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Prosodic realizations of new, given, and corrective referents in the spontaneous speech of toddlers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Jill C. THORSON  and
James L. MORGAN
Jill C. THORSON*
Affiliation:
University of New Hampshire, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
James L. MORGAN
Affiliation:
Brown University, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
*
*Corresponding author: University of New Hampshire, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 4 Library Way, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824, USA; Email: jill.thorson@unh.edu
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Abstract

Our motivation was to examine how toddler (2;6) and adult speakers of American English prosodically realize information status categories. The aims were three-fold: 1) to analyze how adults phonologically make information status distinctions; 2) to examine how these same categories are signaled in toddlers’ spontaneous speech; and 3) to analyze the three primary acoustic correlates of prosody (F0, intensity, and duration). During a spontaneous speech task designed as an interactive game, a set of target nouns was elicited as one of three types (new, given, corrective). Results show that toddlers primarily used H* across information status categories, with secondary preferences for deaccenting given information and for using L+H* for corrective information. Only duration distinguished information status, and duration, average pitch, and intensity differentiated pitch accent types for both adults and children. Discussion includes how pitch accent selection and input play a role in guiding prosodic realizations of information status.

Keywords

prosodyacoustic-phoneticsfirst language acquisitioninformation status
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 541 - 568
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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