Article published in:
Where Do Phonological Features Come From?: Cognitive, physical and developmental bases of distinctive speech categoriesEdited by G. Nick Clements and Rachid Ridouane
[Language Faculty and Beyond 6] 2011
► pp. 303–326
Phonological features in infancy
Alejandrina Cristià | Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, ENS-EHESS-DEC-CNRS
Amanda Seidl | Purdue University
Alexander L. Francis | Purdue University
Features serve two main functions in the phonology of languages: they encode the distinction between pairs of contrastive phonemes (distinctive function); and they delimit sets of sounds that participate in phonological processes and patterns (classificatory function). We summarize evidence from a variety of experimental paradigms bearing on the functional relevance of phonological features. This research shows that while young infants may use abstract phonological features to learn sound patterns, this ability becomes more constrained with development and experience. Furthermore, given the lack of overlap between the ability to learn a pair of words differing in a single feature and the ability to learn sound patterns based on features, we argue for the separation of the distinctive and the classificatory function.
Published online: 28 July 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.6.11cri
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.6.11cri
Cited by
Cited by other publications
Moreton, Elliott & Joe Pater
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.