René Kager
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 956376 |
|---|---|
| NOME | René Kager |
| PRENOMES | René |
| SOBRENOME | Kager |
| ASSINATURA | KAGER R |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5811-839X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 41 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 86 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 40 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1986 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Cross-talker lexical tone discrimination in infancy
This study investigated how infants deal with cross-talker variability in the perception of native lexical tones, paying specific attention to developmental changes and the role of task demands. Using the habituation-based visual fixation procedures, we tested Cantonese-learning infants of different age groups on their ability to discriminate Cantonese Tone 1 (high level) and Tone 3 (mid level) produced by either multiple talkers or a single talk…
Examining Dutch children’s vocabularies across infancy and toddlerhood
Limited studies have examined demographic differences in children’s vocabulary in longitudinal samples, while there are questions regarding the duration, direction, and magnitude of these effects across development. In this longitudinal study, we included over 400 Dutch children. Caregivers filled out N-CDIs when children were 9–11 months (measuring word comprehension, word production, and gestures) and around 2–5 years of age (measuring word pro…
The role of dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' verbal and multimodal responses in predicting vocabulary outcomes
There is robust evidence that infants' gestures and vocalisations and caregivers' contingent responses predict later child vocabulary. Recent studies suggest that dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' responses are more robust predictors of children's vocabularies than these behaviors separately. Previous studies have not yet systematically compared different types of dyadic combinations. This study aimed to compare the predic…
Relating the prosody of infant-directed speech to children’s vocabulary size
This study examines correlations between the prosody of infant-directed speech (IDS) and children’s vocabulary size. We collected longitudinal speech data and vocabulary information from Dutch mother-child dyads with children aged 18 ( N = 49) and 24 ( N = 27) months old. We took speech context into consideration and distinguished between prosody when mothers introduce familiar vs. unfamiliar words to their children. The results show that IDS mea…
Avoiding stress on non-lexical material in nouns and verbs
We consider two asymmetries reported in the literature on word prosodic systems: the tendency to allow more prosodic contrast in nouns than in verbs and the tendency to avoid stress on functional material. We focus on the interaction between these two tendencies and propose a formal mechanism to handle this interaction couched in Optimality Theory. In a case study on a group of standard Serbo-Croatian varieties that have predictable stress in ver…
Perception of tones in Mandarin and Dutch adult listeners
This paper examines the nature of categorical perception (CP) effects in Mandarin and Dutch adult listeners through identification and discrimination tasks using lexical tonal contrasts and through the CP index analysis. In identification tasks, Mandarin listeners identify tones in accordance with their native tonal categories whereas Dutch listeners do so based on acoustic properties. In discrimination tasks, Dutch listeners outperform Mandarin …
Simultaneous bilinguals who do not speak a tone language show enhancement in pitch sensitivity but not in executive function
Previous studies have reported perceptual advantages, such as when discriminating non-native linguistic or musical pitch differences, among first-year infants growing up in bilingual over monolingual environments. It is unclear whether such effects should be attributed to bilinguals’ enhanced perceptual sensitivity and/or cognitive abilities, and whether such effects would extend to adulthood. Twenty-four Dutch, 24 Dutch simultaneous bilingual (D…
The effect of tone hyperarticulation in Cantonese infant-directed speech on toddlers’ word recognition in the second year of life
The acoustic properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) have been widely studied, but whether and how young learners’ language development benefits from individual properties remains to be confirmed. This study investigated whether toddlers’ word processing was affected by tone hyperarticulation in the IDS of a tone language. Nineteen- and 23-month-old Cantonese-learning toddlers completed a familiar word recognition task and were tested (a) in t…
Marginal contrast in loanword phonology
