Asymmetries in Early Word Recognition: The Case of Stops and Fricatives

Abstract

Toddlers' discrimination of native phonemic contrasts is generally unproblematic. Yet using those native contrasts in word learning and word recognition can be more challenging. In this article, we investigate perceptual versus phonological explanations for asymmetrical patterns found in early word recognition. We systematically investigated the use of two types of phonological contrasts in toddlers' word recognition: manner and place of articulation. Ninety-six Dutch 18- and 25-month-olds were tested in a mispronunciation detection task. We show that 18-month-olds are sensitive to changes from fricative to stop, but not from stop to fricative, while 25-month-olds are able to detect changes in both directions. Confirming earlier findings on perceptual asymmetries, we find a similar asymmetrical pattern for mispronunciations involving labials and coronals at 18 months of age. We argue that the observed asymmetries reflect the nature of phonological representations used for word recognition at different stages of development.