Rushen Shi
Biographic Data
| ID | 3774083 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rushen Shi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rushen |
| FAMILY NAME | Shi |
| SIGNATURE | SHI R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université du Québec à Montréal |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9353-4949 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Incremental processing of classifier-noun agreement by Mandarin-speaking toddlers: A real-time comprehension study
The knowledge of binding principles in early child grammar: Experimental evidence from 30-month-old toddlers
We investigated toddlers’ understanding of the hierarchical syntactic configurations that constrain the referential meanings of reflexives and pronouns. In particular, reflexives must co-refer with the c-commanding antecedent within the local domain (Principle A) (e.g., Hei washes himselfi. Johni knows that Billj likes himselfj.), and pronoun reference must be disjoint from its local c-commanding antecedent (Principle B) (e.g., Hei washes himj. J…
Mandarin-learning toddlers’ sensitivity to noun phrase word order: An investigation of an early bias for language universals
The current study probes Mandarin-learning toddlers’ sensitivity to two grammatical noun phrase orders differing in typological markedness. With three visual fixation experiments, we find that by age 2;6, children distinguish the cross-linguistically common order – but not the typologically rare one – from an ungrammatical order; however, their sensitivity to the two grammatical orders does not differ significantly. Further, we conduct a corpus a…
The role of input cues in acquiring unaccusative and unergative verbs: Verb learning experiments with Mandarin-speaking toddlers
Children make use of various information in linguistic input to learn verbs, including syntactic distribution and semantic features. Within the intransitive verb class, unaccusative and unergative verbs differ in distribution with respect to word order as well as in semantic features such as telicity. Both the distributional and semantic information might act as cues for learning the two types of verbs. In this study, we investigate how Mandarin-…
Mandarin-learning 19-month-old toddlers’ sensitivity to word order cues that differentiate unaccusative and unergative verbs
Languages employ different means to manifest the unaccusative-unergative distinction. In Mandarin Chinese, unaccusative verbs are allowed in the inversion construction “V- le NP”, while unergative verbs are not. This grammaticality contrast brings a presence/absence contrast between the two verb classes in the inversion construction in the input. Using an eye fixation task, we investigated whether Mandarin-learning 19-month-olds were sensitive to…
When language‐general and language‐specific processes are in conflict: The case of sub‐syllabic word segmentation in toddlers
Infants use statistics‐based word segmentation strategies from the preverbal stage. Statistical segmentation is, however, constrained by the Onset Bias, a language‐universal principle that disfavors segmentation that harms syllable integrity. Children eventually learn language‐specific exceptions to this principle. For instance, sub‐syllabic parsing occurs for vowel‐initial words in French liaison contexts, that is, when a word's final consonant …
Toddlers use functional morphemes for backward syntactic categorization
Previous studies show that infants store functional morphemes for inferring syntactic categories of adjacent words, and they generally perform better with nouns than with verbs. In this study, we tested whether toddlers can exploit phrasal groupings for syntactic categorization in the face of noisy co-occurrence patterns. Using a visual fixation procedure, we examined whether Mandarin-learning 19-month-olds can categorize word X to the left of fu…
Variable forms in French-learning toddlers’ lexical representations
We investigated toddlers' phonological representations of common vowel-initial words that can take on multiple surface forms in the input. In French, liaison consonants are inserted and are syllabified as onsets in subsequent vowel-initial words, for example, petit /t/ éléphant [little elephant]. We aimed to better understand the impact on children's early lexical representations of this frequent intrusion by consonants by testing whether toddler…
Toddlers track hierarchical structure dependence
Previous research suggests that toddlers can rely on distributional cues in the input to track adjacent and nonadjacent grammatical dependencies. It remains unclear whether toddlers understand the hierarchical phrase structures that determine the corresponding grammatical dependencies. We addressed this question by testing toddlers on two different phrase structures in French that govern distinct patterns of grammatical gender feature agreement. …
Month‐olds Exploit Verbs’ Syntactic Contexts to Build Expectations About Novel Words
During their second year of life, infants develop a rudimentary understanding of grammatical categories based on their knowledge and use of frequent function words. The current study inquired whether, at only 14 months of age, infants can track co‐occurrence patterns between function words and content words (e.g., determiners can precede nouns, and pronouns can precede verbs), and use these previously encountered syntactic contexts to build expec…
Grammatical Aspect in Early Child Mandarin: Evidence from a Preferential Looking Experiment
Perception of Similar and Dissimilar Lexical Tones by Non‐Tone‐Learning Infants
This study examined the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by non‐tone‐learning infants. We tested French‐learning 4‐, 8‐, and 11‐month‐olds on Tone 2 (rising) versus Tone 3 (dipping), the most acoustically similar contrast in Mandarin, and on Tone 1 (high) versus Tone 4 (falling), acoustically more dissimilar contrast. We hypothesized that sensitivity should decline with age for the similar contrast, and the dissimilar contrast should remain m…
