A Cross- Linguistic Study in Learning Prosodic Rhythms: Rules, Constraints, and Similarity

Differences in the learnability of linguistic patterns may be crucial in deciding among alternative learning models. This paper compares the ability of English speakers (Experiment1) and Portuguese speakers (Experiment 2) to learn two complex rhythm patterns observed in languages with primary word s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language and speech 1999-01, Vol.42 (1), p.1-38
Main Authors: Bailey, Todd M., Plunkett, Kim, Scarpa, Ester
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults. Performance, acquisition
Archives & records
Auditory Stimuli
Cognition & reasoning
Comparative Analysis
Comparative linguistics
Contrastive Linguistics
Discrimination Learning
Dravidian Languages
English
Experimental psychology
Foreign Countries
Generalization
Grammar
Knowledge
Language
Language Patterns
Language Rhythm
Learning
Linguistic Theory
Linguistics
Phonemes
Phonology
Portuguese
Production and comprehension processes
Prosody
Psycholinguistics
Psychology of language
Rhythm
Speech
Speech Communication
Stimuli
Stress (Phonology)
Syllables
Syntax
Theory
Uncommonly Taught Languages
Vowels
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Summary:Differences in the learnability of linguistic patterns may be crucial in deciding among alternative learning models. This paper compares the ability of English speakers (Experiment1) and Portuguese speakers (Experiment 2) to learn two complex rhythm patterns observed in languages with primary word stress. Subjects were familiarized with one of two rhythms during a discrimination task, followed by a recognition task which tested whether knowledge of the rhythm generalized to novel stimuli. The main findings were: (1) speakers trained on the cross-linguisticallyless common rhythm distinguished between novel stimuli which did or didnot conform to their training rhythm, while speakers trained on the more common rhythm did not;(2) English speakers were biased more strongly than Portuguese speakers against final stress; and (3) melodies that are on a boundary between rhythm categories were treated as less prototypical than other members of the same rhythm category. The results demonstrate that knowledge of complex linguistic rhythms can be generalized after very little training, and that the less common rhythm is easier to learn even though it seems more complex. The results are compared with general-purpose exemplar-based learning models as well as abstract linguistic theories of word stress acquisition.
ISSN:0023-8309
1756-6053
DOI:10.1177/00238309990420010101