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How the prosodic cues in motherese might assist language learning*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Deborah G. Kemler Nelson ,
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek ,
Peter W. Jusczyk  and
Kimberly Wright Cassidy
Deborah G. Kemler Nelson*
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Affiliation:
Temple University
Peter W. Jusczyk
Affiliation:
University of Oregon and C.N.R.S. & E.H.E.S.S.
Kimberly Wright Cassidy
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College
*
Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA.
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Abstract

The function of motherese has become a pivotal issue in the language-learning literature. The current research takes the approach of asking whether the prosodic characteristics that are distinctive to motherese could play a special role in facilitating the acquisition of syntax. Hirsh-Pasek, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk, Cassidy, Druss & Kennedy (1987) showed that infants aged 0;7–0;10 are sensitive to prosodic cues that would help them segment the speech stream into perceptual units that correspond to clauses. The present study shows that infants' sensitivity to segment-marking cues in ongoing speech holds for motherese but not for adult-directed speech. The finding is that, for motherese only, infants orient longer to speech that has been interrupted at clausal boundaries than to matched speech that has been interrupted at within-clause locations. This selective preference indicates that the prosodie qualities of motherese provide infants with cues to units of speech that correspond to grammatical units of language – a potentially fundamental contribution of motherese to the learning of syntax.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 55 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by NICHHD grant no. HD-15795, a SURDNA grant to Swarthmore College, and funds from Swarthmore College. Our thanks to Lindy and Julia Cummiskey for the speech samples, and to Karen Kampmeyer, Sanjaya Saxena and Amanda Woodward for their assistance in data collection. Portions of the data were reported at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Los Angeles, April 1986.

References

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