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Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages

A learner’s linguistic input is more variable if it comes from a greater number of speakers. Higher speaker input variability has been shown to facilitate the acquisition of phonemic boundaries, since data drawn from multiple speakers provides more information about the distribution of phonemes in a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Atkinson, Mark, Kirby, Simon, Smith, Kenny
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4461169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26057624
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129463
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author Atkinson, Mark
Kirby, Simon
Smith, Kenny
author_facet Atkinson, Mark
Kirby, Simon
Smith, Kenny
author_sort Atkinson, Mark
collection PubMed
description A learner’s linguistic input is more variable if it comes from a greater number of speakers. Higher speaker input variability has been shown to facilitate the acquisition of phonemic boundaries, since data drawn from multiple speakers provides more information about the distribution of phonemes in a speech community. It has also been proposed that speaker input variability may have a systematic influence on individual-level learning of morphology, which can in turn influence the group-level characteristics of a language. Languages spoken by larger groups of people have less complex morphology than those spoken in smaller communities. While a mechanism by which the number of speakers could have such an effect is yet to be convincingly identified, differences in speaker input variability, which is thought to be larger in larger groups, may provide an explanation. By hindering the acquisition, and hence faithful cross-generational transfer, of complex morphology, higher speaker input variability may result in structural simplification. We assess this claim in two experiments which investigate the effect of such variability on language learning, considering its influence on a learner’s ability to segment a continuous speech stream and acquire a morphologically complex miniature language. We ultimately find no evidence to support the proposal that speaker input variability influences language learning and so cannot support the hypothesis that it explains how population size determines the structural properties of language.
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spelling pubmed-44611692015-06-16 Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages Atkinson, Mark Kirby, Simon Smith, Kenny PLoS One Research Article A learner’s linguistic input is more variable if it comes from a greater number of speakers. Higher speaker input variability has been shown to facilitate the acquisition of phonemic boundaries, since data drawn from multiple speakers provides more information about the distribution of phonemes in a speech community. It has also been proposed that speaker input variability may have a systematic influence on individual-level learning of morphology, which can in turn influence the group-level characteristics of a language. Languages spoken by larger groups of people have less complex morphology than those spoken in smaller communities. While a mechanism by which the number of speakers could have such an effect is yet to be convincingly identified, differences in speaker input variability, which is thought to be larger in larger groups, may provide an explanation. By hindering the acquisition, and hence faithful cross-generational transfer, of complex morphology, higher speaker input variability may result in structural simplification. We assess this claim in two experiments which investigate the effect of such variability on language learning, considering its influence on a learner’s ability to segment a continuous speech stream and acquire a morphologically complex miniature language. We ultimately find no evidence to support the proposal that speaker input variability influences language learning and so cannot support the hypothesis that it explains how population size determines the structural properties of language. Public Library of Science 2015-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4461169/ /pubmed/26057624 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129463 Text en © 2015 Atkinson et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Atkinson, Mark
Kirby, Simon
Smith, Kenny
Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title_full Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title_fullStr Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title_full_unstemmed Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title_short Speaker Input Variability Does Not Explain Why Larger Populations Have Simpler Languages
title_sort speaker input variability does not explain why larger populations have simpler languages
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4461169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26057624
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129463
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