Wells-2010
| Wells-2010 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | INCOLLECTION |
| Key | Wells-2010 |
| Author(s) | Bill Wells |
| Title | Tonal repetition and tonal contrast in English carer-child interaction |
| Editor(s) | Dagmar Barth-Weingarten, Elisabeth Reber, Margret Selting |
| Tag(s) | IL |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
| Year | 2010 |
| Language | |
| City | Amsterdam / Philadelphia |
| Month | |
| Journal | |
| Volume | |
| Number | |
| Pages | 243–262 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1075/sidag.23.20wel |
| ISBN | |
| Organization | |
| Institution | |
| School | |
| Type | |
| Edition | |
| Series | |
| Howpublished | |
| Book title | Prosody in Interaction |
| Chapter | |
Abstract
Research has so far failed to demonstrate how, or even that, young children progressively acquire a set of tones or pitch accents that have distinct meanings or functions. From recent work in the phonetics of conversation, there is some evidence that a speaker’s choice of tone can be accounted for by reference to the tone used in the previous speaker’s turn rather than by reference to an intonational lexicon. This view is supported by analysis of interactions between Robin, aged 19–21 months, and his mother. Robin systematically uses a repeat of his mother’s tone to display alignment with the ongoing activity, while using a different, contrasting tone when initiating a new action or sequence. It is suggested that such tonal repetition and contrast are fundamental to children’s learning of English intonation.
Notes
see: Walker, Traci (2010) ‘Repetition and contrast across action sequences: Comments on Bill Wells “Tonal repetition and tonal contrast in English carer-child interaction”’. In: Dagmar Barth-Weingarten, Elisabeth Reber, Margret Selting, eds. Prosody in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 263–266]
