekent dat baby’s universele
luistervaardigheden hebben bij geboorte.
- This skill is lost after 12 months, then babies their perception becomes tuned
to the native phonemic contrasts.
- They have categorical perception, they can discriminate 2 sounds
- They can discriminate words from non-words quite early.
Categorical perception
- Is the experience of perceiving phonemes that can vary along continuum as fixed
tokens (a different sounds, even though they change gradually).
- It means that a change in some variable along a continuum is perceived. The
change is gradual/small, but this is not the way it is perceived.
They can discriminate between language in various systematic ways
- Native from foreign > ability to discover some regularity in the speech
- Newborns can discriminate between 2 (foreign) languages they have not been
exposed to before. But it depends on the rhythm class.
,Rhythm-based language discrimination hypothesis:
- Stress-timed languages: the interval between 2 stressed syllables is equal
- Syllable-timed languages: the duration of every syllable is equal
- Mora-timed languages: the duration of every mora (a smaller part of the syllable)
is equal
Volgens de Rhythm-Based Language Discrimination Hypothesis herkennen baby’s talen
in de eerste levensmaanden vooral aan hun verschillende ritmes.
Few days old to 2 months: children can discriminate between 2 unknown languages as
long as they belong to 2 different rhythm classes (Ex. English = stress-timed vs. Spanish
= syllable-timed)
> 2 months: babies can only discriminate their own language from a foreign language of
a different class. They no longer discriminate between 2 foreign languages from different
rhythmic classes.
4/5 months: babies are acquiring the distinctions of their native language. And
distinguish their own language from another language in the same rhythmic class.
The continuum, called VOT, is defined as the time between the release burst (release of
a plosive) and the beginning of vocal fold vibration. It tells us when the voicing is going to
start.
Within category discrimination is hard, across-category discrimination is easy.
- Bij klanken als /p/ en /t/ (voiceless): er zit meestal een kleine pauze tussen het
loslaten van de klank en het starten van de stem → langere VOT.
- Bij klanken als /b/ en /d/ (voiced): de stembanden beginnen bijna meteen te
trillen → korte of zelfs negatieve VOT.
The categorical perception experiments show:
- That they support the hypothesis that infants are able to discriminate all
contrasts (without the relevant linguistic experience)
- That only those relevant in the native language are maintained
- Loss of sensitivity to foreign contrasts due to attention only to those contrasts
that have phonemic value in the native language (necessary to build up a
lexicon.)
, Infant-directed speech
Intonational contour is greatly exaggerated:
- higher-pitched voice, wider range of pitches, longer pauses, shorter phrases,
slower tempo (vowels are prolonged)
Motherese could be helpful for language learning: likely to highlight important features
of speech, and provide more prototypical examples of a language’s speech sounds
Greater discriminability of phonemes (contrasting sounds in a language) in child-
directed speech may help children establish phonemic categories (that signal meaning
contrasts)
- [b] and [p] are distinct phonemic categories in English. We know because “big” is
a different word from “pig”.
Support: Mothers who produce more discriminable vowels in their infant-directed
speech have infants who demonstrate better speech perception skills in laboratory
tests.
Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995: adults learned words in a foreign language better if the words
were presented in infant-directed rather than adult-directed speech
While motherese may be very useful, it can’t be required for language acquisition since
not all cultures use it. Some cultures (ex: Samoans, Papua New Guineans, Mayans, US
African Americans in the rural south) do not address speech to prelinguistic children at
all - so those children must learn some other way.
Fonologische processen/errors
1. Substitution
Uitleg: Een klank wordt vervangen door een andere klank die makkelijker is uit te
spreken.
Voorbeeld: boek → [bup] (de [k] wordt vervangen door [p]).
2. Fronting
Uitleg: Achter in de mond gemaakte klanken worden vooraan uitgesproken.
Voorbeeld: schepen → [tepe] (de velare [x] uit sch wordt vervangen door alveolaire [t]).
3. Stopping
Uitleg: Een fricatief (wrijfklank, zoals [s] of [f]) wordt vervangen door een plofklank (stop).
