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Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Catherine Best, Chair in Psycholinguistic Research, MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney

PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE TO 3:00 PM from the originally posted time of 1:30 pm

Location: Room 501, Goodman Cancer Centre, 鲍鱼直播 at 1160 av des Pins ouest

Abstract:
The phonetic patterns of ambient speech provide the raw materials for infants to discover the principles of their native language. By 10-12 months they show attunement to phonetic variations that are relevant in their language, and declining sensitivity to distinctions that are irrelevant to it, laying the cornerstone for mature listeners鈥� rapid and automatic recognition of native words. But what makes a phonetic distinction 鈥榬elevant鈥� versus 鈥榠rrelevant?鈥�

The answer lies in how listeners relate the phonetic details of a word to its phonological structure, while taking into account the extensive phonetic variations in a given word across talkers, speech styles, and regional accents. Those phonetic variations are not 鈥渘oise,鈥� instead providing crucial information about two complementary principles that together define the phonological structure of words. One principle is phonological distinctiveness, which refers to language-specific minimal contrasts that meaningfully distinguish otherwise identical spoken forms. The complementary principle is phonological constancy, which permits listeners to recognize a word across talker and accent differences. A spoken word鈥檚 structure is co-defined by the phonetic variations that alter its phonological form and those that leave it intact.

Discovering the balance between those two sides of native speech variability requires both episodic and abstract learning, which moves the child beyond attunement and into the realm of word recognition, and provides the foundation for adults' rapid, automatic recognition of native language words.

Bio:
Dr. Catherine Best is the Chair in Psycholinguist Research at the MARCS Institute, University of West Sydney. Her research and theoretical work has focused primarily on how adults鈥� and infants鈥� experience with their native language shapes their perception and production of the phonological elements of spoken words, including consonants, vowels, lexical tones and prosodic patterns. She has applied this theme broadly, investigating perception and production of spoken language in populations including second language learners and bilinguals, as well as children with language difficulties. Her research spans different modes and elements of human language, including sign language and facial expression. She also examines culture-specific characteristics of music.