The development and interaction of intonation with discourse during the second year of life
Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to examine the production and variability of intonation in young English learning children. From 12- to 18-months, children's intonation fluctuates in accordance with contextual variables that are not well understood. The study explored the effects of discourse context, contour direction and age on the intonation productions of 24 children (ages 12- to 23-months). Child interactions were analyzed according to two discourse categories: co-participatory and initiations. Intonation was analyzed using measures of accent range and contour inventory size. The first hypothesis predicted a main effect for discourse context. Based on predictions from Bloom, Rocissano, and Hood (1976), this hypothesis predicted that children would use more complex patterns of intonation in initiated discourse contexts. The results, however, refuted this hypothesis, indicating that the children produced more complex intonational forms in co-participatory discourse contexts than in initiated contexts. A second hypothesis predicted a main effect for age, as well as an interaction with discourse context and age. It was expected that the intonation production of the older children (18- to 23-month olds) would be less influenced by different discourse contexts than the productions of younger children. Predictions regarding main effects for age were also disproved. The data did not indicate main effects or interactions for age. The final hypotheses centered on the method of analysis that was most sensitive to intonational variability in 12- to 23-month old children. It was hypothesized that the contour inventory size measure would be more sensitive to differences in infant and toddler productions than measures of accent range. The contour inventory measure was the only analysis to reveal significant main effects for discourse contexts and contour direction. The children used more contours from their inventory when producing utterances in a co-participatory context than when producing initiations. Additionally, statistical analyses revealed that infants and toddlers used a greater number of contours from the inventory when they produced falling contours than when they produced rising contours.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Snow, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Speech therapy|Cellular biology
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