Representations of abstract grammatical feature agreement in young children
A fundamental question in language acquisition research is whether young children have abstract grammatical representations. We tested this question experimentally. French-learning 30-month-olds were first taught novel word–object pairs in the context of a gender-marked determiner (e.g., un MASC ravole ‘a ravole’). Test trials presented the objects side-by-side while one of them was named in new phrases containing other determiners and an adjecti…
Distributional cues and the onset bias in early word segmentation
In previous infant studies on statistics-based word segmentation, the unit of statistical computation was always aligned with the syllabic edge, which had a consonant onset. The current study addressed whether the learning system imposes a constraint that favors word forms beginning with a consonant onset over those beginning with an onsetless sub-syllable, by examining infants' segmentation of vowel-initial non-words in French liaison. French-le…
Rule Learning in 11- and 14-Month-Old Infants
Syntactic Categorization in French‐Learning Infants
Recent work showed that infants recognize and store function words starting from the age of 6–8 months. Using a visual fixation procedure, the present study tested whether French‐learning 14‐month‐olds have the knowledge of syntactic categories of determiners and pronouns, respectively, and whether they can use these function words for categorizing novel words to nouns and verbs. The prosodic characteristics of novel words stimuli for noun versus…
Recognition and Representation of Function Words in English‐Learning Infants
We examined infants' recognition of functors and the accuracy of the representations that infants construct of the perceived word forms. Auditory stimuli were “Functor + Content Word” versus “Nonsense Functor + Content Word” sequences. Eight‐, 11‐, and 13‐month‐old infants heard both real functors and matched nonsense functors (prosodically analogous to their real counterparts but containing a segmental change). Results reveal that 13‐month‐olds …
Frequency and Category Factors in the Reduction and Assimilation of Function Words: EPG and Acoustic Measures
Newborn infants’ sensitivity to perceptual cues to lexical and grammatical words
Phonological and acoustic bases for earliest grammatical category assignment: A cross-linguistic perspective
Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother–child dyads each; ages of children between 0;11 and 1;8) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignment of words to lexical and functional item categories. Distributional, phonological, and acoustic measures were analysed. In each language, lexical and functional items (i.e. syllabic morphemes) differed significantly on numerous measures.…
Phonological and acoustic bases for earliest grammatical category assignment: A cross-linguistic perspective
Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother–child dyads each; ages of children between 0;11 and 1;8) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignment of words to lexical and functional item categories. Distributional, phonological, and acoustic measures were analysed. In each language, lexical and functional items (i.e. syllabic morphemes) differed significantly on numerous measures.…
Newborn infants’ sensitivity to perceptual cues to lexical and grammatical words
Frequency and Category Factors in the Reduction and Assimilation of Function Words: EPG and Acoustic Measures
Recognition and Representation of Function Words in English‐Learning Infants
We examined infants' recognition of functors and the accuracy of the representations that infants construct of the perceived word forms. Auditory stimuli were “Functor + Content Word” versus “Nonsense Functor + Content Word” sequences. Eight‐, 11‐, and 13‐month‐old infants heard both real functors and matched nonsense functors (prosodically analogous to their real counterparts but containing a segmental change). Results reveal that 13‐month‐olds …
Syntactic Categorization in French‐Learning Infants
Recent work showed that infants recognize and store function words starting from the age of 6–8 months. Using a visual fixation procedure, the present study tested whether French‐learning 14‐month‐olds have the knowledge of syntactic categories of determiners and pronouns, respectively, and whether they can use these function words for categorizing novel words to nouns and verbs. The prosodic characteristics of novel words stimuli for noun versus…
Rule Learning in 11- and 14-Month-Old Infants
Distributional cues and the onset bias in early word segmentation
In previous infant studies on statistics-based word segmentation, the unit of statistical computation was always aligned with the syllabic edge, which had a consonant onset. The current study addressed whether the learning system imposes a constraint that favors word forms beginning with a consonant onset over those beginning with an onsetless sub-syllable, by examining infants' segmentation of vowel-initial non-words in French liaison. French-le…
Representations of abstract grammatical feature agreement in young children
A fundamental question in language acquisition research is whether young children have abstract grammatical representations. We tested this question experimentally. French-learning 30-month-olds were first taught novel word–object pairs in the context of a gender-marked determiner (e.g., un MASC ravole ‘a ravole’). Test trials presented the objects side-by-side while one of them was named in new phrases containing other determiners and an adjecti…
Perception of Similar and Dissimilar Lexical Tones by Non‐Tone‐Learning Infants
