Groupe de recherche sur le langage/Language research group

Director/Directrice: Prof. Rushen Shi

Research

Our research questions include how infants and young children develop their linguistic representations, such as the acquisition of phonetic categories, early word recognition, the learning of meaning, and initial analyses of morpho-syntactic structures. We attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying language acquisition and the interaction between the input and the grammar.

The methodology we use includes measures of children's headturn and visual responses (with preferential looking procedures and an eyetracker) during speech language comprehension, analyses of parent-child speech interaction, and neural network modeling of language development/processing. We also conduct perception and production experiments with adults.

Emond, E. & Shi, R. (2024). The knowledge of binding principles in early child grammar: Experimental evidence from 30-month-old toddlers. Language Acquisition, 1-29. [article]

Shi, R. & Emond, E. (2023). The threshold of rule productivity in infants. Frontiers in Psychology. 14:1251124. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251124 [article]

Wang, Z., Yang, X., & Shi, R. (In press). Mandarin-learning 19-month-old toddlers’ sensitivity to the unaccusative-unergative distinction. Journal of Child Language. [article]

Babineau, M., Emond, E., & Shi, R. (2023). When language-general and language-specific processes are in conflict: The case of sub-syllabic word segmentation in toddlers. Infancy. 28(2), 301-321. [article]

Ying, Y., Yang, X., & Shi, R. (2022). Toddlers use functional morphemes for backward syntactic categorization. First Language, 42(3), 448-465. [article]

Shi, R. & Massicotte-Laforge, S. (2022). The optimal period for learning new function words in children. BUCLD 46, Vol. 2, 713-725. [abstract] [article]

Babineau, M., Legrand, C., & Shi, R. (2021). Variable forms in French-learning toddlers' lexical representations. Developmental Psychology, 57(4), 457-470. [article]

Xu, J., Yang, X., & Shi, R. (2021). Complement control in early child grammar: A study of Mandarin-speaking two-year-olds’ comprehension. BUCLD 45, Vol. 2, 776-789. [article]

Miao, M., Yang, X., & Shi, R. (2020). Mandarin-learning two-year-olds' online processing of classifier-noun agreement. BUCLD 44, Vol. 2, 390-401. [article]

Shi, R., Legrand, C., & Brandenberger, A. (2020). Toddlers track hierarchical structure dependence. Language Acquisition, 27(4), 397-409. [article]

Shi, R., Emond, E., & Badri, S. (2020). Hierarchical structure dependence in infants at the early stage of syntactic acquisition. In Proceedings of the 44th Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, Vol. 2, 572-585. [abstract] [article]

Babineau, M., Shi, R., & Christophe, A. (2020). 14-month-olds exploit verbs’ syntactic contexts to build expectations about novel words. Infancy, 25(5), 719-733. [article]

Massicotte-Laforge, S. & Shi, R. (2020). Is prosody information alone sufficient for guiding early grammatical acquisition? Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 147(3), EL295-300. [article]

Koulaguina, E. & Shi, R. (2019). Rule generalization from inconsistent input in early infancy. Language Acquisition. 26(4), 416-435. [article]

Massicotte-Laforge, S. & Shi, R. (2018). Phrasal prosody and syntactic knowledge in infants below two years of age. BUCLD 42, Vol. 2, 518-531. [abstract] [article]

Yang, X., Shi, R., & Xu, K. (2018). Grammatical aspect in early child Mandarin: Evidence from a preferential looking experiment. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 47(6), 1301-1320. [article]

Shi, R., Gao, J., Achim, A., & Li, A. (2017). Perception and representation of lexical tones in native Madarin-learning infants and toddlers. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:1117. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01117. [article]

Shi, R., Santos, E., Gao, J., & Li, A. (2017) Perception of similar and dissimilar lexical tones by non-tone-learning infants. Infancy. doi: 10.1111/infa.1219110. [article]

Babineau, M., Shi, R., & Achim A. (2017). Contextual factors in lexical processing: The case of French liaison. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32(4), 457-470. [article]

Babineau, M. & Shi, R. (2016). Development of liaison representation and its top-down influence on word processing in infants. Language Learning and Development. 12(4), 482-498. [article]

Massicotte-Laforge, S. & Shi, R. (2015). The role of prosody in infants' early syntactic analysis and grammatical categorization. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 138(4), E441-446. [article]

Melançon, A., & Shi, R. (2015). Representations of abstract gender feature agreement in French-learning young children. Journal of Child Language, 42,1379-1393. [article]

Zhang, Z., Shi, R., & Li, A. (2015). Grammatical categorization in Mandarin-Chinese-learning infants. Language Acquisition. 22(1),104-115.[article]

Marquis, A., & Shi, R. (2015). The beginning of morphological learning: Evidence from verb morpheme processing in preverbal infants. In R. de Almeida & C. Manouilidou (Eds.), Verb Concepts: Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing (pp. 279-295), Springer International Publishing Switzerland. [article]

Shi, R. (2014). Functional morphemes and early language acquisition. Child Development Perspective, 8, 6-11. [article]

Babineau, M., & Shi, R. (2014). Distributional cues and the onset bias in early word segmentation. Developmental Psychology, 50(12),2666-2674. [article]

Cyr, M., & Shi, R. (2013). Development of abstract grammatical categorization in infants. Child Development, 84(2), 617-629.[article]

Koulaguina, E., & Shi, R. (2013). Abstract rule learning in 11- and 14-month-old infants. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 42(1), 71-80. [article]

Robertson, E., Shi, R., & Melançon, A. (2012). Toddlers use the number feature in determiners during online noun comprehension. Child Development, 83(6), 2007-2018.

Marquis, A., & Shi, R. (2012). Initial morphological learning in preverbal infants. Cognition, 122, 61-66. [article]

Gauthier, B., & Shi, R. (2011). A connectionist study on the role of pitch in infant-directed speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(6), EL380-EL386.

Li, A., Shi, R., & Zhang, Z. (2011). Prosodic properties of verbs and nouns in infant-directed Mandarin Chinese. Studies of the Chinese Language (ZHONGGUO YUWEN), 344, 387-397. [article] [English abstract]

Babineau, M., & Shi, R. (2011). Processing of French liaisons in toddlers. In BUCLD 35: Proceedings of the 35th annual Boston University conference on language development. Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press, Vol. 1, 25-37. [abstract] [article]

Melançon, A., & Shi, R. (2011). Online compréhension of newly learned nouns and abstract knowledge of grammatical gender. In BUCLD 35: Proceedings of the 35th annual Boston University conference on language development. Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press, Vol. 2, 453-465. [abstract] [article]

Van Heugten, M. & Shi, R. (2010). Infants’ sensitivity to non-adjacent dependencies across phonological phrase boundaries. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, EL223-EL228. [article]

Shi, R., & Melançon, A. (2010). Syntactic categorization in French-learning infants. Infancy, 15(5), 517-533. [article]

Shi, R., & Cyr, M. (2010). Processing of morphological variation in toddlers. In K. Franich, K.M. Iserman, & L.L. Keil (Eds.), BUCLD 34: Proceedings of the 34th annual BostonUniversity conference on language development.Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press, Vol. 2, 363-374. [article] [abstract]

Cyr, M., & Shi, R. (2010). Grammatical gender categorization in infants. In K. Franich, K.M. Iserman, & L.L. Keil (Eds.), BUCLD 34: Proceedings of the 34th annual BostonUniversity conference on language development.Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press, Vol. 1, 102-113. [article] [abstract]

Koulaguina, E., & Shi, R. (2010). The mechanism underlying the learning of rules and exceptions in 14-month-old infants. In J. Chandlee, K. Franich, K.M. Iserman, & L.L. Keil (Eds.), A Supplement to the Proceedings of the 34rd Boston University Conference on Language Development, 1-13. [article] [abstract]

Li A., Shi, R., & Hua, W. (2010). Prosodic cues to noun and verb categories in infant-directed Mandarin speech. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Speech Prosody. [article]

Shi, R. (2009). Contextual variability and infants’ perception of tonal categories. Chinese Journal of Phonetics, 2, 1-9. [article]

Gauthier, B., Shi, R., & Xu, Y. (2009). Learning prosodic focus from continuous speech input: A neural network exploration. Language Learning and Development, 5(2), 94-114.[article]

Marquis, A., &, Shi, R. (2009). The recognition of verb roots & bound morphemes when vowel alternations are at play. In J. Chandlee, M. Franchini, S. Lord, & G.-M. Rheiner (Eds.), A Supplement to the Proceedings of the 33rd Boston University Conference on Language Development.

Shi, R., & Marquis, A. (2009). Mechanisms of segmentation and morphological learning in infants. In BUCLD 33: Proceedings of the 33rd annual Boston University conference on language development. Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press. [article]

Van Heugten, M., & Shi, R. (2009). French-learning toddlers use gender information on determiners during word recognition. Developmental Science, 12(3), 419-425[article]

Marquis, A. & Shi, R. (2008). Segmentation of verb forms in preverbal infants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 123 (4), EL105-EL110. [article]

Shi, R., & Lepage, M. (2008). The effect of functional morphemes on word segmentation in preverbal infants.Developmental Science. 11 (3), 407-413. [article]

Shi, R., & Moisan, A. (2008). Prosodic cues to noun and verb categories in infant-directed-speech. In BUCLD 32: Proceedings of the 32th annual Boston University conference on language development. Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press .[article] [abstract]

Gauthier, B., Shi, R., & Xu, Y. (2007). Simulating the acquisition of lexical tones from continuous dynamic input. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 121 (5), EL190-EL195. [article]

Gauthier, B., Shi, R., & Xu, Y. (2007). Learning phonetic categories by tracking movements. Cognition, 103 (1), pp.80-106. [article]

Shi, R. (2007). Infants recognition of function words in continuous speech. In The Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Science.[article]

Shi, R., Werker, J., & Cutler, A. (2006). Recognition and representation of function words in English-learning infants. Infancy, 10 (2), 187-198. [article]

Shi, R. (2006). Basic syntactic categories in early language development: Evidence from neural network simulations and infant perceptual experiments. Dans L. Ping, E. Bates, L. Hai Tan, & O. Tseng (Eds.), Handbook of East Asian psycholinguistics. Cambridge: University Press.

Shi, R., Cutler, A., Werker, J., & Cruickshank, M. (2006). Frequency and form as determinants of functor sensitivity in English-acquiring infants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119 (6), EL61-EL67. [article]

Shi, R., Marquis, A., & Gauthier, B. (2006). Segmentation and representation of function words in preverbal French-learning infants. Dans D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University conference on language development, vol. 2 (pp. 549-560). Boston, MA, É-U: Cascadilla Press. [article]

Gauthier, B., Shi, R., & Xu, Y. (2006). Variable input and the discovery of lexical tones in infants: A connectionist approach. Dans D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University conference on language development, vol. 1 (pp. 202-212). Boston, MA, É-U: Cascadilla Press.

Church, R., Bernhardt, B., Pichora-Fuller, K., & Shi, R. (2005). Infant-directed speech: Final syllable lengthening and rate of speech. Canadian Acoustics, 33 (4), 13-20. [article]

Gauthier, B., Shi, R., & Xu, Y. (2005). Recognising tones by tracking movements – How infants may develop tonal categories from adult speech input. Dans V. Dellwo (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCA workshop on plasticity in speech perception (pp. 72-75). Londres, Angleterre: UCL Publications. [article]

Shi, R. (2005). Early syntactic categories in infants. Dans H. Cohen, & C. Lefebvre, (Eds.), Handbook of categorisation in cognitive science (pp. 481-495). Elsevier. [article]

Shi, R., Gick, B., Kanwischer, D., & Wilson, I. (2005). Frequency and category factors in the reduction and assimilation of function words: EPG and acoustic measures. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34(4), 341-364. [article]

Shi, R., Werker, J., & Cutler, A. (2003). Function words in early speech perception. Dans The Proceedings of the 15th international congress of phonetic sciences. [article]

Shi, R., & Werker, J. (2003). Basis of preference for lexical words in six-month-old infants. Developmental Science, 6(5), 484-488. [article]

Shi, R., & Werker, J. (2001). Six-month-old infants’ preference for lexical words. Psychological Science, 12(1), 70-75. [article]

Shi, R., Werker, J., & Morgan, J. (1999). Newborn infants' sensitivity to perceptual cues to lexical and grammatical words. Cognition, 72, B11-21. [article]

Shi, R., Morgan, J., & Allopenna, P. (1998). Phonological and acoustic bases for earliest grammatical category assignment: A cross‑linguistic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 25, 169-201. [article]

Werker, J., Shi, R., Desjardins, R., Pegg, J., Polka, L., & Patterson, M. (1998). Three methods for testing infant speech perception. Dans A. Slater (Ed.), Perceptual development in infancy. Londres: UCL Press.