Abstract
In the course of language acquisition, one fundamental operation is the extraction of linguistically relevant units from the continuous speech signal. Prior to experience with a particular language, what kind of units is the initial perceptual system able to extract and represent? By exploring how neonates perform discrimination and categorization tasks when presented with strings of units used in different languages, we attempt to understand the nature of their primary speech representations. We ask how universal are the earliest patterns of perception, and how do they converge onto language specific units.
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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bertoncini, J. (1993). Infants’ Perception of Speech Units: Primary Representation Capacities. 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_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8234-6_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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