Acoustic/phonological saliency

[Jose Centeno]

You might find this reference useful -

McGregor, K., & Johnson, A. C. (1997). Trochaic template use in early words and phrases. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40, 1220-1231.

Jose

 

Jose G. Centeno, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Program
Dept. of Speech, Communication Sciences, & Theatre
St. John's University
8000 Utopia Parkway
Jamaica, NY 11439
Tel: 718-990-2629   Fax: 212-677-2127  E-mail: centenoj at stjohns.edu <mailto:centenoj at stjohns.edu> 
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Marilyn Vihman 
	Sent: Sat 5/22/2004 9:41 AM 
	To: Alcock, Katherine; info-childes at mail.talkbank.org 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Re: Acoustic/phonological saliency
	
	

	>I have a question about this concept which seems to be bandied about
	>a lot in the language acquisition literature.  While there do seem
	>to be some empirical studies, for example of the amplitude of
	>particular phonemes compared to other phonemes, it also seems to be
	>a concept that many assume in studies - for example, assuming that
	>initial syllables or phonemes, or final ones, or stressed ones, will
	>be more salient to children learning language.  I am using this
	>concept in the field of literacy (spelling, in particular) and
	>although I can find many papers in spoken language acquisition which
	>draw on the concept of saliency to explain children's preferences
	>for particular words/sounds, I can't seem to find any discussion of
	>the concept per se, or measurements, either acoustic or behavioural,
	>of some aspects of salience.
	>
	>Does anyone have any ideas - is this lost in the mists of time, or
	>something that linguists take in with their mothers' milk and I
	>missed out in my neuroscience education? Or am I confusing two
	>different concepts?
	>
	For some experimental study relevant to the salience of word-initial
	C to infants acquiring either English or French (age 11 mos.) - given
	the contrasting accentual patterrns of the adult lgs., see Vihman,
	Nakai, DePaolis & Hallé, JMem&Lg 2004.
	
	-marilyn
	--
	
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