The perceptual infrastructure of early phonological development.
| Number | 930 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1994 |
| Drawer | 17 |
| Entry Date | 07/14/1998 |
| Authors | Faber, Alice, and Best, Catherine T. |
| Contact | |
| Publication | The Reality of Linguistics Rules, edited by S.D. Lima, R.L. Corrigan, and G.K. Iverson. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 262-280. |
| url | http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0930.pdf |
| Abstract | Observation of children’s vocal behavior in approximately their first two years of life reveals systematic patterns in the way they learn to speak the language spoken around them, whatever that language may be. Our purpose in this paper is to discuss some of the principles underlying this early language learning. In particular, we are interested in how and why changes take place in children’s phonological inventories. We will first outline phonological development, as observed in children’s babbling and early speech. Then, we will discuss a contrasting view of phonological development, based on studies of infant speech perception. Following that, we discuss some recent findings regarding the development of motor skills, also in approximately the first two years of life, and some differences between older children and adults in articulatory coordination. Finally, we will suggest that both children’s limited early productive phonological inventories and the patterns of expansion of the inventories as language learning progresses do not result from increasing perceptual skill or from cognitive maturation; that is, they should not for the most part be attributed to developmental changes in linguistic rule systems. They result rather from increasing motor skill, and are, therefore, attributable to the fact that children are not just learning a language, they are also learning to talk. |
| Notes |
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