Voorbeeld: schepen → [tepe] (de [s] wordt [t]).
4. Gliding
Uitleg: Een vloeiklank (zoals [r] of [l]) wordt vervangen door een glide ([w] of [j]).
Voorbeeld: broek → [bwoek] (de [r] wordt [w]).
5. Vocalisation
Uitleg: Een vloeiklank of medeklinker wordt vervangen door een klinker.
Voorbeeld: tafel → [tafo] (de [l] wordt een klinker).
From broken input children create a new language, for example Afrikaans
We don’t “learn” a language we acquire (acquisition) it:
- Learning > intentional process, presupposes teaching, teacher controls pace
- Acquisition > unconscious process, does not presuppose teaching, child
controls pace
The first part of learning a language for a child is sound, learning how to produce the
sounds.
Babies (6/9 months) can notice the difference between words/sounds. E.g. vis or vies
Depends on the language what is relevant for them.
Bilingual children need to learn more different sounds, like vowels. They retain more
sounds.
Second step is words > lexical acquisition:
- Dividing up the speech stream into word-sized units
- Associating these with meaning
Every language has a certain rhythm, that’s why when a speaker speaks the 2nd
language, they may not stress certain parts correctly.
Third step is forming words into a sentence > sentence structure > turn sentence
structure into meaning.
Seminar 2 (H3 & 4)
Phonemes = words that sound alike > lip and rib
When there are no rules, you must memorize them, for example irregular verbs.
The speech organs comprise:
- The lungs
- The glottis (where your vocal cords are)
- The vocal tract (everything in the mouth)
- The nasal tract (some sounds are nasal, /m/ and /n/)
Consonants: narrow or complete closure somewhere in the vocal tract
Vowels (a, e, i, o, u): very little obstruction in the vocal tract
3 basic properties of a consonant:
- Voiced/voiceless: what are the vocal cords doing? Vibrating or not?
- Place of articulation: where is the airflow blocked? /p/ is on the lips
- Manner of articulation: how/where is the air flowing? /p/ is plosive
Vowels are specified by the highest point of the tongue and rounding of lips, the 3 main
labels are:
1. High/low > position of the tongue
, 2. Front/back > is the tongue in the back or in the front?
3. Rounded/unrounded > position of the lips
4. Open/close > is the mouth more opened or closed?
Everyone their vocal tract is different, but we perceive sounds the same.
Early speech development/speech perception:
- Discrimination = Het vermogen om verschil te horen tussen klanken, zoals /b/ en
/p/.
- Categorization = Het groeperen van verschillende klankvariaties als éénzelfde
spraakklank, bijvoorbeeld alle variaties van de /a/-klank herkennen als één
categorie. Een baby hoort [pʰ] (met sterke adem), [p] (kort), [p̚] (bijna niet
hoorbaar).
- Segmentation = het proces waarbij een baby of kind leert om de lopende
spraakstroom op te knippen in losse woorden. “Ikhouvanje” → eigenlijk “Ik hou
van je”.
- Word recognition = Het proces waarbij een kind een reeks klanken herkent als
een bekend woord met een betekenis.
Infants hearing is not as sensitive as adults’, however they to hear quite well and
remember what they hear. For example, their mother’s voice is preferred.
- The high-amplitude sucking technique (HAS) goes up.
- The sucking rate goes up; the child is stimulated or excited. They perceive a
change in stimuli.
Infant discrimination of speech sounds:
- They can discriminate contrasts that are not used in their input → een Japanse
baby kan onderscheid maken tussen de Engelse /r/ en /l/, ook al komt dat
verschil niet in het Japans voor. Dit betekent dat baby’s universele
luistervaardigheden hebben bij geboorte.
- This skill is lost after 12 months, then babies their perception becomes tuned
to the native phonemic contrasts.
- They have categorical perception, they can discriminate 2 sounds
- They can discriminate words from non-words quite early.
Categorical perception
- Is the experience of perceiving phonemes that can vary along continuum as fixed
tokens (a different sounds, even though they change gradually).
- It means that a change in some variable along a continuum is perceived. The
change is gradual/small, but this is not the way it is perceived.
