Word Segmentation Cues in German Child-Directed Speech: A Corpus Analysis.

ABSTRACT: To acquire language, infants must learn to segment words from running speech. A significant body of experimental research shows that infants use multiple cues to do so; however, little research has comprehensively examined the distribution of such cues in naturalistic speech. We conducted a comprehensive corpus analysis of German child-directed speech (CDS) using data from the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) database, investigating the availability of word stress, transitional probabilities (TPs), and lexical and sublexical frequencies as potential cues for word segmentation. Seven hours of data (~15,000 words) were coded, representing around an average day of speech to infants. The analysis revealed that for 97% of words, primary stress was carried by the initial syllable, i

SUBMITTER: Stark K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8886305 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature