How English-Learning Infants Respond to Markedness and Faithfulness Constraints

Peter W. Jusczyk · Paul Smolensky · Theresa Allocco

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Phonetics and Phonology Research Reading and Literacy Development Language Development and Disorders

Abstract

According to the nativist interpretation of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky (1993)), all language learners are born with a set of universal constraints. Learnability arguments entail that, in the initial state, markedness constraints outrank faithfulness constraints (Prince (personal communication, September 26, 1993), Smolensky (1996a), Tesar and Smolensky (2000)). This study investigates whether English learners give evidence of observing markedness and faithfulness constraints relating to nasal place assimilation. Employing the Headturn Preference Procedure (Jusczyk (1998b), Kemler Nelson et al. (1995)), these investigations introduce a general experimental paradigm for exploring infants' phonological grammars. English learners at 4.5 and 10 months of age gave evidence of observing both markedness and faithfulness constraints and ranked markedness above faithfulness. After a brief instability around 15 months, at 20 months they display the adult English pattern, with markedness outranking faithfulness.

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1964ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF SYNTAX 1996Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants 2004Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar 1988Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use.1973A First Language 1984Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life 1971Speech Perception in Infants 1992Linguistic Experience Alters Phonetic Perception in Infants by 6 Months of Age

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