The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants
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Ferran Pons
Abstract
Previous research with English-learning infants has shown that stress cues can have a powerful influence on early word segmentation. Early sensitivity to the predominant lexical stress pattern (trochaic) in the native language has been observed in English and German, two stress-timed languages (Jusczyk, Cutler & Redanz 1993; Höhle 2002). In this paper, we offer data from two syllable-timed languages: Catalan and Spanish. We report experiments aimed at studying infants’ preferential patterns and discrimination abilities for trochaic vs iambic word forms. Results indicate that neither six-month-old nor nine-month-old Catalan- and Spanish-learning infants show a preference for either stress pattern, although they are able to discriminate between them. It is argued that failure to observe a trochaic preference can be attributed to frequency factors of specific lexical stress patterns in these languages. Stress cues alone would not be sufficient for early lexical segmentation in this case.
Abstract
Previous research with English-learning infants has shown that stress cues can have a powerful influence on early word segmentation. Early sensitivity to the predominant lexical stress pattern (trochaic) in the native language has been observed in English and German, two stress-timed languages (Jusczyk, Cutler & Redanz 1993; Höhle 2002). In this paper, we offer data from two syllable-timed languages: Catalan and Spanish. We report experiments aimed at studying infants’ preferential patterns and discrimination abilities for trochaic vs iambic word forms. Results indicate that neither six-month-old nor nine-month-old Catalan- and Spanish-learning infants show a preference for either stress pattern, although they are able to discriminate between them. It is argued that failure to observe a trochaic preference can be attributed to frequency factors of specific lexical stress patterns in these languages. Stress cues alone would not be sufficient for early lexical segmentation in this case.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Part 1: Segments and processes
- Detection of liaison consonants in speech processing in French 3
- Patterns of VCV coarticulatory direction according to the DAC model 25
- The stability of phonological features within and across segments 41
- Pre- and postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish 67
-
Part 2: Prosodic structure
- Variation in the intonation of extra-sentential elements 85
- Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French 109
- The phonetics and phonology of intonational phrasing in Romance 131
- Disentangling stress from accent in Spanish 155
-
Part 3: Acquisition of segmental contrasts and prosody
- On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese 179
- The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants 199
- Logistic regression modelling for first and second language perception data 219
- Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages 237
- Subject Index 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Part 1: Segments and processes
- Detection of liaison consonants in speech processing in French 3
- Patterns of VCV coarticulatory direction according to the DAC model 25
- The stability of phonological features within and across segments 41
- Pre- and postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish 67
-
Part 2: Prosodic structure
- Variation in the intonation of extra-sentential elements 85
- Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French 109
- The phonetics and phonology of intonational phrasing in Romance 131
- Disentangling stress from accent in Spanish 155
-
Part 3: Acquisition of segmental contrasts and prosody
- On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese 179
- The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants 199
- Logistic regression modelling for first and second language perception data 219
- Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages 237
- Subject Index 259
