Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T12:11:45.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Korean-speaking children's perceptual development in multidimensional acoustic space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2019

Gayeon SON
Gayeon SON*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and Kwangwoon University, Department of English Language and Literature, Seoul, Korea
*
*Corresponding author: Department of English Language and Literature, 20 Kwangwoon-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul01897, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated how Korean toddlers’ perception of stop categories develops in the acoustic dimensions of VOT and F0. To examine the developmental trajectory of VOT and F0 in toddlers’ perceptual space, a perceptual identification test with natural and synthesized sound stimuli was conducted with 58 Korean monolingual children (aged 2–4 years). The results revealed that toddlers’ perceptual mapping functions on VOT mainly in the high-pitch environment, resulting in more successful perceptual accuracy in fortis or aspirated stops than in lenis stops. F0 development is correlated with the perceptual distinction of lenis from aspirated stops, but no consistent categorical perception for F0 was found before four years of age. The findings suggest that multi-parametric control in perceptual development guides an acquisition ordering of Korean stop phonemes and that tonal development is significantly related to the acquisition of Korean phonemic contrasts.

Keywords

stop contrastsspeech perceptionF0
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2020 , pp. 579 - 599
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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

Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walkers, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Jounral of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2015). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 5.4.18. Online <http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/>..>Google Scholar
Cho, T. (1996). Vowel correlates to consonant phonation: an acoustic-perceptual study of Korean obstruents (unpublished master's thesis), University of Texas at Arlington.Google Scholar
Cho, T., Jun, S.-A., & Ladefoged, P. (2002). Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics, 30(2), 193–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, T., & Ladefoged, P. (1999). Variation and universals in VOT: evidence from 18 languages. Journal of Phonetics, 27, 207–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eimas, P. D., Siqueland, E. R., Jusczyk, P. W., & Vigorito, J. (1971). Speech perception in infants. Science, 171(3968), 303–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Han, J.-I. (1992). On the Korean tensed consonants and tensification. CLS, 28, 206–23.Google Scholar
Han, M. S., & Weitzman, R. S. (1970). Acoustic features of Korean ∕P,T,K∕, ∕p,t,k∕ and ∕ph,th,kh∕. Phonetica, 22, 112–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, H. M. (2009). Effects of obstruent consonants on fundamental frequency at vowel onset in English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125, 425–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardcastle, W. J. (1973). Some observations on the tense–lax distinction in initial stops in Korean. Journal of Phonetics, 1, 263–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haudricourt, A. G. (1954). De l'origine des tons du Vietnamien. Journal Asiatique, 242, 69–82.Google Scholar
Hay, J. F., Graf Estes, K., Wang, T., & Saffran, J. R. (2015). From flexibility to constraint: the contrastive use of lexical tone in early word learning. Child Development, 86, 10–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirose, H., Lee, C.-Y., & Ushijima, T. (1974). Laryngeal control in Korean stop production. Journal of Phonetics, 2, 145–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hombert, J.-M., Ohala, J. J., & Ewan, W. G. (1979). Phonetic explanations for the development of tones. Language, 55, 37–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, A. S., & Fairbanks, G. (1953). The influence of consonant environment on the secondary acoustical characteristics of vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society America, 25, 105–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1968). Child language, aphasia and phonological universals. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jun, S.-A. (1996). Influence of microprosody on macroprosody: a case of phrase initial strengthening. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 92, 97–116.Google Scholar
Kagaya, R. (1974). A fiberscopic and acoustic study of Korean stops, affricates, and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics, 2, 161–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, K.-H., & Guion, S. G. (2008). Clear speech production of Korean stops. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124, 3909–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kang, Y. (2014). Voice Onset Time merger and development of tonal contrast in Seoul Korean stops: a corpus study. Journal of Phonetics, 45, 76–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keating, P. A., Linker, W., & Huffman, M. (1983). Patterns in allophone distribution for voiced and voiceless stops. Journal of Phonetics, 11, 277–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemler Nelson, D. G., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Jusczyk, P. W., & Wright Cassidy, K. (1989). How the prosodic cues in motherese might assist language learning. Journal of Child Language, 16, 66–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Kewley-Port, D., & Preston, M. S. (1974). Early apical stop production: a voice onset time analysis. Journal of Phonetics, 2, 195–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, C.-W. (1970). A theory of aspiration. Phonetica, 21, 107–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, M.-R. (1994). Acoustic characteristics of Korean stops and perception of English stop consonants (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Kim, M., & Stoel-Gommon, C. (2009). The acquisition of Korean word-initial stops. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 125(6), 3950–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ko, E.-S. (2018). Mothers would rather speak clearly than spread innovation: the case of Korean VOT. In Proceedings of the 1st Hanyang international symposium on Phonetics and cognitive sciences of language (pp. 30–1). Seoul: Hanyang Institute of for Phonetics and Cognitive Sciences of Language.Google Scholar