This study examined the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by non‐tone‐learning infants. We tested French‐learning 4‐, 8‐, and 11‐month‐olds on Tone 2 (rising) versus Tone 3 (dipping), the most acoustically similar contrast in Mandarin, and on Tone 1 (high) versus Tone 4 (falling), acoustically more dissimilar contrast. We hypothesized that sensitivity should decline with age for the similar contrast, and the dissimilar contrast should remain m…
Grammatical Aspect in Early Child Mandarin: Evidence from a Preferential Looking Experiment
Toddlers track hierarchical structure dependence
Previous research suggests that toddlers can rely on distributional cues in the input to track adjacent and nonadjacent grammatical dependencies. It remains unclear whether toddlers understand the hierarchical phrase structures that determine the corresponding grammatical dependencies. We addressed this question by testing toddlers on two different phrase structures in French that govern distinct patterns of grammatical gender feature agreement. …
Month‐olds Exploit Verbs’ Syntactic Contexts to Build Expectations About Novel Words
During their second year of life, infants develop a rudimentary understanding of grammatical categories based on their knowledge and use of frequent function words. The current study inquired whether, at only 14 months of age, infants can track co‐occurrence patterns between function words and content words (e.g., determiners can precede nouns, and pronouns can precede verbs), and use these previously encountered syntactic contexts to build expec…
Variable forms in French-learning toddlers’ lexical representations
We investigated toddlers' phonological representations of common vowel-initial words that can take on multiple surface forms in the input. In French, liaison consonants are inserted and are syllabified as onsets in subsequent vowel-initial words, for example, petit /t/ éléphant [little elephant]. We aimed to better understand the impact on children's early lexical representations of this frequent intrusion by consonants by testing whether toddler…
Toddlers use functional morphemes for backward syntactic categorization
Previous studies show that infants store functional morphemes for inferring syntactic categories of adjacent words, and they generally perform better with nouns than with verbs. In this study, we tested whether toddlers can exploit phrasal groupings for syntactic categorization in the face of noisy co-occurrence patterns. Using a visual fixation procedure, we examined whether Mandarin-learning 19-month-olds can categorize word X to the left of fu…
When language‐general and language‐specific processes are in conflict: The case of sub‐syllabic word segmentation in toddlers
Infants use statistics‐based word segmentation strategies from the preverbal stage. Statistical segmentation is, however, constrained by the Onset Bias, a language‐universal principle that disfavors segmentation that harms syllable integrity. Children eventually learn language‐specific exceptions to this principle. For instance, sub‐syllabic parsing occurs for vowel‐initial words in French liaison contexts, that is, when a word's final consonant …
Mandarin-learning 19-month-old toddlers’ sensitivity to word order cues that differentiate unaccusative and unergative verbs
Languages employ different means to manifest the unaccusative-unergative distinction. In Mandarin Chinese, unaccusative verbs are allowed in the inversion construction “V- le NP”, while unergative verbs are not. This grammaticality contrast brings a presence/absence contrast between the two verb classes in the inversion construction in the input. Using an eye fixation task, we investigated whether Mandarin-learning 19-month-olds were sensitive to…
The knowledge of binding principles in early child grammar: Experimental evidence from 30-month-old toddlers
We investigated toddlers’ understanding of the hierarchical syntactic configurations that constrain the referential meanings of reflexives and pronouns. In particular, reflexives must co-refer with the c-commanding antecedent within the local domain (Principle A) (e.g., Hei washes himselfi. Johni knows that Billj likes himselfj.), and pronoun reference must be disjoint from its local c-commanding antecedent (Principle B) (e.g., Hei washes himj. J…
Mandarin-learning toddlers’ sensitivity to noun phrase word order: An investigation of an early bias for language universals
The current study probes Mandarin-learning toddlers’ sensitivity to two grammatical noun phrase orders differing in typological markedness. With three visual fixation experiments, we find that by age 2;6, children distinguish the cross-linguistically common order – but not the typologically rare one – from an ungrammatical order; however, their sensitivity to the two grammatical orders does not differ significantly. Further, we conduct a corpus a…
The role of input cues in acquiring unaccusative and unergative verbs: Verb learning experiments with Mandarin-speaking toddlers
Children make use of various information in linguistic input to learn verbs, including syntactic distribution and semantic features. Within the intransitive verb class, unaccusative and unergative verbs differ in distribution with respect to word order as well as in semantic features such as telicity. Both the distributional and semantic information might act as cues for learning the two types of verbs. In this study, we investigate how Mandarin-…
Incremental processing of classifier-noun agreement by Mandarin-speaking toddlers: A real-time comprehension study
Language Development and Disorders (20 works) · Linguistics (19 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (17 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Artificial Intelligence (12 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Mandarin Chinese (6 works) · Natural language processing (6 works)