This Article Free via Open Access: OA Full Text (PDF) Supporting Information Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Copyright Permission Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Berent, I. Articles by Smolensky, P. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Berent, I. Articles by Smolensky, P. Social Bookmarking                What's this?

PSYCHOLOGY
Language universals in human brains

Iris Berent^*,, Tracy Lennertz^*, Jongho Jun, Miguel A. Moreno^,¶, and Paul Smolensky^||

*Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991; Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea; Department of Psychology, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT 06226; ^¶Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT 06511; and ^||Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

Communicated by Roger N. Shepard, Stanford University, Tucson, AZ, February 14, 2008 (received for review August 30, 2007)

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 C₁C₂ 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.

optimality theory | phonology | sonority | syllable

Author contributions: I.B., T.L., and P.S. designed research; M.A.M. performed research; I.B. and J.J. analyzed data; and I.B. and P.S. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: iberent{at}fau.edu

© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    What's this?

Current Issue | Archives | Online Submission | Info for Authors | Editorial Board | About Subscribe | Advertise | Contact | Site Map Copyright © 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences