Cover not available
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. 227–246

Chapter 12
Early development of the prosody-meaning interface

| Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LPL UMR 7309 | Universitat de Barcelona
| Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Department of Translation and Language Sciences
This chapter reviews evidence on how infants up to 18 months of age develop the ability to use prosody as a sign of the expression of pragmatic meanings, from both a comprehension and a production point of view. Developmental research reveals that pre-lexical infants use prosodic information not only to comprehend emotions in the speech of their communicative partners, the intentional value of the partners’ speech, and their speech act motivation, but also to express these same pragmatic meanings when they communicate with others. In essence, before the emergence of lexical and grammatical skills, infants use prosody to communicate intentionally with the world around them.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The prosody-meaning interface in infancy: Comprehension
    • Infants’ early understanding of others’ emotional states through prosody
    • Early understanding of prosody as a marker of intentional communication
    • Early understanding of prosody as a marker of speech act information
  • The prosody-meaning interface in infancy: Production
    • Infants’ early use of prosody to mark their emotional status in speech
    • Early production of prosody as a marker of intentional communication
    • Early production of prosody as a marker of speech act information
  • Conclusions and future directions
  • References
Published online: 24 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.23.12est
References
Armstrong, M. E.
(2012) The development of yes-no question intonation in Puerto Rican Spanish. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U.
(1985) Does the autistic child have a “Theory of Mind”? Cognition, 21, 37–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V.
(1975) The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 21(3), 205–226.Google Scholar
Beaumont, S. L., & Bloom, K.
(1993) Adults’ attributions of intentionality to vocalizing infants. First Language, 13, 235–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berman, J. M. J., Chambers, C. G., & Graham, S. A.
(2016) Preschoolers’ real-time coordination of vocal and facial emotional information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 391–399. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blasi, A., Mercure, E., Lloyd-Fox, S., Thomson, A., Brammer, M., Sauter, D., Deeley, Q., Barker, G. J., Renvall, V., Deoni, S., Gasston, D., Williams, S. C. R., Johnson, M. H., Simmons, A., & Murphy, D. G. M.
(2011) Early specialization for voice and emotion processing in the infant brain. Current Biology, 21(14), 1220–1224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S.
(1975) The ontogeny of speech acts. Journal of Child Language, 2(1), 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron-Faulkner, T.
(2014) The development of speech acts. In D. Matthews (Ed.), Pragmatic development in first language acquisition (pp.37–52). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Carpenter, M., Akhtar, N., & Tomasello, M.
(1998) Fourteen- through 18-month-old infants differentially imitate intentional and accidental actions. Infant Behavior & Development, 21(2), 315–330. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V.
(2004) Pragmatics and language acquisition. In L. Horn, & G. Ward (Eds.), The handbook of pragmatics (pp.562–577). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Csibra, G., & Gergely, G.
(2009) Natural pedagogy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(4), 148–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davis, B. L., MacNeilage, P. F., Matyear, C. L., & Powell, J. K.
(2000) Prosodic correlates of stress in babbling: An acoustical study. Child Development, 71(5), 1258–1270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeCasper, A. J., & Fifer, W. P.
(1980) Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers voices. Science, 208,1174–1176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Villiers, J.
(2007) The interface of language and Theory of Mind. Lingua. International Review of General Linguistics. Revue Internationale de Linguistique Générale, 117(11), 1858–1878.Google Scholar
Esteve-Gibert, N., Liszkowski, U., & Prieto, P.
(2016) Prosodic and gestural features distinguish the intention of pointing gestures in child-directed communication. In M. E. Armstrong, N. Henriksen, & M. M. Vanrell (Eds.), Intonational grammar in Ibero-Romance. Approaches across linguistic subfields (pp.249–276). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Esteve-Gibert, N., & Prieto P.
(2013) Prosody signals the emergence of intentional communication in the first year of life: Evidence from Catalan-babbling infants. Journal of Child Language, 40(5), 919–944. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Esteve-Gibert, N., Prieto, P., & Liszkowski, U.
(2017) Twelve-month-olds understand social intentions based on prosody and gesture shape. Infancy, 22(1), 108–129. Doi:DOI logo.Google Scholar
Fernald, A.
(1993) Approval and disapproval: Infant responsiveness to vocal affect in familiar and unfamiliar languages. Child Development, 64, 657–674. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1985) Four-month-old infants prefer to listen to motherese. Infant Behavior and Development, 8(2), 181–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frota, S., Butler, J., & Vigário, M.
