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Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Infants discover English suffixes allomorph by allomorph
1Department of Linguistics, https://ror.org/046rm7j60University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Journal of Child Language
|August 1, 2025
Summary
Six-month-old infants show early sensitivity to word structure. They can link words with the [-z] allomorph of the plural "-s" suffix to their stems, but not the [-s] allomorph.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Infants demonstrate early sensitivity to morphological relatedness.
- Previous research shows 6-month-olds link novel words with '-s' suffix to their stems.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the role of allomorphy in early morphological acquisition.
- Determine if infants relate novel words with different allomorphs of the plural suffix to their stems.
Main Methods:
- Tested 6-month-old English-learning infants.
- Presented infants with novel words ending in [-z] and [-s] allomorphs of the plural suffix.
- Assessed infants' ability to relate suffixed words to their stems.
Main Results:
- Infants related novel words suffixed with the [-z] allomorph to their stems.
- Infants did not relate novel words suffixed with the [-s] allomorph to their stems.
Conclusions:
- 6-month-olds' early morphological acquisition may involve discovering morphemes one allomorph at a time.
- This suggests a specific learning trajectory for processing plural allomorphs.
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