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Part of
The Development of Prosody in First Language Acquisition
Edited by Pilar Prieto and Núria Esteve-Gibert
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 23] 2018
► pp. 125–143

Chapter 7
Speech rhythm in development

What is the child acquiring?

| University of Cambridge
| University of Oxford

Perception and production studies of speech rhythm development in infants and children paint a complex picture of a universal early perceptual sensitivity to – and production mastery of – cues to rhythm, while the rate of acquisition of rhythmic properties across and within languages appears to be typologically and structurally determined. In this chapter we provide a critical and comprehensive review of the literature that has led to these insights. We then explore how child rhythm development can be accommodated in an integrated approach to speech rhythm in which various structural and performance aspects interact to determine developmental trajectories in rhythm acquisition.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background: Rhythm research and methodology
  • Perception
  • Production
  • Bilingual production
  • The integrated approach to rhythm development
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.23.07pos
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