Linguistics Colloquium | Building a Lexicon: Infants’ Early Word Learning

Wednesday, November 5, 2025 from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm

• In-person event
• 516, Southam Hall, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

Please join the Linguistics Reading Group for a colloquium with Suzanne Curtin (Brock University).

Building a Lexicon: Infants’ Early Word Learning

Although children seem to acquire new words effortlessly from complex auditory input, the underlying process is remarkably sophisticated. It involves the simultaneous integration of phonetic and phonemic information, prosodic cues, and grammatical structures. Moreover, elements of a language’s sound system—such as phonemes, syllables, and prosodic features—occur with varying frequencies and follow distinct distributional patterns in speech. In this talk, Dr. Curtin will present her body of research exploring how infants’ developing knowledge of their native language’s sound system supports and enhances their ability to learn new words.

Suzanne Curtin is Vice-Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. Dr. Curtin studies the interface between early speech perception and social communication in typically and atypically developing populations.