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Developmental Neurocognition: Speech and Face Processing in the First Year of Life pp 289–304Cite as

Emergence of Language-Specific Constraints in Perception of Non-Native Speech: A Window on Early Phonological Development

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Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASID,volume 69))

Abstract

Adults have difficulty discriminating many non-native speech contrasts, yet young infants discriminate both native and non-native contrasts. Language-specific constraints appear by 10–12 months. Evidence presented here suggests that mature listeners’ discrimination is constrained by perceived similarities between non-native sounds and native categories, and that this native language influence may not be fully developed at 10–12 months. The findings suggest that young infants have broadly-tuned perception of phonetic details. Next, they begin to discern equivalence classes that roughly correspond to native phonemes. Perception of phonological contrasts, however, depends on recognition of their linguistic function, and thus develops later. But what sort of information in speech forms the basis for perception of equivalence classes or phonemic contrasts? I argue that distal articulatory gestures, rather than proximal auditory-acoustic cues or abstract phonetic features, are the primitives both for adults’ perceptual assimilations of non-native phones and for infants’ emerging recognition of native categories.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459, USA

    Catherine T. Best

  2. Haskins Laboratories, 270 Crown Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA

    Catherine T. Best

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  1. Catherine T. Best
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Psychology Laboratory, E.H.E.S.S. and C.N.R.S., Paris, France

    Bénédicte de Boysson-Bardies

  2. Development and Cognition Unit, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, C.N.R.S., Marseille, France

    Scania de Schonen

  3. Psychology Department, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA

    Peter Jusczyk

  4. Department of Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

    Peter McNeilage

  5. Cognitive Development Unit, MRC, London, UK

    John Morton

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Best, C.T. (1993). Emergence of Language-Specific Constraints in Perception of Non-Native Speech: A Window on Early Phonological Development. In: de Boysson-Bardies, B., de Schonen, S., Jusczyk, P., McNeilage, P., Morton, J. (eds) Developmental Neurocognition: Speech and Face Processing in the First Year of Life. NATO ASI Series, vol 69. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8234-6_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8234-6_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4251-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8234-6

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