How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input? A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech.
Onomatopoeia are frequently identified amongst infants' earliest words (Menn & Vihman, 2011), yet few authors have considered why this might be, and even fewer have explored this phenomenon empirically. Here we analyze mothers' production of onomatopoeia in infant-directed speech (IDS) to provide an input-based perspective on these forms. Twelve mothers were recorded interacting with their 8-month-olds; onomatopoeic words (e.g. quack) were compared acoustically with their corresponding conventional words (duck). Onomatopoeia were more salient than conventional words across all features measured: mean pitch, pitch range, word duration, repetition, and pause length. Furthermore, a systematic pattern was observed in the production of onomatopoeia, suggesting a conventionalized approach to mothers' production of these words in IDS.
University of York.
Catherine E
CE
Laing
University of York.
Marilyn
M
Vihman
University of York.
Tamar
T
Keren-Portnoy
D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning