Interaction of phonological biases and frequency in learning a probabilistic language pattern

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Phonology
• Morphology

Background:

• Learning artificial languages reveals cognitive biases in language acquisition.
• Phonological rules and morphological markers interact during language learning.
• Homophony and frequency influence the learnability of linguistic patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interplay between phonological rule learning, morphological acquisition, and lexical factors.
• To examine how frequency and homophony affect the learning and use of phonological rules in an artificial language.
• To understand the role of paradigm uniformity bias in shaping linguistic choices.

Main Methods:

• Adult participants learned an artificial language with noun pluralization using two prefixes (ba- or ni-).
• One prefix (ni-) triggered a velar palatalization rule, with conditions manipulating rule-induced homophony and prefix frequency.
• Behavioral data analyzed to assess rule learning, prefix choice, and potential biases.

Main Results:

• Participants avoided the rule-triggering prefix (ni-) when it was less frequent, suggesting a paradigm uniformity bias.
• Homophony created by the rule impaired rule learning but did not influence prefix choice.
• The ability to extract phonological generalizations was hindered by homophony avoidance.

Conclusions:

• Paradigm uniformity bias can lead learners to avoid phonological alternations, especially when they are less frequent.
• Homophony avoidance interferes with the extraction of phonological rules, impacting learnability.
• The interaction between phonology, morphology, and lexical factors shapes the acquisition of artificial languages.