Language Publications; Babies

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The following is a selection of relevant publications taken from Med-Line. The literature in this field is extensive.---

1. Quay, S (Dept of Communication and Linguistics, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan); "The Bilingual Lexicon; Implications for Studies of Language Choice"; Journal of Child Language, 1995, Jun 2 2: 369-87.

-- This is a study of the creation of bilingual capacity (English, Spanish) from infancy onward. It stresses the usefulness of making translation equivalents available to permit an infant to make language choices. This selective capacity seems to be available from the beginning of speech.

2. Vihman, MM, de Boysson-Bardies, B (Dept of Special Education, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond 70403); "The Nature and Origins of Ambient Language Influence on Infant Vocal Production and Early Words"; Phonetica, 1994, 51 1-3: 159-69.

-- The study emphasizes the need for 'sufficient' exposure to the varied phonetic pathways unique to a language. Global effects noted within the first year include loss of early appearing phonetic gestures, not supported by the ambient language. Restated, this would seem to mean that a lack of adequate, systematic exposure to other languages results in a loss of multilingual capabilities.

3. Bertoncini J ; Floccia, C; Nazzi, T; Mehler, J (Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives e Psycholinguistique, CNRS-EHESS, Paris, France); "Morae and Syllables; Rhythmical Basis of Speech Representations in Neonates."; Language and Speech, 1995 Oct-Dec, 38 Pt 4; 311-29.

-- To quote; "It is proposed (by the authors) that syllables are particularly salient units during the initial stage of speech processing, irrespective of which language and rhythmical structure is heard."

4. Jusczk, PW, Cutler, A, Redanz, NJ (Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260); "Infant Preference for the Predominant Stress Patterns of English Words." Child Development, 1993 Jun, 64 3: 675-87.-- "...

---- The results suggest that attention to predominant stress patterns in the native language may form an important part of the infant's process of developing a lexicon." Varied inflections, as provided by a number of speakers, and the variety of resulting stress patterns seem to be of value to an infant in building a vocabulary."

5. Kuhl, PK; Meltzoff, AN (Dept of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98195); "Infant Vocalizations in Response to Speech; Vocal Imitation and Developmental Change"; Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1996 Oct, 100 4; Pt 1; 2425-38.

-- "Infants' development of speech begins with a language-universal pattern of production that eventually becomes language specific. The present study was undertaken to examine developmental changes in infants' vocalizations in response to adults' vowels at 12, 16 and 20 weeks of age and (to) test for vocal imitation.. (V)ocal imitation was documented, infants listening to a particular vowel produced vocalizations resembling that vowel..."

6. Miller, JL, Eimas, PD (Dept of Psychology, North-eastern University, Boston, MA 02115); "Internal Structure of Voicing Categories in Early Infancy," Perception and Psychophysics, 1996 Nov, 58 8: 1157-6

-- Extends the work of Kuhl, et al to include an early sensitivity of infants, aged 3-4 months, to consonants as well as to vowels.

7. Kuhl, PK, Andruski, JE, Chistrovich,IA, Chistrovich, LA, Kozevnikova, EV, Ryskina, VL, Stolyarova, EL, Sundberg, U, Lacerda, F (Dept of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Univ of Washington, Box 357920, Seattle, WA 98195), "Cross-Language Analysis of Phonetic Units in Language Addressed to Infants", Science, 1997 Aug 1, 277 5326; 684-6.

-- A study in 3 languages (English, Swedish, Russian). "...Infants acquire information about the phonetic properties of their native language simply by listening to adults speak.. The findings show that language input to infants provides exceptionally well-specified information about the linguistic units that form the building blocks for words."

8. Christophe, A, Dupouz, E, Betonicini, J, Mehler, J (Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives e Psycholiuistique, CNRS-EHSS, Paris, France); "Do Infants Perceive Word Boundaries? An Empirical Study of the Bootstrapping of Lexical Acquisition", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1994 Mar, 95 3: 1570-8.

-- Three (3) day old infants were tested for their ability to distinguish word boundaries. It appears that "...newborns are already sensitive to cues that correlate with word boundaries."-----

Please refer to "The Scientist in the Crib" by Drs. Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl (published by HarperCollins, 2000). It provides a detailed and thoughtful insight into the language acquisition process by infants.