Developmental linguistics

Speaker: Mits Ota (University of Edinburgh)

Title: The role of reduplication in early lexical development

Abstract: Across languages, infant-directed speech contains a number of register-specific vocabulary items consisting of repeated syllables (e.g., choo-choo, night-night, pee-pee) or segments (e.g., mommy, daddy, tick-tock). Apart from being potentially easier to articulate, such ‘reduplicated’ words could be easier to detect and learn from running speech as infant learners may be equipped with a perceptual or memory bias toward repeated elements in the input. On this account, reduplicated words have evolved and been maintained in infant-directed speech because they provide an entry point to further word learning.

To test this hypothesis, we carried out a series of studies examining the effects of reduplication in word segmentation, word learning and vocabulary development. Study 1 offered evidence that 9-month-olds remember novel words with full reduplication (e.g., neenee, foofoo) better than words with no reduplication (e.g., neefoo, foonee) after hearing them embedded in passages. Study 2 demonstrated that 18-month-olds are better at remembering a new label for an unfamiliar object when the label is a reduplicated word as opposed to a non-reduplicated word. Study 3 investigated the effects of reduplication in naturalistic language development through a longitudinal analysis of 47 infants between 9 and 21 months. The analysis showed that the proportion of reduplicated words infants hear in everyday speech at 9 month predicts their speed of vocabulary growth from 9 to 21 months. Taken together, these studies support the view that some structural characteristics of infant-directed vocabulary (in this case, reduplication) can scaffold early lexical development.

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Dr Barbora Skarabela