Phonological 'wildness' in early language development: exploring the role of onomatopoeia

Laing, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8022-2655 2014. Phonological 'wildness' in early language development: exploring the role of onomatopoeia. Presented at: PARLAY 2013: 1st Postgraduate and Academic Researchers in Linguistics at York Conference, York, UK, 6 September 2013. Proceedings of the first Postgraduate and Academic Researchers in Linguistics at York (PARLAY 2013). York Papers in Linguistics. York Papers in Linguistics York: Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, pp. 48-63.

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Abstract

This study uses eye-tracking to single out the role of ‘wild’ onomatopoeia in language development, as described by Rhodes (1994). Wildness–whereby extra-phonetic features are used in order to reproduce non-human sounds–is thought here to facilitate infants’ understanding of onomatopoeic word forms, providing a salient cue for segmentation and understanding in the input. Infants heard onomatopoeic forms produced in familiar and unfamiliar languages, presented in a phonologically ‘wild’ (W) or ‘tame’ (T) manner. W forms in both familiar and unfamiliar languages were hypothesised to elicit longer looking times than T forms in both familiar and unfamiliar languages. Results reflect the role that onomatopoeia play in early language development: wildness was not found to be a factor in infants’ understanding of word forms, while reduplication and production knowledge of specific stimuli generated consistent responses across participants.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
ISSN:	1758-0315
Related URLs:	Organisation
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	28 November 2017
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2022 09:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/106573

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