Syntactic Categorization in French-Learning Infants

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
Rushen Shi, Andréane Melançon

Abstract

Recent work showed that infants recognize and store function words starting from the age of 6-8 months. Using a visual fixation procedure, the present study tested whether French-learning 14-month-olds have the knowledge of syntactic categories of determiners and pronouns, respectively, and whether they can use these function words for categorizing novel words to nouns and verbs. The prosodic characteristics of novel words stimuli for noun versus verb uses were balanced. The only distinguishing cue was the preceding determiners versus subject pronouns, the former being the most common for nouns and the latter the most common for verbs, i.e., Det + Noun, Pron + Verb. We expected that noun categorization may be easier than verb categorization because the co-occurrence of determiners with nouns is more consistent than that of subject pronouns with verbs in French. The results showed that infants grouped the individual determiners as one common class, and that they appeared to use the determiners to categorize novel words into nouns. However, we found no evidence of verb categorization. Unlike determiners, pronouns were not perceived as a common syntactic class.

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Citations

Jun 27, 2020·Developmental Science·Mireille BabineauAnne Christophe
Aug 13, 2020·Developmental Science·Naomi HavronAnne Christophe
Nov 30, 2010·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Marieke van Heugten, Rushen Shi
Apr 5, 2016·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Michael A Skeide, Angela D Friederici
Apr 24, 2020·Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·Enikő LadányiJudit Gervain
Mar 22, 2012·Journal of Psycholinguistic Research·Elena Koulaguina, Rushen Shi
Mar 5, 2016·Journal of Child Language·Erin Conwell
Dec 17, 2018·Topics in Cognitive Science·Judit GervainLouAnn Gerken
Apr 3, 2020·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Sarah Massicotte-Laforge, Rushen Shi
Apr 16, 2015·Developmental Science·Alex de CarvalhoAnne Christophe
Jan 31, 2015·Journal of Child Language·Andréane Melançon, Rushen Shi
Feb 6, 2017·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Angela Xiaoxue He, Sudha Arunachalam
Mar 14, 2020·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Kasia HitczenkoNaomi H Feldman
Aug 29, 2020·Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·Mireille BabineauAnne Christophe
Aug 7, 2012·Child Development·Erin K RobertsonAndréane Melançon
Jan 23, 2019·Psychological Science·Alex de CarvalhoAnne Christophe
Mar 16, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Alex de CarvalhoAnne Christophe
Jul 1, 2020·Journal of Child Language·Naomi Havron, Inbal Arnon
Oct 24, 2012·Child Development·Marilyn Cyr, Rushen Shi
Nov 2, 2015·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Sarah Massicotte-Laforge, Rushen Shi
May 31, 2021·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Irene de la Cruz-PavíaJudit Gervain
Aug 12, 2021·Cognitive Science·Thomas St Pierre, Elizabeth K Johnson
Sep 30, 2021·Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR·Sabrina Horvath, Sudha Arunachalam

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