(2014) Infants perception of intonation: Is it a statement or a question? Infancy, 19(2), 194–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Alibali, M. W.
(2013) Gestures role in speaking, learning, and creating language. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 257–283. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., Schwade, J. A., & Bornstein, M. H.
(2009) The value of vocalizing: Five-month-old infants associate their own noncry vocalizations with responses from caregivers. Child Development, 80(3), 636–644. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, T., Oberecker, R., Koch, S. P., & Friederici, A. D.
(2010) The developmental origins of voice processing in the human brain. Neuron, 65(6), 852–858. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grünloh, T., & Liszkowski, U.
(2015 Prelinguistic vocalizations distinguish pointing acts. Journal of Child Language, 42(6), 1312–1336. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, C.
(1984) On the grammar and semantics of sentence accents. Dordrecht: Foris.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Höhle, B., Bijeljac-Babic, R., Herold, B., Weissenborn, J., & Nazzi, T.
(2009) Language specific prosodic preferences during the first half year of life: Evidence from German and French infants. Infant Behavior & Development, 32(3), 262–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoicka, E., & Wang, S. H.
(2011) Fifteen-month-old infants match vocal cues to intentional actions. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12(3), 299–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hübscher, I., Esteve-Gibert, N., Igualada, A., & Prieto, P.
(2017) Intonation and gesture as bootstrapping devices in speaker uncertainty. First Language, 37(1), 24–41.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Igualada, A., Bosch, L., & Prieto, P.
(2015) Language development at 18 months is related to communicative strategies at 12 months. Infant Behavior and Development, 39, 42–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S.
(2005) Gesture paves the way for language development. Psychological Science, 16(5), 367–371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, M. H., Dziurawiec, S., Ellis, H., & Morton, J.
(1991) Newborns preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline. Cognition, 40(1–2), 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kovács, Á. M., Téglás, E., & Endress, A. D.
(2010) The social sense: Susceptibility to others beliefs in human infants and adults. Science, 330, 1830–1834. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ladd, D. R.
(1996) Intonational phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lindová, J., Špinka, M., & Nováková, L.
(2015) Decoding of baby calls: Can adult humans identify the eliciting situation from emotional vocalizations of preverbal infants? PLoS ONE, 10(4), 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liszkowski, U.
(2013) Using Theory of Mind. Child Development Perspectives, 7(2), 104–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014) Two sources of meaning in infant communication: Preceding action contexts and act-accompanying characteristics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 369, 20130294. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mampe, B., Friederici, A. D., Christophe, A., & Wermke, K.
(2009) Newborns cry melody is shaped by their native language. Current Biology, 19(23), 1994–1997. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, A., Onishi, K. H., & Vouloumanos, A.
(2012) Understanding the abstract role of speech in communication at 12 months. Cognition, 123(1), 50–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matthews, D.
(Ed.). (2014) Pragmatic development in first language acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGillion, M., Herbert, J. S., Pine, J., Vihman, M. M., Depaolis, R., Keren-Portnoy, T., & Matthews, D.
(2017) What paves the way to conventional language? The predictive value of babble, pointing, and socioeconomic status. Child Development, 88(1), 156–166.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N.
(1995) Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children. Developmental Psychology, 31(5), 838–850. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, S. A.
(2009) Childrens’ understanding of second-order mental states. Psychological Bulletin, 135(5), 749–773. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mumme, D. L., Fernald, A., & Herrera, C.
(1996) Infants’ responses to facial and vocal emotional signals in a social referencing paradigm. Child Development, 67, 3219–3237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murillo, E., & Capilla, A.
(2016) Properties of vocalization- and gesture-combinations in the transition to first words. Journal of Child Language, 43(4), 890–913.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nazzi, T., Bertoncini, J., & Mehler, J.
(1998) Language discrimination by newborns: Toward an understanding of the role of rhythm. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 24(3), 756–766. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K., Buder, E. H., Ramsdell, H. L., Warlaumont, A. S., & Chorna, L.
(2013) Functional flexibility of infant vocalization and the emergence of language. PNAS, 110(16), 6318–6323. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onishi, K. H., & Baillargeon, R.
(2005) Do 15-month-old infants understand false belief? Science, 308, 255–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papaeliou, C. F., & Trevarthen, C.
(2006) Prelinguistic pitch patterns expressing “communication” and “apprehension”. Journal of Child Language, 33(1), 163–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papaeliou, C., Minadakis, G., & Cavouras, D.
(2002) Acoustic patterns of infant vocalizations expressing emotions and communicative functions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45(2), 311–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papousek, M.
