ORCID

Abstract

The recognition of familiar words was evaluated in 20-month-old children raised in a rhotic accent environment to parents that had either rhotic or non-rhotic accents. Using an Intermodal Preferential Looking task children were presented with familiar objects (e.g. 'bird') named in their rhotic or non-rhotic form. Children were only able to identify familiar words pronounced in a rhotic accent, irrespective of their parents' accent. This suggests that it is the local community rather than parental input that determines accent preference in the early stages of acquisition. Consequences for the architecture of the early lexicon and for models of word learning are discussed.

DOI

10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.011

Publication Date

2012-07-01

Publication Title

Cognition

Volume

124

Issue

1

First Page

95

Last Page

100

ISSN

0010-0277

Organisational Unit

School of Psychology

Keywords

Analysis of Variance, Eye Movements, Female, Humans, Infant, Language Development, Male, Phonetics, Vocabulary

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