ABSTRACT

In two artificial grammar learning experiments, we tested the learnability of tonal phonotactics forbidding non-domain-final rising tones (*NonFinalR) against the phonotactics banning non-domain-final high-level tones (*NonFinalH). We propose that a firm phonetic ground drives a presumably innate inductive bias favoring *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH. In Exp. I, we trained two groups of participants with an artificial language conforming to either *NonFinalR or *NonFinalH and tested them with the same set of novel items violating either tonal constraint in an acceptability judgment task. In two separate test sessions, *NonFinalR learners demonstrated a significantly higher consistency in making correct judgments than *NonFinalH learners. In Exp. II, learners participated in the same acceptability judgment task without being exposed to inputs in an a priori training session; participants had to learn from the immediate explicit feedback given to their judgments on every test item. Results suggest that only *NonFinalR learners demonstrated signs of converging on the target tonal phonotactics. In addition, both experiments found that *NonFinalR learners, but not *NonFinalH learners, acquired the tonal phonotactics and a baseline segmental phonotactics prohibiting retroflex consonants similarly. Altogether, the experimental results support the hypothesis of an inductive learning bias toward *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH.

摘要

在两个人工语法学习实验中，我们测试了禁止非域最终音调（* NonFinalR）与禁止非域最终音调（* NonFinalH）的音律的易读性。我们建议，牢固的语音基础会驱动可能是先天性的归纳偏见，从而有利于* NonFinalR和* NonFinalH。在实验中 我，我们用符合* NonFinalR或* NonFinalH的人工语言训练了两组参与者，并在可接受性判断任务中使用了违反任何一种色调约束的同一套新颖项目对他们进行了测试。在两个单独的测试会话中，* NonFinalR学习者在做出正确判断方面表现出比* NonFinalH学习者更高的一致性。在实验中 二，学习者参加了相同的可接受性判断任务，而没有在先验培训中接触到输入信息；参与者必须从对每个测试项目的判断中获得的直接明确反馈中学习。结果表明，只有* NonFinalR学习者表现出收敛于目标音调变音符号的迹象。此外，两个实验均发现* NonFinalR学习者而非* NonFinalH学习者获得了类似的音调音位和基准分段音位，从而禁止了反音辅音。总之，实验结果支持了针对* NonFinalR和针对* NonFinalH的归纳学习偏见的假设。结果表明，只有* NonFinalR学习者表现出收敛于目标音调变音符号的迹象。此外，两个实验均发现* NonFinalR学习者而非* NonFinalH学习者获得了类似的音调音位和基准分段音位，从而禁止了反音辅音。总之，实验结果支持了针对* NonFinalR和针对* NonFinalH的归纳学习偏见的假设。结果表明，只有* NonFinalR学习者表现出收敛于目标音调变音符号的迹象。此外，两个实验均发现* NonFinalR学习者而非* NonFinalH学习者获得了类似的音调音位和基准分段音位，从而禁止了反音辅音。总之，实验结果支持了针对* NonFinalR和针对* NonFinalH的归纳学习偏见的假设。