Intonation targets of yes/no questions by Spanish and German monolingual and bilingual children
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Conxita Lleó
Abstract
Yes/no interrogative utterances in German and Spanish exhibit four comparable intonation points: a first peak, a falling F0, an L and a final H. However, there are differences regarding the alignment and scaling of H and L tones across the two languages. Yes/no questions by German and Spanish monolinguals and German-Spanish bilinguals aged 2;0 and 3;0 are analyzed, with the aim of finding out whether children at these ages have already acquired the intonation contours of yes/no questions. Results show that monolingual children already produce both the F0 contours and the alignment of the four crucial points before 3;0, whereas bilinguals correctly produce the contours, but some of them tend to not differentiate alignment and/or scaling in the two languages.
Abstract
Yes/no interrogative utterances in German and Spanish exhibit four comparable intonation points: a first peak, a falling F0, an L and a final H. However, there are differences regarding the alignment and scaling of H and L tones across the two languages. Yes/no questions by German and Spanish monolinguals and German-Spanish bilinguals aged 2;0 and 3;0 are analyzed, with the aim of finding out whether children at these ages have already acquired the intonation contours of yes/no questions. Results show that monolingual children already produce both the F0 contours and the alignment of the four crucial points before 3;0, whereas bilinguals correctly produce the contours, but some of them tend to not differentiate alignment and/or scaling in the two languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. (2)L1 versus L2 versus child L2
- ‘Acquisition’ in grammatical development 19
- Tense and Aspect in early French development in aL2, 2L1 and cL2 learners 47
- Subject clitics in child L2 acquisition of French 75
- Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition 105
-
Part II. The acquisition of sentence structure and functional categories
- The developmental pathway of nominal functional categories in early child Mandarin 125
- The emergence of CP in child Basque 151
- Some directions for the systematic investigation of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek 179
- Strict Interfaces and three kinds of Multiple Grammar 205
-
Part III. Autonomous development vs. crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition
- Delay and acceleration in bilingual first language acquisition 231
- Intonation targets of yes/no questions by Spanish and German monolingual and bilingual children 263
- Perception of German vowels by bilingual Portuguese-German returnees 287
-
Part IV. Language acquisition, language contact and diachronic change
- Acquisition in the context of language change 309
- On the diachronic reanalysis of null subjects and null objects in Brazilian Portuguese 331
- On the decrease in subject-verb inversion in French declaratives 355
- On the relation between acceptability and frequency 383
- Name index 405
- Subject index 409
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. (2)L1 versus L2 versus child L2
- ‘Acquisition’ in grammatical development 19
- Tense and Aspect in early French development in aL2, 2L1 and cL2 learners 47
- Subject clitics in child L2 acquisition of French 75
- Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition 105
-
Part II. The acquisition of sentence structure and functional categories
- The developmental pathway of nominal functional categories in early child Mandarin 125
- The emergence of CP in child Basque 151
- Some directions for the systematic investigation of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek 179
- Strict Interfaces and three kinds of Multiple Grammar 205
-
Part III. Autonomous development vs. crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition
- Delay and acceleration in bilingual first language acquisition 231
- Intonation targets of yes/no questions by Spanish and German monolingual and bilingual children 263
- Perception of German vowels by bilingual Portuguese-German returnees 287
-
Part IV. Language acquisition, language contact and diachronic change
- Acquisition in the context of language change 309
- On the diachronic reanalysis of null subjects and null objects in Brazilian Portuguese 331
- On the decrease in subject-verb inversion in French declaratives 355
- On the relation between acceptability and frequency 383
- Name index 405
- Subject index 409
