ABSTRACT

Onomatopoeia are disproportionately high in number in infants’ early words compared to adult language. Studies of infant language perception have proposed an iconic advantage for onomatopoeia, which may make them easier for infants to learn. This study analyses infants’ early word production to show a phonological motivation for onomatopoeia in early acquisition. Cross-linguistic evidence from 16 infants demonstrates how these forms fit within a phonologically-systematic developing lexicon. We observe a predominance of consonant harmony and open cv syllables in infants’ early words—structures that are typical of onomatopoeia across languages. Infants’ acquisition of onomatopoeia is shown to be driven by a preference for structures that are easy to plan and produce. These data present an original perspective on onomatopoeia in early development, highlighting the role of production in language acquisition in general, and onomatopoeic words in particular.

摘要

与成人语言相比，婴儿早期单词中的拟声词数量过多。婴儿语言知觉的研究提出了拟声词的标志性优势，这可能使它们更易于婴儿学习。这项研究分析了婴儿的早期单词产生，以显示早期习得拟声词的语音动机。来自16名婴儿的跨语言证据表明，这些形式如何适合于语音系统发展中的词典。我们观察到辅音和谐和开放简历的优势婴儿早期单词中的音节-跨语言的拟声词的典型结构。婴儿对拟声词的习得表现为对易于计划和生产的结构的偏爱。这些数据提供了关于拟声词在早期发展中的原始观点，突出了生产在一般语言习得中的作用，特别是拟声词。