They can discriminate between language in various systematic ways
- Native from foreign > ability to discover some regularity in the speech
- Newborns can discriminate between 2 (foreign) languages they have not been
exposed to before. But it depends on the rhythm class.
,Rhythm-based language discrimination hypothesis:
- Stress-timed languages: the interval between 2 stressed syllables is equal
- Syllable-timed languages: the duration of every syllable is equal
- Mora-timed languages: the duration of every mora (a smaller part of the syllable)
is equal
Volgens de Rhythm-Based Language Discrimination Hypothesis herkennen baby’s talen
in de eerste levensmaanden vooral aan hun verschillende ritmes.
Few days old to 2 months: children can discriminate between 2 unknown languages as
long as they belong to 2 different rhythm classes (Ex. English = stress-timed vs. Spanish
= syllable-timed)
> 2 months: babies can only discriminate their own language from a foreign language of
a different class. They no longer discriminate between 2 foreign languages from different
rhythmic classes.
4/5 months: babies are acquiring the distinctions of their native language. And
distinguish their own language from another language in the same rhythmic class.
The continuum, called VOT, is defined as the time between the release burst (release of
a plosive) and the beginning of vocal fold vibration. It tells us when the voicing is going to
start.
Within category discrimination is hard, across-category discrimination is easy.
- Bij klanken als /p/ en /t/ (voiceless): er zit meestal een kleine pauze tussen het
loslaten van de klank en het starten van de stem → langere VOT.
- Bij klanken als /b/ en /d/ (voiced): de stembanden beginnen bijna meteen te
trillen → korte of zelfs negatieve VOT.
The categorical perception experiments show:
- That they support the hypothesis that infants are able to discriminate all
contrasts (without the relevant linguistic experience)
- That only those relevant in the native language are maintained
- Loss of sensitivity to foreign contrasts due to attention only to those contrasts
that have phonemic value in the native language (necessary to build up a
lexicon.)
, Infant-directed speech
Intonational contour is greatly exaggerated:
- higher-pitched voice, wider range of pitches, longer pauses, shorter phrases,
slower tempo (vowels are prolonged)
Motherese could be helpful for language learning: likely to highlight important features
of speech, and provide more prototypical examples of a language’s speech sounds
Greater discriminability of phonemes (contrasting sounds in a language) in child-
directed speech may help children establish phonemic categories (that signal meaning
contrasts)
- [b] and [p] are distinct phonemic categories in English. We know because “big” is
a different word from “pig”.
Support: Mothers who produce more discriminable vowels in their infant-directed
speech have infants who demonstrate better speech perception skills in laboratory
tests.
Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995: adults learned words in a foreign language better if the words
were presented in infant-directed rather than adult-directed speech
While motherese may be very useful, it can’t be required for language acquisition since
not all cultures use it. Some cultures (ex: Samoans, Papua New Guineans, Mayans, US
African Americans in the rural south) do not address speech to prelinguistic children at
all - so those children must learn some other way.
Fonologische processen/errors
1. Substitution
Uitleg: Een klank wordt vervangen door een andere klank die makkelijker is uit te
spreken.
Voorbeeld: boek → [bup] (de [k] wordt vervangen door [p]).
2. Fronting
Uitleg: Achter in de mond gemaakte klanken worden vooraan uitgesproken.
Voorbeeld: schepen → [tepe] (de velare [x] uit sch wordt vervangen door alveolaire [t]).
3. Stopping
Uitleg: Een fricatief (wrijfklank, zoals [s] of [f]) wordt vervangen door een plofklank (stop).
Voorbeeld: schepen → [tepe] (de [s] wordt [t]).
4. Gliding
Uitleg: Een vloeiklank (zoals [r] of [l]) wordt vervangen door een glide ([w] of [j]).
Voorbeeld: broek → [bwoek] (de [r] wordt [w]).
5. Vocalisation
Uitleg: Een vloeiklank of medeklinker wordt vervangen door een klinker.
Voorbeeld: tafel → [tafo] (de [l] wordt een klinker).
