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Chapter 12. Early development of the prosody-meaning interface

  • Núria Esteve-Gibert and Pilar Prieto

Abstract

This chapter reviews evidence on how infants up to 18 months of age develop the ability to use prosody as a sign of the expression of pragmatic meanings, from both a comprehension and a production point of view. Developmental research reveals that pre-lexical infants use prosodic information not only to comprehend emotions in the speech of their communicative partners, the intentional value of the partners’ speech, and their speech act motivation, but also to express these same pragmatic meanings when they communicate with others. In essence, before the emergence of lexical and grammatical skills, infants use prosody to communicate intentionally with the world around them.

Abstract

This chapter reviews evidence on how infants up to 18 months of age develop the ability to use prosody as a sign of the expression of pragmatic meanings, from both a comprehension and a production point of view. Developmental research reveals that pre-lexical infants use prosodic information not only to comprehend emotions in the speech of their communicative partners, the intentional value of the partners’ speech, and their speech act motivation, but also to express these same pragmatic meanings when they communicate with others. In essence, before the emergence of lexical and grammatical skills, infants use prosody to communicate intentionally with the world around them.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Early sensitivity to prosody
  5. Chapter 2. Early perception of phrasal prosody and its role in syntactic and lexical acquisition 17
  6. Chapter 3. Early sensitivity and acquisition of prosodic patterns at the lexical level 37
  7. Chapter 4. The role of prosody in early word learning 59
  8. Chapter 5. The role of prosody in early speech segmentation and word-referent mapping 79
  9. Part 2. Learning to produce prosody
  10. Chapter 6. Set in time 103
  11. Chapter 7. Speech rhythm in development 125
  12. Chapter 8. Early development of intonation 145
  13. Chapter 9. Prosodic phonology in acquisition 165
  14. Chapter 10. The development of prosodic structure 185
  15. Chapter 11. Understanding the development of prosodic words 207
  16. Part 3. Moving to meaning: Prosody and pragmatic development
  17. Chapter 12. Early development of the prosody-meaning interface 227
  18. Chapter 13. Gradual development of focus prosody and affect prosody comprehension 247
  19. Chapter 14. Children’s development of internal state prosody 271
  20. Chapter 15. Get the focus right across languages 295
  21. Part 4. Prosody in bilingualism and in specific populations
  22. Chapter 16. Bilingual children’s prosodic development 317
  23. Chapter 17. Prosodic development in atypical populations 343
  24. Index 363
The Development of Prosody in First Language Acquisition
This chapter is in the book The Development of Prosody in First Language Acquisition
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.23.12est

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Early sensitivity to prosody
  5. Chapter 2. Early perception of phrasal prosody and its role in syntactic and lexical acquisition 17
  6. Chapter 3. Early sensitivity and acquisition of prosodic patterns at the lexical level 37
  7. Chapter 4. The role of prosody in early word learning 59
  8. Chapter 5. The role of prosody in early speech segmentation and word-referent mapping 79
  9. Part 2. Learning to produce prosody
  10. Chapter 6. Set in time 103
  11. Chapter 7. Speech rhythm in development 125
  12. Chapter 8. Early development of intonation 145
  13. Chapter 9. Prosodic phonology in acquisition 165
  14. Chapter 10. The development of prosodic structure 185
  15. Chapter 11. Understanding the development of prosodic words 207
  16. Part 3. Moving to meaning: Prosody and pragmatic development
  17. Chapter 12. Early development of the prosody-meaning interface 227
  18. Chapter 13. Gradual development of focus prosody and affect prosody comprehension 247
  19. Chapter 14. Children’s development of internal state prosody 271
  20. Chapter 15. Get the focus right across languages 295
  21. Part 4. Prosody in bilingualism and in specific populations
  22. Chapter 16. Bilingual children’s prosodic development 317
  23. Chapter 17. Prosodic development in atypical populations 343
  24. Index 363
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