| Title | Language universals in human brains. | | Author(s) | Berent I, Lennertz T, Jun J, Moreno MA, Smolensky P | | Institution | Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991, USA. iberent@fau.edu | | Source | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008 Apr 8; 105(14):5321-5. | | Abstract | Do speakers know universal restrictions on linguistic elements that are absent from their language? We report an experimental test of this question. Our case study concerns the universal restrictions on initial consonant sequences, onset clusters (e.g., bl in block). Across languages, certain onset clusters (e.g., lb) are dispreferred (e.g., systematically under-represented) relative to others (e.g., bl). We demonstrate such preferences among Korean speakers, whose language lacks initial C(1)C(2) clusters altogether. Our demonstration exploits speakers' well known tendency to misperceive ill-formed clusters. We show that universally dispreferred onset clusters are more frequently misperceived than universally preferred ones, indicating that Korean speakers consider the former cluster-type more ill-formed. The misperception of universally ill-formed clusters is unlikely to be due to a simple auditory failure. Likewise, the aversion of universally dispreferred onsets by Korean speakers is not explained by English proficiency or by several phonetic and phonological properties of Korean. We conclude that language universals are neither relics of language change nor are they artifacts of generic limitations on auditory perception and motor control-they reflect universal linguistic knowledge, active in speakers' brains. | | Language | eng | | Pub Type(s) | Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
| | PubMed ID | 18391198 |
|
