Child Language Lab
The research described below has been carried out at the Child Language Lab in Nijmegen. This lab specialized in production and perception studies with older children.
Children received a small present for participation, such as a T-shirt, a bear or a handpuppet. 
This present is made in Bangladesh , and is part of a program to support women.
Information can be found on http://www.surjomukhi.net/
This project was supported by SUMU.
Studies and Research Goals
Our research interest is in the learning systems that allow humans to acquire language and the nature of the representations for sounds and words in our mental lexicon. We investigate this through experiments looking at how children learn to perceive and produce language. By looking at the development of sound patterns and words, we can understand how language is learned, and how young language learners represent language. There are a number of current studies running in the lab, looking at various aspects of language development.
Perception and production of phonotactic probabilities.
Interactions between segmental and
prosodic structure.
Acquisition of stress patterns.
Interactions between phonological and syntactic development
(with Diane Ohala).
Cluster
acquisition
Frequency and place of articulation in lexical
development.
Phonotactics and morpho-phonological acquisition (Annemarie
Kerkhoff).
Members
The Child Language Lab was developed and is co-directed by Paula Fikkert and Tania Zamuner. We collaborate closely with the Baby Research Center. Funding comes from the VIMP grant awarded to Paula Fikkert and the VENI grant awared to Tania Zamuner.
| Paula
Fikkert Principle Investigator  |
Tania
Zamuner Principle Investigator  |
| Ellen
Westrek Lab Manager and Research Assistant .jpg) |
Gerieke
Wijers Research Assistant  |
| with
Annemarie Kerkhoff Collaborator, Utrecht University  |
Claartje Levelt Collaborator, Leiden University  |
| Diane Ohala Collaborator |
Marleen
van de Avoird alumni Research Assistant |
Representative Publications and Presentations
Fikkert,
P., Heugten, M. van, Offermans, P., & Zamuner, T.S.
(2005). Rhymes as a window into grammar. In A. Brugosl, M. R. Clark-Cotton, & S.
Ha (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29 th Boston University Conference
on Language Development Vol. 1. (pp. 204-215). Somerville, MA:
Cascadilla Press.
Fikkert, P., Levelt, C., & Zamuner,
T.S. (2005, October). Learning underlying forms: Evidence from
child perception. Paper presented at the North East Linguistic
Society (NELS) 36, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Zamuner, T.S. (2005, May). Phonotactics and Phonological
Acquisition . Invited talk. School of Communication Sciences
and Disorders. University of Western Ontario, London .
Zamuner, T.S. (in press). Sensitivity to word-final phonotactics
in 9- to 16-month-old infants. Infancy.
Zamuner,
T.S., Kerkhoff, A., & Fikkert,
P. (2006 ). Acquisition of voicing neutralization and alternations
in Dutch. Proceedings of the 30 th Boston University Conference
on Language Development, Boston, MA.
Zamuner, T.S., Kerkhoff, A., Fikkert, P., Westrek, E. (2005, July).
Dutch children's acquisition of morpho-phonological alternations
in plural formation. Poster presented at the Xth International
Congress for the Study of Child Language, Berlin, Germany.
This lab is linked to the Baby Research Center
Onderzoeksresultaten (populair wetenschappelijk)
Het
meervoud van slad is ... (klik
hier)
Hoe
slaan kinderen woorden op (klik
hier)
Recent research from other labs can be found on:
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml http://noorderlicht.vpro.nl/noorderlog/bericht/28362393/