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Buss E, Richter ME, Sweeney VN, Davis AG, Dillon MT, Park LR. Effect of Age and Unaided Acoustic Hearing on Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users' Ability to Distinguish Yes/No Statements and Questions. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024; 67:1932-1944. [PMID: 38748909 DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability to discriminate yes/no questions from statements in three groups of children: bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users, nontraditional CI users with aidable hearing preoperatively in the ear to be implanted, and controls with normal hearing. Half of the nontraditional CI users had sufficient postoperative acoustic hearing in the implanted ear to use electric-acoustic stimulation, and half used a CI alone. METHOD Participants heard recorded sentences that were produced either as yes/no questions or as statements by three male and three female talkers. Three raters scored each participant response as either a question or a statement. Bilateral CI users (n = 40, 4-12 years old) and normal-hearing controls (n = 10, 4-12 years old) were tested binaurally in the free field. Nontraditional CI recipients (n = 22, 6-17 years old) were tested with direct audio input to the study ear. RESULTS For the bilateral CI users, performance was predicted by age but not by 125-Hz acoustic thresholds; just under half (n = 17) of the participants in this group had measurable 125-Hz thresholds in their better ear. For nontraditional CI recipients, better performance was predicted by lower 125-Hz acoustic thresholds in the test ear, and there was no association with participant age. Performance approached that of the normal-hearing controls for some participants in each group. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that a 125-Hz acoustic hearing supports discrimination of yes/no questions and statements in pediatric CI users. Bilateral CI users with little or no acoustic hearing at 125 Hz develop the ability to perform this task, but that ability emerges later than for children with better acoustic hearing. These results underscore the importance of preserving acoustic hearing for pediatric CI users when possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Buss
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Margaret E Richter
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Victoria N Sweeney
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospitals, Omaha, NE
| | - Amanda G Davis
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Margaret T Dillon
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Lisa R Park
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Tendera A, Rispoli M, Sethilselvan A, Chon H, Loucks TM. It's Mine, . . . It's Mine: Unsolicited Repetitions Are Reduced in Toddlers. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2023; 66:734-755. [PMID: 36154743 PMCID: PMC10394958 DOI: 10.1177/00238309221119185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
A phenomenon called "repetition reduction" can increase articulation rate in adults by facilitating phonetic and motor processes, which indicates flexibility in the control of articulation rate. Young children, who speak much slower, may not have the same speech motor flexibility resulting in the absence of the repetition reduction effect. In this study, we tested whether spontaneous repetitions of young children are produced with a faster articulation rate than their original utterances. Twelve monolingual English-speaking children were observed at four time points between 2;0 and 3;0 years of age. A significant increase in articulation rate and syllable count was found using multilevel models for all utterances over the 1-year period. At each time point, however, the repeated utterances were produced significantly faster than the original utterances even though the content and syllable count differed minimally. Our findings conform to the pattern of adult studies suggesting that a "naturistic" form of repetition reduction is already present in the speech of children at 2;0 years. Although certain aspects of speech motor control are undergoing rapid development, existing motor capability at 2;0 already supports flexible changes in articulation rate including repetition reduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Tendera
- Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Matthew Rispoli
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
| | | | - Heecheong Chon
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, College of Natural Science and Public Health and Safety, Chosun University, Korea
| | - Torrey M. Loucks
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada
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Yuen I, Xu Rattanasone N, Schmidt E, Holt R, Demuth K. The acoustic realization of contrastive focus by 6-year-old Australian English-speaking children. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 152:3313. [PMID: 36586851 DOI: 10.1121/10.0016387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Children as young as five have some ability to produce contrastive focus [Wells et al. (2004) J. Child Lang. 31, 749-778]. However, adult listeners' ability to identify the location of contrastive focus depends on whether the speech came from a 4-, 7-, or 11-year-old [Patel and Brayton (2009) J. Speech. Lang. Hear. Res. 52, 790-801]. Recent acoustic studies have also reported the use of F0 vs duration in contrastive focus productions by American English-speaking 2-year-olds [Thorson and Morgan (2021) J. Child Lang. 48, 541-568] and 4-year-olds [Wonnacott and Watson (2008) Cognition 107, 1093-1101], respectively. This study, therefore, evaluated the extent to which older 6-year-olds, with more language experience, used F0 and/or duration when producing contrastive focus, and compared this to adult speech. Monosyllabic and disyllabic adjective + noun targets (e.g., green ball) in utterance medial and final position were elicited from 20 Australian English-speaking 6-year-olds and 14 adults in adjective focus and noun focus conditions. Although both adults and children used high F0, only adults consistently used word and stressed syllable duration as well. This suggests that children may master the different acoustic cues to contrastive focus at different stages of development, with late cue integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Yuen
- Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, C5A, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
| | - Nan Xu Rattanasone
- Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, C5A, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
| | - Elaine Schmidt
- Cambridge Assessment, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Rebecca Holt
- Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, C5A, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
| | - Katherine Demuth
- Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, C5A, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
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Romøren ASH, Chen A. The acquisition of prosodic marking of narrow focus in Central Swedish. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2022; 49:213-238. [PMID: 33820571 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000920000847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
We investigated how Central Swedish-speaking four to eleven-year-old children acquire the prosodic marking of narrow focus, compared to adult controls. Three measurements were analysed: placement of the prominence-marking high tone (prominence H), pitch range effects of the prominence H, and word duration. Subject-verb-object sentences were elicited in sentence-medial and sentence-final focus conditions via a semi-spontaneous elicitation task. The children largely performed in an adult-like manner already at four to five: they predominantly added prominence H to focal words and avoided this tone post-focally in both sentence-medial and sentence-final position. The placement or avoidance of prominence H had largely the same effects on pitch range for children and adults. Finally, the four to eight-year-olds also increased the duration of the focal word, similar to adults. Hence, Central Swedish-speaking children master the use of prosody for focus marking at an earlier age, compared to children acquiring a West Germanic language.
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Pronina M, Hübscher I, Vilà-Giménez I, Prieto P. Bridging the Gap Between Prosody and Pragmatics: The Acquisition of Pragmatic Prosody in the Preschool Years and Its Relation With Theory of Mind. Front Psychol 2021; 12:662124. [PMID: 34335373 PMCID: PMC8322765 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.662124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While it is well known that prosodic features are central in the conveyance of pragmatic meaning across languages, developmental research has assessed a narrow set of pragmatic functions of prosody. Research on prosodic development has focused on early infancy, with the subsequent preschool ages and beyond having received less attention. This study sets out to explore how young preschoolers develop the ability to use prosody to express pragmatic meanings while taking into account children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development. Though ToM has been suggested to be linked to the development of receptive prosody, little is known about its relationship with expressive prosodic skills. A total of 102 3- to 4-year-old Catalan-speaking children were assessed for their pragmatic prosody skills using 35 picture-supported prompts revolving around a variety of social scenarios, as well as for their ToM skills. The responses were analyzed for prosodic appropriateness. The analyses revealed that 3- to 4-year-olds successfully produced prosody to encode basic expressive acts and unbiased speech acts such as information-seeking questions. Yet they had more trouble with complex expressive acts and biased speech acts such as the ones that convey speakers' beliefs. Further analyses showed that ToM alone is not sufficient to explain children's prosodic score, but the prosodic performance in some pragmatic areas (unbiased pragmatic meanings) was predicted by the interaction between ToM and age. Overall, this evidence for the acquisition of pragmatic prosody by young preschoolers demonstrates the importance of bridging the gap between prosody and pragmatics when accounting for prosodic developmental profiles, as well as taking into account the potential influence of ToM and other socio-cognitive and language skills in this development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariia Pronina
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Iris Hübscher
- Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland
- URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ingrid Vilà-Giménez
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Subject-Specific Education, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - Pilar Prieto
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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THORSON JC, MORGAN JL. Prosodic realizations of new, given, and corrective referents in the spontaneous speech of toddlers. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2021; 48:541-568. [PMID: 34726145 PMCID: PMC8567208 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000920000434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jill C. THORSON
- University of New Hampshire, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
| | - James L. MORGAN
- Brown University, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
