We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Two-part vowel modifications in Child Directed Speech in Warlpiri may enhance child attention to speech and scaffold noun acquisition.
- Authors
Bundgaard-Nielsen, Rikke L.; O'Shannessy, Carmel; Wang, Yizhou; Nelson, Alice; Bartlett, Jessie; Davis, Vanessa
- Abstract
Study 1 compared vowels in Child Directed Speech (CDS; child ages 25–46 months) to vowels in Adult Directed Speech (ADS) in natural conversation in the Australian Indigenous language Warlpiri, which has three vowels (/i/, /a/, /u). Study 2 compared the vowels of the child interlocutors from Study 1 to caregiver ADS and CDS. Study 1 indicates that Warlpiri CDS vowels are characterised by fronting, /a/-lowering, fo-raising, and increased duration, but not vowel space expansion. Vowels in CDS nouns, however, show increased between-contrast differentiation and reduced within-contrast variation, similar to what has been reported for other languages. We argue that this two-part CDS modification process serves a dual purpose: Vowel space shifting induces IDS/CDS that sounds more child-like, which may enhance child attention to speech, while increased between-contrast differentiation and reduced within-contrast variation in nouns may serve didactic purposes by providing high-quality information about lexical specifications. Study 2 indicates that Warlpiri CDS vowels are more like child vowels, providing indirect evidence that aspects of CDS may serve non-linguistic purposes simultaneously with other aspects serving linguistic-didactic purposes. The studies have novel implications for the way CDS vowel modifications are considered and highlight the necessity of naturalistic data collection, novel analyses, and typological diversity.
- Subjects
SPEECH; VOWELS; NOUNS; INDIGENOUS Australians
- Publication
Phonetica, 2023, Vol 80, Issue 1/2, p1
- ISSN
0031-8388
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1515/phon-2022-0039