Three Problems in the Development of Speech Perception

Abstract

Drawing upon a wide variety of psychological and linguistic research, this article identifies and examines three related phenomena of early speech development: asynchrony, asymmetry, and discontinuity in infant phonological development. The aim of this analysis is to help the researcher to consider the first two years of infant speech from an original and truly psycholinguistic perspective. The major focus of this article is on the implications of these three problems for our understanding of infant speech perception in particular and of the perception-production relationship in general.

Two of the problems considered here—asynchrony and asymmetry—have repeatedly created anomalies and inconsistencies in the treatment of developmental phonology by different theories, particularly Jakobsonian distinctive-feature theory. However, by viewing the beginnings of infant speech as a “cognitive-linguistic” phenomenon and by utilizing the Piagetian concept of décalage, a solution is offered to these two problems. Further, the third problem of discontinuities in infant speech development is examined to highlight hitherto unconsidered nuances in the perception-production relationship and to raise questions about research studies which ignore distinctions between prelinguistic and linguistic periods in infant speech.

Some general prescriptive points are made throughout the article. A number of recent experimental studies are criticised for their lack of linguistic sophistication, and the point is made that meaningful research questions must be informed by current phonological and linguistic theory. It is also emphasized that researchers cannot study isolated aspects of early speech perception without considering the relevance of their hypotheses and results to speech development as a whole. Finally, by considering some of the problems of early speech development in the light of cognitive-developmental theory, this article tries to relate specific issues in perceptual and productive development of speech to other, more general principles of development.