Though Dutch is usually described as lacking a voicing contrast at the velar place of articulation, due to intense language contact and heavy lexical borrowing, a contrast between /k/ and /g/ has recently been emerging. We explored the status of this contrast in Dutch speakers in both production and perception. We asked participants to produce loanwords containing a /g/ in the source language (e.g., goal) and found a range of productions, includi…
Layered feet and syllable-integrity violations
We identify evidence supporting two amendments to standard metrical theory: the inclusion of layered feet, and the allowance of syllable-integrity violations, where a foot parses some, but not all, of a syllable’s constituents. The evidence comes from a High tone spreading process attested in Copperbelt Bemba (CB), which as reported by Bickmore and Kula (2013) et seq., occurs over a ternary domain. In quintessentially metrical fashion, the domain…
The ability to use contextual cues to achieve phonological constancy emerges by 14 months
The ability to map similar sounding words to different meanings alone is far from enough for successful speech processing. To overcome variability in the speech signal, young learners must also recognize words across surface variations. Previous studies have shown that infants at 14 months are able to use variations in word-internal cues (i.e., acoustic cues within the target word) to form phonological categories and to learn words. The present s…
Language Specificity of Infant-directed Speech
Previous research indicates that infant-directed speech (IDS) is usually slower than adult-directed speech (ADS) and mothers prefer placing a focused word in isolation or utterance-final position in (English) IDS, which may benefit word learning. This study investigated the speaking rate and word position of IDS in two typologically-distinct languages: Dutch and Mandarin Chinese. We used a storybook-telling task to elicit semi-spontaneous ADS and…
Lexical and Prosodic Pitch Modifications in Cantonese Infant-directed Speech
The functions of acoustic-phonetic modifications in infant-directed speech (IDS) remain a question: do they specifically serve to facilitate language learning via enhanced phonemic contrasts (the hyperarticulation hypothesis) or primarily to improve communication via prosodic exaggeration (the prosodic hypothesis)? The study of lexical tones provides a unique opportunity to shed light on this, as lexical tones are phonemically contrastive, yet th…
Pitch properties of infant-directed speech specific to word-learning contexts
This study investigates the pitch properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) specific to word-learning contexts in which mothers introduce unfamiliar words to children. Using a semi-spontaneous story-book telling task, we examined (1) whether mothers made distinctions between unfamiliar and familiar words with pitch in IDS compared to adult-directed speech (ADS); (2) whether pitch properties change when mothers address children from 18 to 24 mont…
Linking Variation in Perception and Production in Sound Change
This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and…
Effects of bilingualism on cue weighting
The effects of bilingualism on vowel perception and cue weighting behaviour have not been established definitively. What influence does heritage bilingualism have on cue weighting of spectral and durational cues? What role does the duration cue play in cue weighting behaviour of heritage bilinguals: is it universally accessible or related to the first language
A Note on the Relationship between Grid Structure and Metrical Structure in Banawá
The stress system of Banawa ́, an endangered Arawan language spoken in the Brazilian Amazon, constitutes a puzzling case study for metrical phonology. It has been claimed that its metrical representations violate the Syllable Integrity Principle (1) (Buller, Buller, and Everett (BBE) 1993, Everett 1996, 1997), one of the core universal principles in standard metrical theory, which bans representations where a foot dis- sects a heavy syllable (e.g…
The internally layered foot in Dutch
Recent metrical studies have proposed that, under certain circumstances, a weak syllable may be adjoined to a binary foot, giving rise to a minimally recursive foot. Adding to a growing body of research from metrical stress and foot-conditioned phenomena in various languages, the goals of this paper are twofold. First, we aim at providing empirical evidence for internally layered feet based on the distribution of three foot-conditioned processes …
Layered feet laid bare in Copperbelt Bemba tone
In this paper, we identify a new type of ternarity found in bounded tone spreading in Copperbelt Bemba (Bickmore & Kula 2013).We argue that this ternarity must be metrical in nature, because it is quantity-sensitive and therefore not capturable in a straightforward counting rule.Traditional binary feet approaches to ternarity hinge on the minimal presence of unparsed syllables.However, ternarity in Copperbelt Bemba can occur in the presence of a …
