A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers' and fathers' speech to preverbal infants

Abstract

This study compares the prosodie modifications in mothers' and fathers' speech to preverbal infants in French, Italian, German, Japanese, British English, and American English. At every stage of data collection and analysis, standardized procedures were used to enhance the comparability across data sets that is essential for valid cross-language comparison of the prosodie features of parental speech. In each of the six language groups, five mothers and five fathers were recorded in semi-structured home observations while speaking to their infant aged 0; 10–1;2 and to an adult. Speech samples were instrumentally analysed to measure seven prosodic parameters: mean fundamental frequency (f0), f0-minimum, f0-maximum, f0-range, f0-variability, utterance duration, and pause duration. Results showed cross-language consistency in the patterns of prosodic modification used in parental speech to infants. Across languages, both mothers and fathers used higher mean-f0, f0-minimum, and f0-maximum, greater f0-variability, shorter utterances, and longer pauses in infant-directed speech than in adult-directed speech. Mothers, but not fathers, used a wider f0-range in speech to infants. American English parents showed the most extreme prosodic modifications, differing from the other language groups in the extent of intonational exaggeration in Speech to infants. These results reveal common patterns in caretaker's use of intonation across languages, which may function developmentally to regulate infant arousal and attention, to communicate affect, and to facilitate speech perception and language comprehension. In addition to providing evidence for possibly universal prosodic features of speech to infants, these results suggest that language-specific variations are also important, and that the findings of the numerous studies of early language input based on American English are not necessarily generalisable to other cultures.

Infant-directed speech as a window into the dynamic nature of phonology

“…Results revealed that although IDS showed a significantly higher mean F 0 , maximum F 0 , and minimum F 0 for overall utterances, the F 0 range did not differ significantly between the two registers. These results replicate the findings in Fernald et al (1989); that is, mothers used a higher pitched voice when talking to infants than to adults, but did not alter their overall pitch range. Moreover, all averages were comparable to those reported in Fernald et al (1989), demonstrating that the lack of pitch range expansion in Fernald et al (1989) was not due to some idiosyncratic characteristics of their Japanese sample.…”

“…Specifically, caregivers are reported to use 'exaggerated' or 'sing-songy' intonation in IDS across many languages, and this intonation is often argued to be one of the universal properties of IDS (Ferguson 1977;Grieser and Kuhl 1988;Fernald et al 1989;Kitamura et al 2002). Interestingly, however, significant cross-linguistic differences are also known to exist in the characteristics of IDS (Bernstein Ratner and Pye 1984;Grieser and Kuhl 1988;Fernald et al 1989;Papoušek et al 1991;Kitamura et al 2002). Fernald et al (1989) compared intonational modifications in six languages/varieties (French, Italian, German, British English, American English, and Japanese), and found that all of them except Japanese showed pitch-range expansion in IDS.…”

“…Interestingly, however, significant cross-linguistic differences are also known to exist in the characteristics of IDS (Bernstein Ratner and Pye 1984;Grieser and Kuhl 1988;Fernald et al 1989;Papoušek et al 1991;Kitamura et al 2002). Fernald et al (1989) compared intonational modifications in six languages/varieties (French, Italian, German, British English, American English, and Japanese), and found that all of them except Japanese showed pitch-range expansion in IDS. Fernald (1993) also reported that although English-learning infants responded appropriately to positive and negative emotional prosody in IDS in English, German, and Italian, they failed to do so with Japanese IDS.…”

“…Ladd 1996: Ch. 7), using the F 0 range of the overall utterance as the measurement (e.g., Ferguson 1977;Grieser and Kuhl 1988;Fernald et al 1989;Papoušek et al 1991;Kitamura et al 2002). If, however, the mechanism of register-induced modification of intonation is constrained by language-specificity in intonational phonology (Ladd 1996: 334;Gussenhoven 2004: 355;Jun 2005: 462), the conventional measurements may not have been sufficient to capture the nature of intonational exaggeration for each language.…”

“…One mother's speech was not included due to the creakiness of her voice, which made it difficult to extract F 0 values. They began by analyzing the R-JMICC data in the same way as Fernald et al (1989), measuring the F 0 maximum, mean, minimum, and range of each utterance as a whole. Results revealed that although IDS showed a significantly higher mean F 0 , maximum F 0 , and minimum F 0 for overall utterances, the F 0 range did not differ significantly between the two registers.…”