ABSTRACT

English-speaking children use plural morphology from around the age of 2, yet often omit the syllabic plural allomorph /-əz/ until age 5 (e.g., bus(es)). It is not clear if this protracted acquisition is due to articulatory difficulties, low input frequency, or fricative-final words (e.g., bus, nose) being treated as already plural, raising questions about when and how the representation of the syllabic plural develops in perception. Novel-word intermodal preferential looking studies have shown productive comprehension of the plural allomorph /-s/ (e.g., cats) at 24 months. Using the same procedure, this study investigated when toddlers can comprehend the syllabic plural, and treat words ending in /s, z/ as singular (e.g., bus vs. bus+es). The results show that 30-month-olds (n = 20) could not identify the number condition of either the singular or plural, but 36-month-olds (n = 20) could identify both, showing productive knowledge of the syllabic allomorph and its singular counterpart with novel words. This suggests children’s omission of the syllabic plural in production may be due to later acquired mental representations requiring a sophisticated understanding of English morphophonology.

摘要

会说英语的儿童从2岁开始使用复数形态，但是经常省略音节复数同形异形/-əz/直到5岁（例如，公共汽车）。目前尚不清楚这种长时间的获取是否是由于发音困难，输入频率低或摩擦性的最后单词（例如公共汽车，鼻子）被视为已经是复数形式，引起了关于音节复数形式何时以及如何发展的疑问。知觉。新颖词多式联运的优先寻找研究表明，在24个月时对复数同质异形/ -s /（例如猫）产生了有效的理解。使用相同的程序，本研究调查了幼儿何时可以理解音节复数，并将以/ s，z /结尾的单词视为单数（例如，bus vs. bus + es））。结果表明，30个月大的婴儿（n = 20）无法识别单数或复数的数字条件，但36个月大的婴儿（n = 20）可以识别单数或复数，表明对音节异形体和它的奇异词与新颖词。这表明儿童在生产中省略音节复数可能是由于后来获得的心理表征需要对英语形态学的深刻理解。