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Article Dans Une Revue Developmental Science Année : 2023

The development of tone discrimination in infancy: Evidence from a cross‐linguistic, multi‐lab report

Laura Fernández-Merino
Antonia Götz
  • Fonction : Auteur
Lisa Gustavsson
  • Fonction : Auteur
Jessica Hay
  • Fonction : Auteur
Barbara Höhle
René Kager
  • Fonction : Auteur
Regine Lai
  • Fonction : Auteur
Liquan Liu
  • Fonction : Auteur
Ellen Marklund
  • Fonction : Auteur
Daniela Santos Oliveira
  • Fonction : Auteur
Anne Marte Haug Olstad
  • Fonction : Auteur
Anthony Picaud
  • Fonction : Auteur
Iris‐corinna Schwarz
  • Fonction : Auteur
Feng‐ming Tsao
  • Fonction : Auteur
Patrick Wong
  • Fonction : Auteur
Pei Jun Woo
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

We report the findings of a multi‐language and multi‐lab investigation of young infants’ ability to discriminate lexical tones as a function of their native language, age and language experience, as well as of tone properties. Given the high prevalence of lexical tones across human languages, understanding lexical tone acquisition is fundamental for comprehensive theories of language learning. While there are some similarities between the developmental course of lexical tone perception and that of vowels and consonants, findings for lexical tones tend to vary greatly across different laboratories. To reconcile these differences and to assess the developmental trajectory of native and non‐native perception of tone contrasts, this study employed a single experimental paradigm with the same two pairs of Cantonese tone contrasts (perceptually similar vs. distinct) across 13 laboratories in Asia‐Pacific, Europe and North‐America testing 5‐, 10‐ and 17‐month‐old monolingual (tone, pitch‐accent, non‐tone) and bilingual (tone/non‐tone, non‐tone/non‐tone) infants. Across the age range and language backgrounds, infants who were not exposed to Cantonese showed robust discrimination of the two non‐native lexical tone contrasts. Contrary to this overall finding, the statistical model assessing native discrimination by Cantonese‐learning infants failed to yield significant effects. These findings indicate that lexical tone sensitivity is maintained from 5 to 17 months in infants acquiring tone and non‐tone languages, challenging the generalisability of the existing theoretical accounts of perceptual narrowing in the first months of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS This is a multi‐language and multi‐lab investigation of young infants’ ability to discriminate lexical tones. This study included data from 13 laboratories testing 5‐, 10‐, and 17‐month‐old monolingual (tone, pitch‐accent, non‐tone) and bilingual (tone/non‐tone, non‐tone/non‐tone) infants. Overall, infants discriminated a perceptually similar and a distinct non‐native tone contrast, although there was no evidence of a native tone‐language advantage in discrimination. These results demonstrate maintenance of tone discrimination throughout development.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-04322749 , version 1 (05-12-2023)

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Marina Kalashnikova, Leher Singh, Angeline Tsui, Eylem Altuntas, Denis Burnham, et al.. The development of tone discrimination in infancy: Evidence from a cross‐linguistic, multi‐lab report. Developmental Science, In press, ⟨10.1111/desc.13459⟩. ⟨hal-04322749⟩

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