An acoustic analysis of young children’s productions of word stress

Pollock, Karen; Brammer, Diane M.; Hageman, Carlin F.

doi:10.1016/s0095-4470(19)31332-4

Cited by 54 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In contrast, for English, where the ambient-language target is more complex with trochaic word-level and iambic syllable-level stress patterning, infants showed more variability across available studies in both FSL and f 0 (e.g., Vihman et al, 1998). Variability in duration may thus be characterized as a complex combination of production effects (e.g., Smith, 1978;Tingley & Allen, 1975) and perceptual effects related to ambient language characteristics (e.g., Hochberg, 1988;Klein, 1984;Pollock et al, 1993;Vihman et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…An additional issue related to development of intentional control for acoustic correlates of stress difference is variability. Acoustic studies of the early word period showed acoustic correlates of stress to be present in 18-to 24-month-olds (Goodell & Studdert-Kennedy, 1993;Kehoe et al, 1995;Pollock et al, 1993;Schwartz et al, 1996). Participants in these studies, however, showed variability and were not completely adultlike in various aspects of stress marking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Acoustic studies of stress marking in 18-to 24month-olds (e.g., Kehoe, Stoel-Gammon, & Buder, 1995;Pollock, Brammer, & Hageman, 1993;Schwartz, Petinou, Goffman, Lazowski, & Cartusciello, 1996) have largely shown adultlike use of stress, albeit embedded in a matrix of variability related to comparison targets. In prelinguistic infants (where no target is present), adult perceptions of stress marking may be based on presence of all three variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prosodic Correlates of Stress in Babbling: An Acoustical Study

et al. 2000

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Prelinguistic babbling often seems remarkably speech-like, not because it has recognizable words but because it seems to have adult-like prosody. To quantify this impression, we compared disyllabic sequences from five infants and five adults in terms of the use of frequency, intensity, and duration to mark stress. Significantly larger values for the three acoustic variables were observed on stressed than on unstressed syllables independent of syllable position for both groups. Adults showed the correlates of utterance final syllables--lower f0, lower intensity, and longer duration; infants showed only decrease in intensity. Ratios for stressed to unstressed syllables and participation of the three variables in stress production in individual disyllables were highly similar in both groups. No bias toward the English lexical trochaic stress pattern was observed. We conclude that infants in English environments produce adult-like stress patterns before they produce lexical items, which specify stress. Acoustic and perceptual analyses are used to explore stress marking by prelinguistic infants in an English language environment. Results show that infants employ the three acoustic correlates of stress in individual syllables in a manner largely similar to that of adult speakers, although they do not show second-syllable declination effects or an English language trochaic stress bias.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prosodic Correlates of Stress in Babbling: An Acoustical Study

et al. 2000

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“…Second, the propensity to use length as a marker of stress appears to be an inborn ability. In a study of stress production by children of three age groups (two-, three-, and four-year-olds) learning English as their first language, Pollock, Brammer and Hageman (1993) show that whereas the subjects' performance in using F 0 and loudness improves with age, their use of duration in signaling stress remains consistent over time. The two-year-olds can use duration to mark stress just as well as the three-or four-year-olds.…”

Section: Stress Perception and Productionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Stress and duration in three varieties of English

Peng

Ann

2001

World Englishes

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This paper investigates stress placement in the English of Spanish speakers, Nigerian English and Singapore English. This investigation reveals that they have in common several patterns of stress placement that are distinct from British or American English. We show that these patterns cannot be accounted for by transfer. A different explanation is suggested, one that explains the recurrent patterns in terms of English vowel duration. It is proposed that in determining stress in multisyllabic words, L2 speakers assess the duration of syllable nuclei and assign stress to the syllable containing the longest vowel. In contrast with transfer, which holds L2 speakers' first languages responsible, this proposal attributes the distinct patterns of stress placement to the target language, making possible a unified account of the shared patterns in the three varieties of English. As L2 speakers, regardless of their first languages, grapple with the same target language, it should have a similar effect, giving rise to the common patterns of stress placement in the three varieties of English.

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“…Focusing first on English, Pollock, Brammer & Hageman (1993) investigate the acoustic properties of stressed syllables produced by young learners of this language. Their study yields two important conclusions.…”

Section: Evidence From Trochaic Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%