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The limits of metrical segmentation: intonation modulates infants' extraction of embedded trochees*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2015

KATHARINA ZAHNER ,
MUNA SCHÖNHUBER  and
BETTINA BRAUN
KATHARINA ZAHNER*
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz
MUNA SCHÖNHUBER
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz
BETTINA BRAUN
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz
*
Address for correspondence: Katharina Zahner, University of Konstanz – Linguistics, PO Box 186, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. e-mail: katharina.zahner@uni-konstanz.de
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Abstract

We tested German nine-month-olds’ reliance on pitch and metrical stress for segmentation. In a headturn-preference paradigm, infants were familiarized with trisyllabic words (weak–strong–weak (WSW) stress pattern) in sentence-contexts. The words were presented in one of three naturally occurring intonation conditions: one in which high pitch was aligned with the stressed syllable and two misalignment conditions (with high pitch preceding vs. following the stressed syllable). Infants were tested on the SW unit of the WSW carriers. Experiment 1 showed recognition only when the stressed syllable was high-pitched. Intonation of test items (similar vs. dissimilar to familiarization) had no influence (Experiment 2). Thus, German nine-month-olds perceive stressed syllables as word onsets only when high-pitched, although they already generalize over different pitch contours. Different mechanisms underlying this pattern of results are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2016 , pp. 1338 - 1364
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

We thank Sophie Egger and Jana Schlegel for recording, acoustic analyses, recruitment of participants, and testing. We are very grateful to Janet Grijzenhout, head of the Baby Speech Laboratory at the University of Konstanz, for making available the lab's database and facilities as well as insightful comments. We also acknowledge support from an AFF research grant from the University of Konstanz awarded to Bettina Braun (FP 15/10). Further, we thank René Kager and Anne Cutler for discussion on the experiments and data, and in particular Elizabeth Johnson for sharing her invaluable HPP expertise and for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Finally, we owe special thanks to two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their suggestions and remarks.

References

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