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Kuschmann A, Lowit A. Pausing and Sentence Stress in Children with Dysarthria due to Cerebral Palsy. Folia Phoniatr Logop 2020; 73:298-307. [PMID: 32604092 DOI: 10.1159/000508097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (CP) can experience problems manipulating intensity, fundamental frequency, and duration to signal sentence stress in an utterance. Pauses have been identified as a potential additional cue for stress-marking, which could compensate for this deficit. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine whether children use pauses to signal stress placement, and whether this differs between typically developing children and those with CP. METHODS Six children with CP and 8 typically developing children produced utterances with stresses on target words in 2 different positions. Pauses before and after the stressed target words were analyzed in terms of number, location, and duration. RESULTS Both groups inserted pauses into their utterances. However, neither group used pause location or duration in a systematic manner to signal the position of the words stressed. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that pausing was not used strategically by either group to signal sentence stress. Further research is necessary to explore the value of pausing as a cue to stress-marking in general and as a potential compensatory strategy for speakers with dysarthria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Kuschmann
- Speech and Language Therapy Department, School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom,
| | - Anja Lowit
- Speech and Language Therapy Department, School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
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Yang A, Chen A. The developmental path to adult-like prosodic focus-marking in Mandarin Chinese-speaking children. FIRST LANGUAGE 2018; 38:26-46. [PMID: 30369676 PMCID: PMC6187310 DOI: 10.1177/0142723717733920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates how children acquire prosodic focus-marking in Mandarin Chinese. Using a picture-matching game, we elicited spontaneous production of sentences in various focus conditions from children aged four to eleven. We found that Mandarin Chinese-speaking children use some pitch-related cues in some tones and duration in all tones in an adult-like way to distinguish focus from non-focus at the age of four to five. Their use of pitch-related cues is not yet fully adult-like in certain tones at the age of eleven. Further, they are adult-like in the use of duration in distinguishing narrow focus from broad focus at four or five but in not using pitch-related cues for this purpose at seven or eight. The later acquisition of pitch-related cues may be related to the use of pitch for lexical purposes, and the differences in the use of pitch in different tones can be explained by differences in how easy it is to vary pitch-related parameters without changing tonal identity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Aoju Chen
- Aoju Chen, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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Ito K, Martens MA. Contrast-marking prosodic emphasis in Williams syndrome: results of detailed phonetic analysis. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2017; 52:46-58. [PMID: 27113718 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2015] [Revised: 01/06/2016] [Accepted: 01/13/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Past reports on the speech production of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) suggest that their prosody is anomalous and may lead to challenges in spoken communication. While existing prosodic assessments confirm that individuals with WS fail to use prosodic emphasis to express contrast, those reports typically lack detailed phonetic analysis of speech data. The present study examines the acoustic properties of speech prosody, aiming for the future development of targeted speech interventions. AIMS The study examines the three primary acoustic correlates of prosodic emphasis (duration, intensity, F0) and determines whether individuals with WS have difficulty in producing all or a particular set of the three prosodic cues. METHODS & PROCEDURES Speech produced by 12 individuals with WS and 12 chronological age (CA)-matched typically developing individuals were recorded. A sequential picture-naming task elicited production of target phrases in three contexts: (1) no contrast: gorilla with a racket → rabbit with a balloon; (2) contrast on the animal: fox with a balloon → rabbit with a balloon; and (3) contrast on the object: rabbit with a ball → rabbit with a balloon. The three acoustic correlates of prosodic prominence (duration, intensity and F0) were compared across the three referential contexts. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The two groups exhibited striking similarities in their use of word duration and intensity for expressing contrast. Both groups showed the reduction and enhancement of final lengthening, and the enhancement and reduction of intensity difference for the animal contrast and for the object contrast conditions, respectively. The two groups differed in their use of F0: the CA group produced higher F0 for the animal than for the object regardless of the context, and this difference was enhanced when the animal noun was contrastive. In contrast, the WS group produced higher F0 for the object than for the animal when the object was contrastive. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The present data contradict previous assessment results that report a lack of prosodic skills to mark contrast in individuals with WS. The methodological differences that may account for this variability are discussed. The present data suggest that individuals with WS produce appropriate prosodic cues to express contrast, although their use of pitch may be somewhat atypical. Additional data and future speech comprehension studies will determine whether pitch modulation can be targeted for speech intervention in individuals with WS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kiwako Ito
- Ohio State University, Department of Linguistics; 1961 Tuttle Park Place, Ohio Stadium East 108A, Columbus, OH 43210
| | - Marilee A Martens
