Victoria Leong|Usha Goswami
Acoustic-Emergent Phonology in the Amplitude Envelope of Child-Directed Speech
University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge
acquiring language young children may use acoustic spectrotemporal patterns speech derive phonological units spoken language eg prosodic stress patterns syllables phonemes children appear learn acousticphonological mappings rapidly without direct instruction yet underlying developmental mechanisms remain unclear across different languages relationship amplitude envelope sensitivity phonological development found suggesting children may make use amplitude modulation patterns within envelope develop phonological system present spectral amplitude modulation phase hierarchy samph model set algorithms deriving dominant patterns childdirected speech cds using principal components analysis show rhythmic cds contains hierarchy comprising 3 core modulation timescales timescales correspond key phonological units prosodic stress stress 2 hz syllables syllable 5 hz onsetrime units phoneme 20 hz argue patterns could principle used nave listeners compute acousticphonological mappings without lexical knowledge demonstrate modulation statistics within hierarchy indeed parse speech signal primitive hierarchicallyorganised phonological system comprising stress feet protowords syllables onsetrime units apply samph model two cds corpora one spontaneous one deliberatelytimed model accurately identified 7282 freelyread cds 9098 rhythmicallyregular cds stress patterns syllables onsetrime units inprinciple demonstration primitive phonology extracted speech ams termed acousticemergent phonology aep theory aep theory provides set methods examining early phonological development shaped temporal modulation structure speech across languages samph model reveals crucial developmental role stress feet ams 2 hz stress feet underpin different linguistic rhythm typologies speech rhythm underpins language acquisition infants languages