Reduplicated Words Are Easier to Learn

ABSTRACT

Infants’ disposition to learn repetitions in the input structure has been demonstrated in pattern generalization (e.g., learning the pattern ABB from the token ledidi). This study tested whether a repetition advantage can also be found in lexical learning (i.e., learning the word lele vs. ledi). Twenty-four English-learning infants (mean age: 18.5 months) were exposed to novel word-object mappings involving either a reduplicated CVCV word (e.g., neenee) or a nonreduplicated CVCV word (e.g, bolay). Infants were more adept at learning word-object mappings with a reduplicated word than with a nonreduplicated word. A follow-up corpus analysis of infant-directed speech showed that this preference could not be attributed to the frequency patterns of reduplicated words or syllables in the linguistic input. These findings indicate that an experience-independent bias toward repeated elements plays an important role not only in pattern generalization but also in word learning.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Judit Fazekas for help with data collection and coding, and the parents and infants who participated in this study.

Funding

This work was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant (ES/J023825/1) awarded to Mitsuhiko Ota.

Notes

¹ Missing values due to the exclusion criteria described above were replaced by the Word Type x Order means calculated from included trials.

² The syllabified corpus is available by request from the first author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant (ES/J023825/1) awarded to Mitsuhiko Ota.