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University at Newark, 1179 University Dr, Newark, OH 43055
- Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University, 1581 Dodd Dr, Columbus, OH 43210
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Romøren ASH, Chen A. Quiet is the new loud: pausing and focus in child and adult Dutch. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2015; 58:8-23. [PMID: 25935935 DOI: 10.1177/0023830914563589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
In a number of languages, prosody is used to highlight new information (or focus). In Dutch, focus is marked by accentuation, whereby focal constituents are accented and post-focal constituents are de-accented. Even if pausing is not traditionally seen as a cue to focus in Dutch, several previous studies have pointed to a possible relationship between pausing and information structure. Considering that Dutch-speaking 4 to 5 year olds are not yet completely proficient in using accentuation for focus and that children generally pause more than adults, we asked whether pausing might be an available parameter for children to manipulate for focus. Sentences with varying focus structure were elicited from 10 Dutch-speaking 4 to 5 year olds and 9 Dutch-speaking adults by means of a picture-matching game. Comparing pause durations before focal and non-focal targets showed pre-target pauses to be significantly longer when the targets were focal than when they were not. Notably, the use of pausing was more robust in the children than in the adults, suggesting that children exploit pausing to mark focus more generally than adults do, at a stage where their mastery of the canonical cues to focus is still developing.
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Syrett K, Kawahara S. Production and perception of listener-oriented clear speech in child language. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2014; 41:1373-1389. [PMID: 24229575 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000913000482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we ask whether children are sensitive to the needs of their interlocutor, and, if so, whether they - like adults - modify acoustic characteristics of their speech as part of a communicative goal. In a production task, preschoolers participated in a word learning task that favored the use of clear speech. Children produced vowels that were longer, more intense, more dispersed in the vowel space, and had a more expanded F0 range than normal speech. Two perception studies with adults showed that these acoustic differences were perceptible and were used to distinguish normal and clear speech styles. We conclude that preschoolers are sensitive to aspects of the speaker-hearer relationship calling upon them to modify their speech in ways that benefit their listener.
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De Ruiter LE. How German children use intonation to signal information status in narrative discourse. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2014; 41:1015-1061. [PMID: 24274965 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000913000251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Recent research on adult German suggests that speakers use particular pitch accent types to signal the information status of discourse referents. This study investigates to what extent German five- and seven-year-olds have acquired this mapping. Semi-natural speech data was obtained from a picture-elicited narration task in which the information status was systematically varied. Surprisingly, data from an adult control group were inconsistent with the claim of a clear status-accent mapping, and demonstrated that adult scripted speech cannot be taken as a target model. However, compared with adults' unscripted speech productions, children were indeed adult-like in their information status marking. Both child groups accented new referents, but tended to deaccent given referents. Accessible referents (whose first mentions were less recent) were mostly realized like new referents. Differences between adults and children emerged in the use of intonation to structure narrations, suggesting that some functions of intonation may be acquired only later.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura E De Ruiter
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Bielefeld University - Bielefeld
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HÖHLE BARBARA, HÖRNIG ROBIN, WESKOTT THOMAS, KNAUF SELENE, KRÜGER AGNES. Effects of focus and definiteness on children's word order: evidence from German five-year-olds' reproductions of double object constructions. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2014; 41:780-810. [PMID: 23803281 PMCID: PMC4053924 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000913000196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2011] [Revised: 01/11/2012] [Accepted: 03/01/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Two experiments tested how faithfully German children aged 4 ;5 to 5 ;6 reproduce ditransitive sentences that are unmarked or marked with respect to word order and focus (Exp1) or definiteness (Exp2). Adopting an optimality theory (OT) approach, it is assumed that in the German adult grammar word order is ranked lower than focus and definiteness. Faithfulness of children's reproductions decreased as markedness of inputs increased; unmarked structures were reproduced most faithfully and unfaithful outputs had most often an unmarked form. Consistent with the OT proposal, children were more tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for focus; in conflict with the proposal, children were less tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for definiteness. Our results suggest that the linearization of objects in German double object constructions is affected by focus and definiteness, but that prosodic principles may have an impact on the position of a focused constituent.
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