Role of Prosody in Language Acquisition

Role of Prosody in actors line AcquisitionDiscuss the role of modulation (i.e. rhythm and intonation) in quarrel acquisition, from early sound apprehension to sematic and syntactic development.From muffled sounds heard within the womb to singing our favorite songs by memory, we valet de chambre have the staggering ability to acquire language. The remarkable thing is that we are born without full-blown language comprehension and production. How is it then that we steadily progress into competent speakers of our m separate saliva? A big part lies in the prosody of our native language.Although babies may not be able to speak, they begin to learn about language prenatally. disposed(p) that our auditory system is well developed in the womb, a fetus can process sounds as early as 28 weeks of gestation, according to Fernald in 2001 and Saffran and colleagues in 2006 (as cited in Brooks Kempe, 2012, pg.25). While speech sounds are muffled because the fetus is enclosed within the wom b, pr plainting proper individual phoneme identification, there is still perception of rhythm and intonation (Brooks Kempe, 2012, pg.25). Rhythm and intonation are components of prosody, along with other sound features such as stress, pitch, loudness, and duration (Erekson, 2010, pg.80). Newborns are then able to get to prenatal language come across with sounds made by their mothers and other people close by (Brooks Kempe, 2012, pg.25). Babies even have a preference for sounds that became familiar when they were in the womb. In a study by Mehler and colleagues in 1988 it was found that prenatal experience allowed babies to distinguish their native language from a foreign language (Brooks Kempe, 2012, g.28). In their study, which utilized sucking rate, French newborns could tell French sentences apart from Russian sentences, even when the sentences were passed through a low-pass filter to make them sound akin they would be heard from within the womb (Brooks Kempe, 2012, pg.28) . This study showed that newborn infants are sensitive to prosodic characteristics of language (Brooks Kempe, 2012, pg.28). Prosody has eventful implications in language acquisition even before an infant is born but also continues to be an essential musical instrument throughout their early years when they begin to maneuver with more experience speakers.Although infants pay attention to their surroundings and are taking in all the different sounds they hear, they are not the still active participants. When people interact with babies, they do not treat them in the same manner they would treat of age(p) children or adults. Instead, they expose them to a very distinct aspect of language know as infant-directed speech (IDS) or motherese (Goswami, 2008, pg.148). This special register helps facilitate language learning because of its exaggerated prosodic nature this emphasizes the boundaries between excogitates and phrases, thusly making segmentation of the speech stream easier f or babies (Goswami, 2008, pg.148). According to Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith in 2001 baby humans learn the rhythm of their native languages from birth to 2 months of age (as cited in Falk, 2004, pg.495). During this time infants pay special attention to their language input and are particularly interested in IDS, which is characterized by simplified vocabulary, repetition, exaggerated vowels, higher tone, wider weave of tone, and a slower tempo (Falk, 2004, pg. 495). These are important differences infants seem particularly sensitive to at young ages when prosody plays such a key in language acquisition. Aside from having characteristics based on the prosody of speech to help infants learn their native languages, IDS seems to be universal it is seen in all languages in cultures, implying that this prosodic way of speaking serves a developmental usance (Goswami, 2008, pg. 154). Adults break down the language for babies to understand better, and doing so almost instinctively, showi ng the intuitiveness prosody has in language comprehension and production.Prosody also helps babies learn a thing or two about sentence structure early on. According to Levitt in 1993, at 10 months infants start to babble in rhythms that are similar to the prosody of their language structure (as cited in Falk, 2004, pg.496). Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith say this may be due to the vocal turn-taking that mothers and their babies engage in, helping the babies learn the rule that conversationalists take turns speaking, as seen in their research in 2001 (as cited in Falk, 2004, pg.496). Snowdon (1990) states that this social syntax may help babies learn other rules that are preliminary to learning syntax, the proper arrangement of elements within sentences (as cited in Falk, 2004, pg.496). IDS therefore helps teach babies syntax through phonological bootstrapping, which is fulfilled by gainful attention to the correlations between the prosodic cues of IDS and linguistic categories, ac cording to the works of Burnham et al. in 2002, Gleitman Warner in 1982, Morgan in 1986 and Morgan Demuth in 1996 (as cited in Falk, 2004, pg.496). An infants perception of prosodic cues in relation with linguistic categories is essential to learn about phonology, the boundaries between words or phrases in their native tongue, and syntax (Falk, 2004, pg.496). Prosody not only matters when it comes to learning the music of the first language learned but also seems to help teach other components of the language as well.As infants grow older and gain more experience with language, they continue a path