Tóm tắt
Stager and Werker (1997) show that fourteen-month-olds engaged in a word-learning task fail
to respond to a switch between the minimal pair [bI] and [dI], though they do respond to a switch
between [lIf] and [nim] in the same task. In this article we show that the [bI]/[dI] results extend
to stimuli that respect English phonotactics ([bIn] vs. [dIn]), to a voicing contrast ([pIn] vs. [bIn]),
and to voicing and place combined ([pIn] vs. [dIn]). Our interpretation of these results is that
when a phonological contrast like place or voicing is first acquired, it remains only partially
integrated and can be lost under the processing demands of word learning. We formalize partial
integration in terms of unranked optimality-theoretic constraints and discuss the predictions of
this account for further research.
