Non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders have a Māori proto-lexicon
Abstract We investigate implicit vocabulary learning by adults who are exposed to a language in their ambient environment. Most New Zealanders do not speak Māori, yet are exposed to it throughout their lifetime. We show that this exposure leads to a large proto-lexicon – implicit knowledge of the ex...
Enregistré dans:
| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | article |
| Langue: | EN |
| Publié: |
Nature Portfolio
2020
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | https://doaj.org/article/e9fbcba6adda49ccb8c0c8abd7b9651d |
| Tags: |
Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
|
| Résumé: | Abstract We investigate implicit vocabulary learning by adults who are exposed to a language in their ambient environment. Most New Zealanders do not speak Māori, yet are exposed to it throughout their lifetime. We show that this exposure leads to a large proto-lexicon – implicit knowledge of the existence of words and sub-word units without any associated meaning. Despite not explicitly knowing many Māori words, non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders are able to access this proto-lexicon to distinguish Māori words from Māori-like nonwords. What's more, they are able to generalize over the proto-lexicon to generate sophisticated phonotactic knowledge, which lets them evaluate the well-formedness of Māori-like nonwords just as well as fluent Māori speakers. |
|---|