Perception of a native vowel contrast by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants
Purpose: Facing previous mixed findings between monolingual and bilingual infants’ phonetic development during perceptual reorganization, the current study aims at examining the perceptual development of a native vowel contrast (/I/-/i/) by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants. Design: We tested 390 Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants from 5 to 15 months of age through a visual habituation paradigm. Data and analysis: Mixed-effect model an…
Is mommy talking to daddy or to me? Exploring parental estimates of child language exposure using the Multilingual Infant Language Questionnaire
Language input is a key factor in bi-/multilingual research. It roots in the definition of bi-/multilingualism and influences infant cognitive development since and even before birth. The methods used to assess language exposure among bi-/multilingual infants vary across studies. This paper discusses the parental report patterns of the amount/degree of exposure to their children and provides an algorithm-based Multilingual Infant Language Questio…
Is speech processing influenced by abstract or detailed phonotactic representations? The case of the Obligatory Contour Principle
The binary-to-ternary rhythmic continuum in stress typology
This article presents a novel OT analysis of ternary rhythm, using the restrictive format of McCarthy (2003)'s categorical alignment constraints, which we will refer to as ‘non-intervention constraints’, using the terminology of Ellison (1994), and argues for the rehabilitation of internally layered feet in metrical representations (i.e. feet with one layer of recursion). By means of a computer-generated factorial typology, we demonstrate that th…
Categorical phonotactic knowledge filters second language input, but probabilistic phonotactic knowledge can still be acquired
Probabilistic phonotactic knowledge facilitates perception, but categorical phonotactic illegality can cause misperceptions, especially of non-native phoneme combinations. If misperceptions induced by first language (L1) knowledge filter second language input, access to second language (L2) probabilistic phonotactics is potentially blocked for L2 acquisition. The facilitatory effects of L2 probabilistic phonotactics and categorical filtering effe…
Cross-linguistic perception of Mandarin tone sandhi
Alternatives to the iambic-trochaic law
The binary-to-ternary rhythmic continuum in stress typology
This article presents a novel OT analysis of ternary rhythm, using the restrictive format of McCarthy (2003)'s categorical alignment constraints, which we will refer to as ‘non-intervention constraints’, using the terminology of Ellison (1994), and argues for the rehabilitation of internally layered feet in metrical representations (i.e. feet with one layer of recursion). By means of a computer-generated factorial typology, we demonstrate that th…
Stress in windows
Linking Variation in Perception and Production in Sound Change
This study investigates the link between the perception and production in sound change in progress, both at the regional and the individual level. Two devoicing processes showing regional variation in Dutch are studied: the devoicing of initial labiodental fricatives and of initial bilabial stops. Five regions were selected, to represent different stages of change in progress. For each region, 20 participants took part in production (Study 1) and…
Extrametricality and stress in Spanish and Italian
Categorical phonotactic knowledge filters second language input, but probabilistic phonotactic knowledge can still be acquired
Probabilistic phonotactic knowledge facilitates perception, but categorical phonotactic illegality can cause misperceptions, especially of non-native phoneme combinations. If misperceptions induced by first language (L1) knowledge filter second language input, access to second language (L2) probabilistic phonotactics is potentially blocked for L2 acquisition. The facilitatory effects of L2 probabilistic phonotactics and categorical filtering effe…
The internally layered foot in Dutch
Recent metrical studies have proposed that, under certain circumstances, a weak syllable may be adjoined to a binary foot, giving rise to a minimally recursive foot. Adding to a growing body of research from metrical stress and foot-conditioned phenomena in various languages, the goals of this paper are twofold. First, we aim at providing empirical evidence for internally layered feet based on the distribution of three foot-conditioned processes …
Cross-linguistic perception of Mandarin tone sandhi
Layered feet and syllable-integrity violations
We identify evidence supporting two amendments to standard metrical theory: the inclusion of layered feet, and the allowance of syllable-integrity violations, where a foot parses some, but not all, of a syllable’s constituents. The evidence comes from a High tone spreading process attested in Copperbelt Bemba (CB), which as reported by Bickmore and Kula (2013) et seq., occurs over a ternary domain. In quintessentially metrical fashion, the domain…