Kochetov, A., & Kang, Y. (2017). Supralaryngeal implementation of length and laryngeal contrasts in Japanese and Korean. Canadian Journal of Linguistics / Revue canadienne de linguistique, 62(1), 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kong, E. J., Beckman, M. E., & Edwards, J. (2011). Why are Korean tense stops acquired so early? The role of acoustic properties. Journal of Phonetics, 39, 196–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kong, E. J., & Lee, H. (2018). Attentional modulation and individual differences in explaining the changing role of fundamental frequency in Korean laryngeal stop perception. Language and Speech, 61(3), 384–408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krumhansl, C. L., & Jusczyk, P. W. (1990). Infants’ perception of phrase structure in music. Psychological Science, 1, 70–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S., & Iverson, G. K. (2008). Development of stop consonants in Korean. Korean Linguistics, 14, 21–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1977). The acquisition of tone in Mandarin-speaking children. Journal of Child Language, 4, 185–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, J. S. (1992). A computational analysis of young children's lexicons (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Indiana University.Google Scholar
Lombardi, L. (1991). Laryngeal features and laryngeal neutralization (PhD. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. [Published by Garland, New York, 1994.]Google Scholar
Metsala, J. L. (1997). Spoken word recognition in reading-disabled children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 159–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ota, M., Yamane, N., & Mazuka, R. (2018) The effects of lexical pitch accent on infant word recognition in Japanese. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, e02354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pae, S., Chang, Y., Kwak, K., Sung, H., & Sim, H. (2004). MCDI-K referenced expressive word development of Korean children and gender differences. Korean Journal of Communication Disorders, 9, 45–56.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team (2011). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical Linear Models (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Shuai, L., & Gong, T. (2012). Voice onset time as a cue for perceiving place of articulation in stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 131, 3309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, D. J. (2006). Acoustic evidence for the emergence of tonal contrast in contemporary Korean. Phonology, 23, 287–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, L., & Chee, M. (2016). Rise and fall: effects of tone and intonation on spoken word recognition in early childhood. Journal of Phonetics, 55, 109–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, L., & Foong, J. (2012). Influences of lexical tone and pitch on word recognition in bilingual infants. Cognition, 124, 128–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, L., Hui., T. J., Chan, C., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2014). Influences of vowel and tone variation on emergent word knowledge: a cross-linguistic investigation. Developmental Science, 17, 94–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, L., Poh, F. L. S., & Fu, C. S. L. (2016). Limits on monolingualism? A comparison of monolingual and bilingual infants’ abilities to integrate lexical tone in novel word learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, e00667.Google ScholarPubMed
Snijders, T., & Bosker, R. (1999). Multilevel analysis, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Son, G. (2017). Interactive development of F0 as an acoustic cue for Korean stop contrast (unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Stevens, K. N., & Klatt, D. H. (1974). Role of formant transitions in the voiced–voiceless distinction for stops. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 55, 653–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swingley, D. (2009). Contributions of infant word learning to language development. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 3617–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swingley, D., & Aslin, R. N. (2000). Spoken word recognition and lexical representation in very young children. Cognition, 76, 147–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swingley, D., & Aslin, R. N. (2002). Lexical neighborhoods and the word-form represenations of 14-month-olds. Psychological Science, 13, 480–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swingley, D., Pinto, J. P., & Fernald, A. (1999). Continuous processing in word recognition at 24 months. Cognition, 71, 73–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trainor, L., & Trehub, S. E. (1992). A comparison of infants’ and adults’ sensitivity to western musical structure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18(2), 394–402.Google ScholarPubMed
Tse, J. K. P. (1978). Tone acquisition in Cantonese: a longitudinal case study. Journal of Child Language, 5, 191–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuaycharoen, P. (1977). The phonetic and phonological development of a Thai baby: from early communicative interaction to speech (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London).Google Scholar
Werker, J., & Tees, R. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 49–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winn, M. B., Chatterjee, M., & Idsardi, W. J. (2013). The roles of voice onset time and F0 in stop consonant voicing perception: effects of masking noise and low-pass filtering. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(4), 1097–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, J. D. (2007). Laryngeal contrast in Seoul Korean (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar