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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 213-238 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Journal of Child Language |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 6 Apr 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Keywords
- Central Swedish
- acquisition
- development
- focus marking
- prosody