English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning

Children appear to acquire new words effortlessly from complex auditory input. However, this process is highly intricate, requiring the simultaneous integration of phonetic and phonemic details, prosodic cues, and grammatical structures. Furthermore, different components of a language’s sound system...

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Main Authors: Suzanne Curtin, Susan A. Graham
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Behavioral Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/5/605
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author Suzanne Curtin
Susan A. Graham
author_facet Suzanne Curtin
Susan A. Graham
author_sort Suzanne Curtin
collection DOAJ
description Children appear to acquire new words effortlessly from complex auditory input. However, this process is highly intricate, requiring the simultaneous integration of phonetic and phonemic details, prosodic cues, and grammatical structures. Furthermore, different components of a language’s sound system—such as phonemes, syllables, and prosodic features—appear with different frequencies in the input and follow distinct patterns of distribution in speech. This article reviews research that illustrates how infants’ growing understanding of their native language sound system facilitates their acquisition of new words.
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spelling doaj-art-a399f0bd69dc498da1cbe7ad76bb1d9e2025-08-20T01:56:29ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2025-05-0115560510.3390/bs15050605English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word LearningSuzanne Curtin0Susan A. Graham1Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, CanadaChildren appear to acquire new words effortlessly from complex auditory input. However, this process is highly intricate, requiring the simultaneous integration of phonetic and phonemic details, prosodic cues, and grammatical structures. Furthermore, different components of a language’s sound system—such as phonemes, syllables, and prosodic features—appear with different frequencies in the input and follow distinct patterns of distribution in speech. This article reviews research that illustrates how infants’ growing understanding of their native language sound system facilitates their acquisition of new words.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/5/605phonological developmentdistributional learningword learning
spellingShingle Suzanne Curtin
Susan A. Graham
English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
Behavioral Sciences
phonological development
distributional learning
word learning
title English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
title_full English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
title_fullStr English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
title_full_unstemmed English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
title_short English-Learning Infants’ Developing Sound System Guides Their Early Word Learning
title_sort english learning infants developing sound system guides their early word learning
topic phonological development
distributional learning
word learning
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/5/605
work_keys_str_mv AT suzannecurtin englishlearninginfantsdevelopingsoundsystemguidestheirearlywordlearning
AT susanagraham englishlearninginfantsdevelopingsoundsystemguidestheirearlywordlearning