The role of prosody in early speech segmentation and
word-referent mapping
Electrophysiological evidence
Maria Teixidó | University of Barcelona, Department of Cognition,
Development and Educational Psychology
Clément François | University of Barcelona, Department of Cognition,
Development and Educational Psychology | Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group (Bellvitge
Biomedical Research Institute) IDIBELL | Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu
(IRSJD)
Laura Bosch | University of Barcelona, Department of Cognition,
Development and Educational Psychology | Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu
(IRSJD) | Institut de Neurociències, University of
Barcelona
Claudia Männel | Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain
Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology and Department of
Neurology | University of Leipzig, Medical Faculty, Clinic for
Cognitive Neurology
This chapter reviews electrophysiological studies on early word-form
segmentation and word-referent mapping, with a focus on the role of
prosody in these early abilities closely related to vocabulary
acquisition. First, we will review event-related brain potential
(ERP) studies on word segmentation showing the impact of lexical
stress cues, infant-directed speech (IDS) properties and melodic
information on word-form extraction. Then, we will review research
on word-referent mapping, revealing the scarcity of ERP studies
specifically exploring the contribution of prosody in this domain.
Throughout the chapter we will emphasize how electrophysiological
methods offer a more fine-grained perspective of the brain processes
supporting segmentation and mapping abilities, often revealing
infants’ sensitivities to auditory input before overt responses from
behavioral methods can be obtained.
Article outline
Introduction
The method of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in language
acquisition research
Word segmentation
ERP indicators of word segmentation
Language-specific prosodic cues to word segmentation: lexical
stress patterns
Properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) supporting word
segmentation: Prosodic emphasis on sentence-embedded
words
From IDS to song: How early can melodic cues contribute to
word segmentation?
Word-referent mapping
ERP indicators of word-referent mapping
The contribution of prosody to word-referent mapping: From
behavioral to ERP studies
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