A Note on the Relationship between Grid Structure and Metrical Structure in Banawá
The stress system of Banawa ́, an endangered Arawan language spoken in the Brazilian Amazon, constitutes a puzzling case study for metrical phonology. It has been claimed that its metrical representations violate the Syllable Integrity Principle (1) (Buller, Buller, and Everett (BBE) 1993, Everett 1996, 1997), one of the core universal principles in standard metrical theory, which bans representations where a foot dis- sects a heavy syllable (e.g…
OCP- PLACE in Speech Segmentation
OCP-Place, a cross-linguistically well-attested constraint against pairs of consonants with shared [place], is psychologically real. Studies have shown that the processing of words violating OCP-Place is inhibited. Functionalists assume that OCP arises as a consequence of low-level perception: a consonant following another with the same [place] cannot be faithfully perceived as an independent unit. If functionalist theories were correct, then lex…
Is mommy talking to daddy or to me? Exploring parental estimates of child language exposure using the Multilingual Infant Language Questionnaire
Language input is a key factor in bi-/multilingual research. It roots in the definition of bi-/multilingualism and influences infant cognitive development since and even before birth. The methods used to assess language exposure among bi-/multilingual infants vary across studies. This paper discusses the parental report patterns of the amount/degree of exposure to their children and provides an algorithm-based Multilingual Infant Language Questio…
Is speech processing influenced by abstract or detailed phonotactic representations? The case of the Obligatory Contour Principle
Schwa, Syllables, and Extrametricality in Dutch
Extrametricality and stress in Spanish and Italian
Metrical constituency and rhythmic adjustment
Over the past few years, research in metrical phonology has witnessed a shift in its main topic of investigation. Originally, attention was focused on the representation of prominence patterns of words (for example, Liberman & Prince 1977; Kiparsky 1979; Selkirk 1980; Hayes 1981), but more recently interest has arisen in several sorts of ‘rhythmic’ stress phenomena in larger domains (Prince 1983; Hayes 1984; Selkirk 1984; Hammond 1984; Giegerich …
Are there any truly quantity-insensitive systems
Alternatives to the iambic-trochaic law
On foot templates and root templates
Preview this article: On foot templates and root templates, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/avt.12.13kag-1.gif
The Prosody-Morphology Interface
In many languages, word-formation is restricted by principles of prosody that organise speech into larger units such as the syllable. Written by an international team of leading linguists in the field of prosodic morphology, this 1999 book examines a range of key issues in the interaction of word-formation and prosody. It provides an explanation for non-concatenative morphology which occurs in different forms (such as reduplication) in many langu…
Optimality Theory
This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. A surface form is 'optimal' if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. Languages differ in the ranking of constraints; and any violations must be minimal. The book does not limit its empirical scope to phonological …
Ternary rhythm and the lapse constraint
Ternary rhythmic systems differ from binary systems in stressing every third syllable in a word, rather than every second. Consider the following examples from Cayuvava (Key 1961), where stress is on every third syllable counting from the end of the word:(1) a. à.ri.hi.hí.be.e ‘I have already put the top on’b. ma.rà.ha.ha.é.i.ki ‘their blankets’c. i.ki.tà.pa.re.ré.pe.ha ‘the water is clean’Ternary rhythm is well-established for only a small group…
Introduction
If there is such a person as the average phonologist, he might have a conception of the relation between phonetics and phonology that comes close to the relation between social perceptions of crimes and a Code of Criminal Law. The Code's definition of various types of crimes and the penalty each type carries ultimately reflect, to put it crudely, the feelings of the people. Also, the Code's development will reflect social change. Criminal codes w…
Phonological constraints in speech processing
Preview this article: Phonological constraints in speech processing, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/avt.24.11kag-1.gif
Introduction
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Prosody-Morphology Interface
Phonotactics as phonology
