Japanese Children’s Learning of Homophones with Different Accentual Patterns

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  • 幼児の単語学習における アクセントパターン利用の発達過程
  • ヨウジ ノ タンゴ ガクシュウ ニ オケル アクセントパターン リヨウ ノ ハッタツ カテイ

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Abstract

In Japanese, some homophones can be distinguished by their lexical pitch accentual<br> patterns. When and how do Japanese children start using pitch accent information as<br> a cue to lexical distinction? In this research, we taught children two novel labels as<br> names for two different objects. One label was a novel homophone whose accentual<br> pattern was different from a familiar word, and the other, a novel non-homophone of<br> a familiar word. The children ’s learning of these two labels was tested by a picture<br> fixation task and an object choice task. The two-year-old children learned the novel<br> non-homophone; however, they failed to learn the novel homophone (Experiment 1).<br> On the other hand, three- to five-year-old children succeeded in learning both the la-<br>bels, and their performance improved with age (Experiment 2). These results suggest<br> that Japanese children gradually develop the ability to use pitch accent information<br> as a cue to lexical distinction in words throughout their childhood. The findings are<br> discussed in terms of how Japanese children pay attention to pitch information in the<br> learning of words.

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