When language ‐general and language‐specific processes are in conflict: The case of sub‐syllabic word segmentation in toddlers

This study further investigated infants' liaison representation, its potential impacts on parsing, and its interaction with the Onset Bias. In Experiments 1 and 2, French-learning 24-month-olds were familiarized with pseudo-words with variable liaison-like versus nonliaison-like onset consonants, preceded by words that cannot trigger those onsets (e.g.,un zonche;un gonche). We found no mis-segmentation as vowel-initial and successful segmentation as consonant-initial. In Experiment 3, when the preceding words could trigger a liaison consonant that matched the onset of the following word (e.g.,unnonche), infants showed a vowel-initial mis-interpretation, against the Onset Bias, revealing an effect of liaison knowledge. These results demonstrate that toddlers balance their use of language-general principles/strategies and language-specific knowledge during early acquisition.
Source: Infancy - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research