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Trickle-up phonetics: A vocal role for the infant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2005

John L. Locke*
Affiliation:
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York, The Bronx, NY10468

Abstract:

Falk claims that human language took a step forward when infants lost their ability to cling and were placed on the ground, increasing their fears, which mothers assuaged prosodically. This claim, which is unsupported by anthropological and psychological evidence, would have done little for the syllabic and segmental structure of language, and ignores infants' own contribution to the process.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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