towards language mastery and more complicated language use. While young babies use prosody to help tell words apart, it isnt until they get older that prosody is fully used to tell syntactic relationships (Speer Ito, 2009, pg.94). However, there is mixed research as to when exactly children begin to use prosody to understand ambiguous sentences (Speer Ito, 2009, pg.94). A study in 200 8 by Snedeker and Yuan found that children used prosodic phrasings of sentences to the syntax correctly and perform an instrumental action (as cited in Speer Ito, 2009, pg.97-98). In their study they did a toy-moving scenario using sentences, such as You can tap the frog with the flowering, with two disambiguating phrasings (Speer Ito, 2009, pg.97). Regardless of the prosodic phrasing, such as You can tap the frog with the flower versus You can tap the frog with the flower, results showed that the children used the location of prosodic boundaries to map the correct syntax of the sentences (Speer Ito, 2009, pg.97). Additionally, prosody seems to help syntactic acquisition early on. In a study in 2014 by Hawthorne and Gerken, it was found that 19 month old infants interact prosodically-grouped words as more cohesive and constituent-like than words that straddled a prosodic boundary (pg.420). Because syntactic constituency, groups of words that serve as cohesive units in sentenc es, is an important part in the early levels of syntax acquisition, prosody is seen as essential concept in language acquisition as a result (Hawthorne Gerken, 2014, pg.420). Although it may be debatable when syntax development exactly begins, a big puzzle piece to figure it out lies in prosody.Prosody continues to help humans from infancy to childhood not only in the syntax of their language but also the semantics. In a study by Nygaard et al in 2008 it was investigated whether speakers were able to successfully make prosodic correlates to mean across semantic domains and if they used these cues to interpret meaning of novel words (pg.127). The study showed that listeners were able to partake new words with their proper meaning significantly more if the prosody used matched the word correctly (Nygaard et al., 2009, pg.127). With their findings, Nygaard and colleagues were able to support that speech has reliable prosodic markers to word meaning and that listeners use the prosodi c cues of words to differentiate their meanings (Nygaard et al., 2009, pg.127). New research is also finding prosody to be an essential component for semantic comprehension and development in children. It was previously suggested that children did not utilize prosody to figure out the meanings of new words. This was due to studies like Sassos 2003 investigation using children age 4 years old and adults, where she found that the children did not readily use prosodic cues to determine the meaning of a new word like the adults did, even when instructed to do so (Sasso, 2003). However, recently in 2011, Herold and colleagues investigated whether children utilized prosodic correlates to word meaning when interpreting new words (Herold et al., 2011, pg.229). They sought to examine if children would interpret a word spoken in a deep, loud, slow voice as referring to something larger than a word said in a high, quiet, and truehearted voice (Herold et al., 2011, pg.229). It was found that b y 5 years old children were successfully utilizing prosody to interpret meaning (Herold et al., 2011, pg. 236). In addition, there were differences in performances between 4 year old and 5 year old participants, suggesting a developmental change in childrens ability to use prosodic cues to infer meaning (Herold et al., 2011, pg.236). Herold and colleagues believed this may do to 4 year olds not yet able to understand that prosody can be used as a tool for novel word interpretation due to insufficient experience with prosodic information and meaning relations (Herold et al., 2011, pg. 236-237). While semantic development in children does not seem to be fully and effectively utilized before age 5, it seems to be on meet a critical transition at this straits after children have a certain amount of exposure to their native language.Many studies in linguistics and psychology demonstrate the multiple roles that prosody plays in the acquisition of language from prenatal infants to adults with fluency of their native language. What begins as sound that catches the interest of prenatal humans steadily becomes sound that serve a purpose in language comprehension. While research continues to explore the implications of prosody, there is no denying that it plays a vital and fundamental part in human language.ReferencesBrooks, P., Kempe, V. (2012). Language discipline (pp. xv-383). Chichester BPS Blackwell.Erekson, J. (2010). Prosody and Interpretation. Reading Horizons, 50(2), 80-98. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http//scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol50/iss2/3Falk, D. 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The developing role of prosody in novel word comprehension. (Order No. 1413020, Emory University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 46-46 p. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http//search.proquest.com/docview/250019098?accountid=13567Speer, S., Ito, K. (2009). Prosody in First Language Acquisition Acquiring Intonation as a Tool to Organize Information in Conversation. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(1), 90- 110. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http//linguistics.osu.edu/files/Publication-Prosody in First Language Acquisition.pdf