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Korean-speaking children's perceptual development in multidimensional acoustic space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2019

Gayeon SON
Gayeon SON*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and Kwangwoon University, Department of English Language and Literature, Seoul, Korea
*
*Corresponding author: Department of English Language and Literature, 20 Kwangwoon-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul01897, Korea. E-mail: gson@kw.ac.kr
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Abstract

This study investigated how Korean toddlers’ perception of stop categories develops in the acoustic dimensions of VOT and F0. To examine the developmental trajectory of VOT and F0 in toddlers’ perceptual space, a perceptual identification test with natural and synthesized sound stimuli was conducted with 58 Korean monolingual children (aged 2–4 years). The results revealed that toddlers’ perceptual mapping functions on VOT mainly in the high-pitch environment, resulting in more successful perceptual accuracy in fortis or aspirated stops than in lenis stops. F0 development is correlated with the perceptual distinction of lenis from aspirated stops, but no consistent categorical perception for F0 was found before four years of age. The findings suggest that multi-parametric control in perceptual development guides an acquisition ordering of Korean stop phonemes and that tonal development is significantly related to the acquisition of Korean phonemic contrasts.

Keywords

stop contrastsspeech perceptionF0
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2020 , pp. 579 - 599
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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