?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=Language+discrimination+by+newborns%3A+Teasing+apart+phonotactic%2C+rhythmic%2C+and+intonational+cues&rft.creator=Ramus%2C+Franck&rft.subject=Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Developmental+Psychology&rft.subject=Phonology&rft.subject=Perceptual+Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Psycholinguistics&rft.description=Speech+rhythm+has+long+been+claimed+to+be+a+useful+bootstrapping+cue+in+the+very+first+steps+of+language+acquisition.+Previous+studies+have+suggested+that+newborn+infants+do+categorize+varieties+of+speech+rhythm%2C+as+demonstrated+by+their+ability+to+discriminate+between+certain+languages.+However%2C+the+existing+evidence+is+not+unequivocal%3A+in+previous+studies%2C+stimuli+discriminated+by+newborns+always+contained+additional+speech+cues+on+top+of+rhythm.+Here%2C+we+conducted+a+series+of+experiments+assessing+discrimination+between+Dutch+and+Japanese+by+newborn+infants%2C+using+a+speech+resynthesis+technique+to+progressively+degrade+non-rhythmical+properties+of+the+sentences.+When+the+stimuli+are+resynthesized+using+identical+phonemes+and+artificial+intonation+contours+for+the+two+languages%2C+thereby+preserving+only+their+rhythmic+and+broad+phonotactic+structure%2C++newborns+still+seem+to+be+able+to+discriminate+between+the+two+languages%2C+but+the+effect+is+weaker+than+when+intonation+is+present.+This+leaves+open+the+possibility+that+the+temporal+correlation+between+intonational+and+rhythmic+cues+might+actually+facilitate+the+processing+of+speech+rhythm.&rft.publisher=John+Benjamins&rft.contributor=Santelmann%2C+Lynn&rft.contributor=Verrips%2C+Maaike&rft.contributor=Wijnen%2C+Frank&rft.date=2002&rft.type=Journal+(On-line%2FUnpaginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2274%2F3%2Fnewborns01web.pdf&rft.identifier=++Ramus%2C+Franck++(2002)+Language+discrimination+by+newborns%3A+Teasing+apart+phonotactic%2C+rhythmic%2C+and+intonational+cues.++%5BJournal+(On-line%2FUnpaginated)%5D++++(In+Press)++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2274%2F