Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
P.Corthals:Efectsofspeakergender…
29
forfemalespeakersaseparategroup,butitisabsentinmaleparentesesamples
(figure5).A.Warren-Leubecker&J.N.Bohannon
26
,whocomparedchild-directed
speechaddressedtotwo-andfive-tear-oldstoadult-directedspeech,notedthat
menraisedtheirpitchandpitchrangeswhenspeakingtotheyoungerchildren,
butdidnotdiferentiatebetween5-year-oldsandadultlisteners.Teyhypothesized
thatmenmayreverttothemoremonotonicspeechpatternsofadult-directed
speechinanattempttoavoidastereotypicallyfemininespeechstyle.H.-M.Liu
etal.27alsofoundanattunementofvoicepitchelevationtothechild’sageinthe
mother-childdyadswiththeyoungestchildrenintheirstudy,butthisapparent
femaleparentesesub-styleremainsalesswelldocumentedphenomenon.
Efectsoflanguageandchildage
ProsodicexaggerationmaybemoreprominentinAmericanEnglishthanin
otherlanguages28,butthelanguage-relatedefectsinthepresentstudyshould
beinterpretedcautiously.Althoughtheageofthechildwastreatedasacovari-
ate,themainlanguageefect(speechratewasloweredmoreinFlemishDutch,
figure2),andthelanguage-genderinteraction(largervoicepitchshifinfemale
speakersofAmericanEnglish,figure3)shouldbeseeninthelightofthefactthat
theAmericanchildrenwereyoungerthantheBelgianchildren.Te8monthage
diferencemayhavehadconsequencesforthenatureofadult-childinteractions.
Onewouldexpectanevolutioninparentesefromconveyingmostlyafectiveand
social-regulatoryintentionsinthebeginning,tomoreandmoreinformativecon-
tentslateronasthechild’sdevelopmentprogresses.Ifcommunicativeintentions
behindparenteseindeedchangeasafunctionofthechild’sageinthismanner,
thenvoicepitchisanobviousparalinguisticfeaturetoregulateinfantarousaland
attentionandtocommunicateafectwhenaddressingyounginfants,whereasa
lowerspeechrateisneededformessagesaddressedtoolderchildren,whostart
tocomprehendthemasverbalsignals.
Tisintention-basedinterpretationofparenteseprosodyiscorroboratedby
ourfindingsonpitch-agetuningandrate-agetuning.Telargestvoicepitchraises
werefoundinfemalespeakersinteractingwiththeyoungestchildren,whichis
compatiblewiththeprimacyofafectiveandsocial-regulatorycommunicative
intentions.Teseadaptationsofmedianvoicepitchgraduallydeclinewithgrowing
ageofthechild,tobereplacedbyadaptationsinspeechrate,inlinewiththeshif
towardsconveyinginformationthatishypothesizedhere.Tetrendlineforthe
26A.Warren-Leubecker,J.N.Bohannon:Intonationpatternsinchild-directedspeech…
27H.-M.Liu,F.-M.Tsao,P.K.Kuhl:Age-relatedchangesinacousticmodifcations…
28
A.Fernald,T.Taeschner,J.Dunn,M.Papousek,B.deBoysson-Bardies,
I.Fukui:Across-languagestudyofprosodicmodifcationsinmothers’andfathers’speechtopreverbal
infants.uJournalofChildLanguage”1989,Vol.16,p.477-501;M.Soderstrom:Beyondbabytalk…
