Talk by Brechtje Post (Cambridge University)
We are happy to announce a talk by Brechtje Post in the Phonology Colloquium.
Room: IG 4.301
Date: May 14th 2025
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Title: Linguistic phonetic biases in first and second language acquisition
Abstract:
In acquiring ambient language, infants have to learn:
- phonetic skills (negotiate universal phonetic constraints in flux)
- language-specific phonological structure
- language-specific linguistic-phonetic ‘devices’ to signal this structure
- the complex mappings between structure and these ‘devices’
- ‘linguistic-phonetic biases’ which specify the mapping between abstract structures and the phonetic forms, or devices, used to implement them
These all shape acquisition pathway individually and cross-linguistically for children and adult learners.
However, these ‘devices’ may be used as a multiple signifier in a particular language, e.g. the role of duration in English where it cues e.g. voice (‘pre-fortis clipping’) as well as vowel quality, but also the marking of prosodic heads and edges.
How do infants and other language learners juggle these when their languages place competing demands on these ‘devices’? And more broadly,...