Shi, Jinyu and Gu, Yan and Vigliocco, Gabriella (2022) Prosodic modulations in child-directed language and their impact on word learning. Developmental Science, 26 (4). e13357-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13357
Shi, Jinyu and Gu, Yan and Vigliocco, Gabriella (2022) Prosodic modulations in child-directed language and their impact on word learning. Developmental Science, 26 (4). e13357-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13357
Shi, Jinyu and Gu, Yan and Vigliocco, Gabriella (2022) Prosodic modulations in child-directed language and their impact on word learning. Developmental Science, 26 (4). e13357-. DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13357
Abstract
Child-directed language can support language learning, but how? We addressed two questions: (1) how caregivers prosodically modulated their speech as a function of word familiarity (known or unknown to the child) and accessibility of referent (visually present or absent from the immediate environment); (2) whether such modulations affect children’s unknown word learning and vocabulary development. We used data from 38 English-speaking caregivers (from the ECOLANG corpus) talking about toys (both known and unknown to their children aged 3-4 years) both when the toys are present and when absent. We analyzed prosodic dimensions (i.e., speaking rate, pitch and intensity) of caregivers’ productions of 6529 toy labels. We found that unknown labels were spoken with significantly slower speaking rate, wider pitch and intensity range than known labels especially in the first mentions, suggesting that caregivers adjust their prosody based on children’s lexical knowledge. Moreover, caregivers used slower speaking rate and larger intensity range to mark first mentions of toys that were physically absent. After the first mentions they talked about the referents louder with higher mean pitch when toys were present than when toys were absent. Crucially, caregivers’ mean pitch of unknown words and the degree of mean pitch modulation for unknown words relative to known words (pitch ratio) predicted children’s immediate word learning and vocabulary size one year later. In conclusion, caregivers modify their prosody when the learning situation is more demanding for children, and these helpful modulations assist children in word learning.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | child-directed speech; infant-directed prosody; language acquisition; pitch; speaking rate; vocabulary development; word learning |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jan 2023 16:27 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 20:53 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/34136 |
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Filename: Developmental Science - 2022 - Shi - Prosodic modulations in child‐directed language and their impact on word learning.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0