title: Prosody in birdsong: A review and perspective.
abstract: Birdsong shows striking parallels with human speech. Previous comparisons between birdsong and human vocalizations focused on syntax, phonology and phonetics. In this review, we propose that future comparative research should expand its focus to include prosody, i.e. the temporal and melodic properties that extend over larger units of song. To this end, we consider the similarities between birdsong structure and the prosodic hierarchy in human speech and between context-dependent acoustic variations in birdsong and the biological codes in human speech. Moreover, we discuss songbirds' sensitivity to prosody-like acoustic features and the role of such features in song segmentation and song learning in relation to infants' sensitivity to prosody and the role of prosody in early language acquisition. Finally, we make suggestions for future comparative birdsong research, including a framework of how prosody in birdsong can be studied. In particular, we propose to analyze birdsong as a multidimensional signal composed of specific acoustic features, and to assess whether these acoustic features are organized into prosody-like structures.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80086, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: c.mol@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Carien
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mol
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Aoju
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: René W J
authors.initials: RWJ
authors.lastname: Kager
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80086, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sita M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ter Haar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D010700:Phonetics; D010898:Pitch Perception; D020308:Songbirds; D013045:Species Specificity; D013060:Speech; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: Acoustic features; Birdsong; Human speech; Prosodic hierarchy; Prosody; Vocal learning