Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:09:54.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Universal production patterns and ambient language influences in babbling: A cross-linguistic study of Korean- and English-learning infants*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2009

SUE ANN S. LEE*
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
BARBARA DAVIS
Affiliation:
University of Austin, Texas, USA
PETER MACNEILAGE
Affiliation:
University of Austin, Texas, USA
*
[*]Address for correspondence: Sue Ann S. Lee, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413USA. tel: 414-229-2838; fax: 414-229-2620; e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The phonetic characteristics of canonical babbling produced by Korean- and English-learning infants were compared with consonant and vowel frequencies observed in infant-directed speech produced by Korean- and English-speaking mothers. For infant output, babbling samples from six Korean-learning infants were compared with an existing English babbling database (Davis & MacNeilage, 1995). For ambient language comparisons, consonants and vowels in ten Korean and ten English infant-directed speech (IDS) samples were analyzed. The two infant groups demonstrated similar consonant patterns, but showed different vowel patterns from one another. For both languages, infant vowel patterns were related to those of ambient language IDS. Ambient language patterns were manifested in infant vowel output, perhaps because vowels are more perceptually and motorically available in the input and output capacities of babbling infants.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aslin, R. N., Saffran, J. R. & Newport, E. L. (1998). Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants. Psychological Science 9, 321–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boysson-Bardies, B., Halle, P., Sagart, L. & Durand, C. (1989). A cross-linguistic investigation of vowel formants in babbling. Journal of Child Language 16, 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boysson-Bardies, B. & Vihman, M. M. (1991). Adaptation to language: Evidence from babbling and first words in four languages. Language 67, 297319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryk, A. S. & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical liner models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Cooper, R. P., Abraham, J., Berman, S. & Staska, M. (1997). The development of infants' preference for motherese. Infant Behavior and Development 20, 477–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, B. L. & MacNeilage, P. F. (1995). The articulatory basis of babbling. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 38, 1199–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernald, A. (1991). Prosody in speech to children: Prelinguistic and linguistic functions. Annals of Child Development 8, 4380.Google Scholar
Fernald, A. & Morikawa, H. (1993). Common themes and cultural variations in Japanese and American mothers' speech to infants. Child Development 64, 637–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, J. R., Moore, C. A., Higashikawa, M. & Steeve, R. W. (2000). The physiological development of speech motor control: Lip and jaw coordination. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 43, 239–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jin, N.-T. (1993). A quantitative linguistic study on the functional load of phonemes in standard Korean. Speech (in Korean) 25, 6591.Google Scholar
Jones, B. J. (1999). Standard English–Korean Dictionary for Foreigners: Romanized. Seoul: Hollym International Corporation.Google Scholar
Kent, R. D. & Bauer, H. R. (1985). Vocalizations of one-year olds. Journal of Child Language 12, 491526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, R. D., Vorperian, H. K., Gentry, L. R. & Yandell, B. S. (1999). Magnetic resonance imaging procedures to study the concurrent anatomic development of vocal tract structures: Preliminary results. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 49, 197206.Google Scholar
Kern, S. & Davis, B. L. (in press). Emergent complexity in early vocal acquisition: Cross-linguistic comparisons of canonical babbling. In Pellegrino, F., Marsico, E., Chitoran, I. & Coupé, C. (eds), Approaches to phonological complexity. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K. & Meltzoff, A. N. (1996). Infant vocalization in response to speech: Vocal imitation and developmental change. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 100, 2425–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S., Davis, B. & MacNeilage, P. (2007). Frame dominance and the serial organization of babbling and first words in Korean-learning infants. Phonetica 64, 217–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S., Davis, B. & MacNeilage, P. (2008). Segmental properties of input to infants: A study of Korean. Journal of Child Language 35, 523–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehiste, L. & Peterson, G. E. (1961). Transitions, glides, and diphthongs. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 33, 268–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitt, A. G. & Aydelott Utman, J. G. (1992). From babbling towards the sound systems of English and French: A longitudinal case study. Journal of Child Language 19, 1949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, P. (1980). On the development of vowel production in young children. In Yeni-Komshian, G. H., Kavanagh, J. F. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Child Phonology 1: Production, 113–42. New York: Academy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J. L. (1983). The child's path to spoken language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Locke, J. L. (1989). Babbling and early speech: continuity and individual differences. First Language 9, 191206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacNeilage, P. F. & Davis, B. (1990). Acquisition of speech production: Frame, then content. In Jeannerod, M. (ed.), Attention and performance XIII: Motor representation and control, 453–75. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Merriam-Webster (1993). Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster.Google Scholar
Mines, M. A., Hanson, B. F. & Shoup, J. E. (1978). Frequency of occurrence of phonemes in conversational English. Language and Speech 21, 221–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oller, D. K. (2000). The emergence of the speech capacity. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K. & Delgado, R. E. (1990). Logical international phonetic program (Version 1.4). Miami, FL: Intelligent Hearing Systems.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. & Eilers, R. E. (1982). Similarity of babbling in Spanish- and English-learning babies. Journal of Child Language 9, 565–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roug, L., Landberg, I. & Lundberg, L. J. (1989). Phonetic development in early infancy: A study of four Swedish children during the first eighteen months of life. Journal of Child Language 16, 1940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rvachew, S., Alhaidary, A., Mattock, K. & Polka, L. (2008). Emergence of the corner vowels in the babble produced by infants exposed to Canadian English or Canadian French. Journal of Phonetics 36, 564–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rvachew, S., Mattock, K., Polka, L. & Menard, L. (2006). Developmental and cross-linguistic variation in the infants' vowel space: The case of Canadian-English and Canadian-French. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 120, 2251–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N. & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science 274, 1926–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vihman, M. M., Ferguson, C. A. & Elbers, M. (1986). Phonological development from babbling to speech: Common tendencies and individual differences. Applied Psycholinguistics 7, 340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vihman, M. M., Macken, M. A., Miller, R., Simmons, H. & Miller, J. (1985). From babbling to speech: A re-assessment of the continuity issue. Language 61, 397445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar