Question

(LAN) Children, before they can even speak are sensitive to statistical regularities in language they hear and they use this to help them segment words. Which of the following explains how they are able to do this when they don't even know words yet?

A. The children studied are high performing geniuses
B. The children listen for breaks between the words to cue them as to where the segments may be and therefore where the words are.
C. The children learn which phonemes might go together when listening and use that to figure out where the words might be.
D. The children listen for morphemes that help them segment sounds and then form words.

Answer 1

Children use statistical regularities and the frequent co-occurrence of specific phonemes in language to segment words from speech before they even know words. This innate capability is a part of their natural language acquisition process that enables them to learn languages quickly and effectively.

Step-by-step explanation:

Children are capable of segmenting words from fluent speech even before they can speak because they are sensitive to the statistical regularities in the language they hear. This process relates to their ability to notice which sounds, called phonemes, tend to occur together, and their frequency of occurrence allows babies to infer the boundaries between words. This skill does not require children to know the words beforehand; instead, they use the consistent statistical patterns in spoken language to parse it into comprehensible units.

For instance, in the phrase "pretty baby," the combination of sounds in "pretty" occurs more frequently together than the sound "y" does with "b" at the start of "baby." Infants pick up on such regularities and use them to deduce where one word ends and another begins.

Therefore, the correct explanation is that children learn which phonemes might go together when listening and use that to figure out where the words might be. This natural propensity for language acquisition, backed by research from scholars such as Chomsky, indicates that humans are born with an innate capacity for language acquisition and that children harness this inborn skill to master language rapidly and effortlessly.

Answer 2

Children's ability to segment words before they can speak is explained by their sensitivity to phoneme patterns, not the presence of breaks between words (option C). This skill develops naturally as they are biologically predisposed to learn language, further refined by environmental interactions.

Step-by-step explanation:

Children, before they can even speak, are sensitive to statistical regularities in the language they hear and use this sensitivity to help segment words. This ability occurs because children learn which phonemes might go together when listening and use that to figure out where words might be. From birth, babies recognize their mother's voice and can discriminate between the language(s) spoken by their mothers and foreign languages. They also show a preference for faces that move in synchrony with audible language, indicating an early development of language and communication skills.

Over time, influenced by both biology and environmental interaction, children demonstrate an understanding of the rules of language, applying them in creating simple sentences and rapidly acquiring new vocabulary. Even the errors they make, such as overgeneralization, demonstrate their grasp of language rules. By engaging with their linguistic environment, children's lexicon grows, and they move through stages of language development with remarkable speed, without formal instruction, guided by their innate predispositions and cognitive abilities.

While babies do listen for breaks between words, this is not the main mechanism behind their word segmentation abilities; it is their attention to phoneme patterns that is crucial. Answer C best explains how children are able to segment words despite not knowing words yet: They learn which phonemes might go together when listening, which helps them determine word boundaries.