The given-new contract in speech to infants  

Oleh:

Tokura, Hisayo ; Fisher, Cynthia

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of Memory and Language (Full Text) vol. 34 no. 3 (Jun. 1995), page 287-310.
Fulltext: 34_03_Fisher_Tokura.pdf (1.65MB)

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan PKBB Nomor Panggil: 405/JML/34 Non-tandon: tidak ada Tandon: 1

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This study examined the interaction of two sets of speaker practices which are useful to listeners-the acoustic reduction of given as opposed to new words in speech and the acoustic and grammatical modifications typical of speech to infants. English-speaking mothers described a puppet show to their l4-month-old infants and to an adult. This task elicited the repeated use of a common set of target words in spontaneous utterances. First- and second-mentioned target words differed in similar ways in infant- and adult-directed speech: Repeated words were shorter, quieter, lower-pitched, and less variable in pitch than first mentioned words. Repeated words were also placed in less prominent positions relative to other words in the same utterance: That is, they were less likely than new words to be utterance-final, to receive sentence stress, and to occur on an utterance pitch peak. Thus, the attenuation of given information in speech appears insensitive to large differences in the speaker's view of the listener's sophistication. We suggest that some of the benefits of the distinction between given and new words might be available to the infant listener: The acoustic difference between given and new words might serve to automatically attract infants' attention to new words at the expense of background information. @ 1995 Academic Press. Inc.

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