(1992) Early ontogeny of vocal communication in parent-infant interactions. In H. Papousek, U. Jurgens, & M. Papousek (Eds.), Nonverbal vocal communication: Comparative and developmental approaches (pp.230–261). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Portes, C., Beyssade, C., Michelas, A., Marandin, J. M., & Champagne-Lavau, M.
(2014) The dialogical dimension of intonational meaning: Evidence from French. Journal of Pragmatics, 74, 15–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Premack, D., & Woodruff, G.
(1978) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prieto, P.
(2015) Intonational meaning. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 6, 371–381.Google Scholar
Prieto, P., Estrella, A., Thorson, J., & Vanrell, M. M.
(2012) Is prosodic development correlated with grammatical and lexical development? Evidence from emerging intonation in Catalan and Spanish. Journal of Child Language, 39(2), 221–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saint-Georges, C., Chetouani, M., Cassel, R., Apicella, F., Mahdhaoui, A., Muratori, F., Laznik, M. C., & Cohen, D.
(2013) Motherese in interaction: At the cross-road of emotion and cognition? (A systematic review). PloS One, 8(10), e78103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sakkalou, E., Ellis-Davies, K., Fowler, N. C., Hilbrink, E. E., & Gattis, M.
(2013) Infants show stability of goal-directed imitation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114(1), 1–9. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sakkalou, E., & Gattis, M.
(2012) Infants infer intentions from prosody. Cognitive Development, 27(1), 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scheiner, E., Hammerschmidt, K., Jürgens, U., & Zwirner, P.
(2002) Acoustic analyses of developmental changes and emotional expression in the preverbal vocalizations of infants. Journal of Voice, 16(4), 509–529. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snow, D.
(2006) Regression and reorganization of intonation between 6 and 23 months. Child Development, 77(2), 281–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, K., Zaitchik, D., Tager-Flusberg, H.
(1994) Preschoolers can attribute second-order beliefs. Developmental Psychology, 30, 395–402. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., & Liszkowski, U.
(2007) A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, 78(3), 705–722. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vaillant-Molina, M., Bahrick, L. E., & Flom, R.
(2013) Young infants match facial and vocal emotional expressions of other infants. Infancy, 18(1), 1–15.Google Scholar
Vouloumanos, A., Onishi, K. H., & Pogue, A.
(2012) Twelve-month-old infants recognize that speech can communicate unobservable intentions. PNAS, 109(32), 12933–12937. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wermke, K., Teiser, J., Yovsi, D., Kohlenberg, P. J., Wermke, P., Robb, M., Keller, H., & Lamm, B.
(2016) Fundamental frequency variation within neonatal crying: Does ambient language matter? Speech , Language and Hearing, 19(4), 211–217.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilutzky, W.
(2015) Emotions as pragmatic and epistemic actions. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1593. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A. L.
(1998) Infants selectively encode the goal object of an actor’s reach. Cognition, 69(1), 1–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1999) Infants ability to distinguish between purposeful and non-purposeful behaviors. Infant Behavior & Development, 22(2), 145–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yeung, H. H., Chen, K. H., & Werker, J. F.
(2013) When does native language input affect phonetic perception? The precocious case of lexical tone. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(2), 123–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, D., Liu, Y., Hou, X., Sun, G., Cheng, Y., & Luo, Y.
(2014) Discrimination of fearful and angry emotional voices in sleeping human neonates: A study of the mismatch brain responses. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 422. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Hübscher, Iris, Laura Wagner & Pilar Prieto
2020. Three-year-olds infer polite stance from intonation and facial cues. Journal of Politeness Research 16:1 ► pp. 85 ff. DOI logo
Pronina, Mariia, Iris Hübscher, Ingrid Vilà-Giménez & Pilar Prieto
2021. Bridging the Gap Between Prosody and Pragmatics: The Acquisition of Pragmatic Prosody in the Preschool Years and Its Relation With Theory of Mind. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Pronina, Mariia, Pilar Prieto, Luca Bischetti & Valentina Bambini
2023. Expressive Pragmatics and Prosody in Young Preschoolers are More Closely Related to Structural Language than to Mentalizing. Language Learning and Development 19:3 ► pp. 323 ff. DOI logo
Rojas-Nieto, Cecilia
2021. Interactional sequences: child–adult collaboration in solving referring problems (Secuencias interlocutivas: colaboración adulto-niño en la solución de problemas referenciales). Journal for the Study of Education and Development 44:2 ► pp. 439 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.