Acoustic emphasis in four year olds.
Acoustic emphasis may convey a range of subtle discourse distinctions, yet little is known about how this complex ability develops in children. This paper presents a first investigation of the factors which influence the production of acoustic prominence in young children's spontaneous speech. In a production experiment, SVO sentences were elicited from 4 year olds who were asked to describe events in a video. Children were found to place more acoustic prominence both on 'new' words and on words that were 'given' but had shifted to a more accessible position within the discourse. This effect of accessibility concurs with recent studies of adult speech. We conclude that, by age four, children show appropriate, adult-like use of acoustic prominence, suggesting sensitivity to a variety of discourse distinctions.
Wonnacott
Elizabeth
E
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 1UD, UK. elizabeth.wonnacott@psy.ox.ac.uk
Watson
Duane G
DG
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior