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The Development of Word Stress Processing in French and Spanish Infants
Auteur(s)
Pons, Ferran
Bosch, Laura
Christophe, Anne
Cabrol, Dominique
Peperkamp, Sharon
Date de parution
2013
In
Language Learning and Development, Taylor & Francis, 2013/9//88-104
Résumé
This study focuses on the development of lexical stress perception during the first year of life. Previous research shows that cross-linguistic differences in word stress organization translate into differences in word stress processing from a very early age: At 9 months, Spanish-learning infants, learning a language with variable word stress, can discriminate between segmentally varied nonsense words with initial stress (e.g., <i>níla, túli</i>) and final stress (e.g., <i>lutá, pukí</i>) in a headturn preference procedure. However, French infants, who learn a language with fixed word stress, can only distinguish between initial and final stress when no segmental variability is involved (Skoruppa et al., 2009). The present study investigates the emergence of this cross-linguistic difference. We show that at six months, neither Spanish nor French infants encode stress patterns in the presence of segmental variability (Experiment 1), while both groups succeed in the absence of segmental variability (Experiment 2). Hence, only Spanish infants, who learn a variable stress language, get better at tracking stress patterns in segmentally varied words between the ages of 6 and 9 months. In contrast, all infants seem to be able to discriminate basic stress patterns in the absence of segmental variability during the first nine months of life, regardless of the status of stress in their native language.
Identifiants
Type de publication
journal article