The Dutch lexicon contains very few sequences of a long vowel followed by a consonant cluster whose second member is a non-coronal. We provide experimental evidence that Dutch speakers have implicit knowledge of this gap, which cannot be reduced to the probability of segmental sequences or to word-likeness as measured by neighbourhood density. The experiment also suggests that the ill-formedness of this sequence is mediated by syllable structure:…
Stress in windows
OCP- PLACE in Speech Segmentation
OCP-Place, a cross-linguistically well-attested constraint against pairs of consonants with shared [place], is psychologically real. Studies have shown that the processing of words violating OCP-Place is inhibited. Functionalists assume that OCP arises as a consequence of low-level perception: a consonant following another with the same [place] cannot be faithfully perceived as an independent unit. If functionalist theories were correct, then lex…
The binary-to-ternary rhythmic continuum in stress typology
This article presents a novel OT analysis of ternary rhythm, using the restrictive format of McCarthy (2003)'s categorical alignment constraints, which we will refer to as ‘non-intervention constraints’, using the terminology of Ellison (1994), and argues for the rehabilitation of internally layered feet in metrical representations (i.e. feet with one layer of recursion). By means of a computer-generated factorial typology, we demonstrate that th…
Categorical phonotactic knowledge filters second language input, but probabilistic phonotactic knowledge can still be acquired
Probabilistic phonotactic knowledge facilitates perception, but categorical phonotactic illegality can cause misperceptions, especially of non-native phoneme combinations. If misperceptions induced by first language (L1) knowledge filter second language input, access to second language (L2) probabilistic phonotactics is potentially blocked for L2 acquisition. The facilitatory effects of L2 probabilistic phonotactics and categorical filtering effe…
Cross-linguistic perception of Mandarin tone sandhi
Perception of a native vowel contrast by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants
Purpose: Facing previous mixed findings between monolingual and bilingual infants’ phonetic development during perceptual reorganization, the current study aims at examining the perceptual development of a native vowel contrast (/I/-/i/) by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants. Design: We tested 390 Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants from 5 to 15 months of age through a visual habituation paradigm. Data and analysis: Mixed-effect model an…
Is mommy talking to daddy or to me? Exploring parental estimates of child language exposure using the Multilingual Infant Language Questionnaire
Language input is a key factor in bi-/multilingual research. It roots in the definition of bi-/multilingualism and influences infant cognitive development since and even before birth. The methods used to assess language exposure among bi-/multilingual infants vary across studies. This paper discusses the parental report patterns of the amount/degree of exposure to their children and provides an algorithm-based Multilingual Infant Language Questio…
Is speech processing influenced by abstract or detailed phonotactic representations? The case of the Obligatory Contour Principle
Layered feet laid bare in Copperbelt Bemba tone
In this paper, we identify a new type of ternarity found in bounded tone spreading in Copperbelt Bemba (Bickmore & Kula 2013).We argue that this ternarity must be metrical in nature, because it is quantity-sensitive and therefore not capturable in a straightforward counting rule.Traditional binary feet approaches to ternarity hinge on the minimal presence of unparsed syllables.However, ternarity in Copperbelt Bemba can occur in the presence of a …
The internally layered foot in Dutch
Recent metrical studies have proposed that, under certain circumstances, a weak syllable may be adjoined to a binary foot, giving rise to a minimally recursive foot. Adding to a growing body of research from metrical stress and foot-conditioned phenomena in various languages, the goals of this paper are twofold. First, we aim at providing empirical evidence for internally layered feet based on the distribution of three foot-conditioned processes …
Effects of bilingualism on cue weighting
The effects of bilingualism on vowel perception and cue weighting behaviour have not been established definitively. What influence does heritage bilingualism have on cue weighting of spectral and durational cues? What role does the duration cue play in cue weighting behaviour of heritage bilinguals: is it universally accessible or related to the first language
Linguistics (36 obras) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (32 obras) · Computer Science (30 obras) · Psychology (27 obras) · Philosophy (16 obras) · Language Development and Disorders (15 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (15 obras) · Phonology (14 obras) · Mathematics (13 obras) · Speech recognition (11 obras)