Speech Segmentation

define speech segmentation

dividing speech stream into words

what is the time period for speech segmentation?

during prelinguistic development

from birth to first words (approx 12 months)

provide an example of speech segmentation

theredonateakettleoftenchips

the red on a tea kettle often chips

there, don ate a kettle of ten chips

what is the probabilistic theory

Children listen to the speech stream and are able to make guesses about what a word is

called inferences

What are the types of probabilistic theory?

inductive and deductive inferences (reasoning)

Deductive Inference

if A is bigger than B

and if B is bigger than C

Then A is most certainly bigger than C

(general—> specific)

Inductive Inference

all the tigers I have seen have orange fur and black stripes

therefore the next tiger I see will most likely have orange fur and black stripes (specific—> general)

What’s the problem when with the example we provided for inductive reasoning?

it is not certain that the next toger we see will have orange fur and black stripes,

could be a tiger with white fur and black stripes

Which inference/reasoning do children tend to use? how do children utilize this?

inductive inference

statistical learning

statistical learning is part of which faculty?

broad language faculty

statistical learning is based on…

transitional probability

explain statistical learning

babies are tracking how often sounds occur together (to determine word boundaries)

Despite the complexity of this task, there’s evidence that infants can segment words from fluent speech by the age of…

7 months

how do infants segment words from fluent speech?

1. transitional probabilities

2. prosodic cues

transitional probabilities

statistical information on probability that one syllable will follow another

‘‘pre tty” “ba by” very high

but the likehood of

tty ba is low

because there are an infinite number of sentences

prosodic cues

information from the music of speech

research shows that children can detect words from an…

unfamiliar language

but first language interferes

information in the input can guide infants in the task of _______ but none of this information is ____________

• segmentation

• 100% certain

This uncertainty regarding the input introduces what?

that language learning may involve more work on the child’s part specifically known as probabilistic inferences

infant research HAS tested what?

head turning toward the sound

whether infants could detect statistical patterns in speech and segment words from continuous speech stream

Explain step by step how Probabilistic theory, statistical learning and transitional probability work together

Probabilistic theory—> babies have to guess where words are by noticing patterns in speech

But how?

statistical learning—> babies notice which sounds often occur together

in pretty baby, pretty dog and pretty flower they notice “pre + tty” occur together (pretty might be a word)

transitional probability—> how likely one syllable is to follow another “pre—> tty”

inside a word sounds stay same pre—> tty

between words tty—> ba this chnages or tty—> fl

sounds that change= new word