我们报告了对幼儿的多语言和多实验室调查的结果,以辨别其母语的词汇音调的能力,年龄和语言经验,以及音调属性。鉴于人类语言中的词汇语调很普遍,理解词汇语调习得是语言学习综合理论的基础。尽管词汇语调感知的发展过程与元音和辅音的发展过程有一些相似之处,在不同的实验室中,词汇音调的发现往往差异很大。为了调和这些差异,并评估对音调对比的本地和非本地感知的发展轨迹,这项研究采用了一个单一的实验范式,具有相同的两对粤语音调对比(感知相似与不同)在亚太地区的13个实验室中,欧洲和北美测试5-,10个月和17个月大的单语(音调,音高,非音调)和双语(音调/非音调,非音调/非音调)婴儿。跨越年龄范围和语言背景,未接触粤语的婴儿对两种非本地词汇语气对比表现出强烈的区分。与这一总体发现相反,评估粤语学习婴儿的本地歧视的统计模型未能产生显着效果。这些发现表明,在获得音调和非音调语言的婴儿中,词汇的音调敏感性在5至17个月内保持不变,挑战了生命最初几个月中现有的知觉缩小理论解释的普遍性。研究重点:这是对幼儿的多语言和多实验室研究,以辨别词汇音调的能力。这项研究包括来自13个实验室的数据,测试5-,10-,和17个月大的单语(音调,音高,非音调)和双语(音调/非音调,非音调/非音调)婴儿。总的来说,婴儿区分了感知相似和不同的非自然音调对比,尽管没有证据表明在歧视方面具有母语的优势。这些结果表明,在整个开发过程中保持了音调歧视。
We report the findings of a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants\' ability to discriminate lexical tones as a function of their native language, age and language experience, as well as of tone properties. Given the high prevalence of lexical tones across human languages, understanding lexical tone acquisition is fundamental for comprehensive theories of language learning. While there are some similarities between the developmental course of lexical tone perception and that of vowels and consonants, findings for lexical tones tend to vary greatly across different laboratories. To reconcile these differences and to assess the developmental trajectory of native and non-native perception of tone contrasts, this study employed a single experimental paradigm with the same two pairs of Cantonese tone contrasts (perceptually similar vs. distinct) across 13 laboratories in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North-America testing 5-, 10- and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Across the age range and language backgrounds, infants who were not exposed to Cantonese showed robust discrimination of the two non-native lexical tone contrasts. Contrary to this overall finding, the statistical model assessing native discrimination by Cantonese-learning infants failed to yield significant effects. These findings indicate that lexical tone sensitivity is maintained from 5 to 17 months in infants acquiring tone and non-tone languages, challenging the generalisability of the existing theoretical accounts of perceptual narrowing in the first months of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This is a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants\' ability to discriminate lexical tones. This study included data from 13 laboratories testing 5-, 10-, and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Overall, infants discriminated a perceptually similar and a distinct non-native tone contrast, although there was no evidence of a native tone-language advantage in discrimination. These results demonstrate maintenance of tone discrimination throughout development.