Abstract
Tonal information is essential to early word learning in tone languages. Although numerous studies have investigated the intonational and segmental properties of infant-directed speech (IDS), only a few studies have explored the properties of lexical tones in IDS. These studies mostly focused on the first year of life; thus little is known about how lexical tones in IDS change as children’s vocabulary acquisition accelerates in the second year (Goldfield and Reznick, 1990; Bloom, 2001). The present study examines whether Mandarin Chinese mothers hyperarticulate lexical tones in IDS addressing 18- and 24-month-old children—at which age children are learning words at a rapid speed—vs. adult-directed speech (ADS). Thirty-nine Mandarin Chinese–speaking mothers were tested in a semi-spontaneous picture-book-reading task, in which they told the same story to their child (IDS condition) and to an adult (ADS condition). Results for the F0 measurements (minimum F0, maximum F0, and F0 range) of tone in the speech data revealed a continuum of differences among IDS addressing 18-month-olds, IDS addressing 24-month-olds, and ADS. Lexical tones in IDS addressing 18-month-old children had a higher minimum F0, higher maximum F0, and larger pitch range than lexical tones in ADS. Lexical tones in IDS addressing 24-month-old children showed more similarity to ADS tones with respect to pitch height: there were no differences in minimum F0 and maximum F0 between ADS and IDS. However, F0 range was still larger. These results suggest that lexical tones are generally hyperarticulated in Mandarin Chinese IDS addressing 18- and 24- month-old children despite the change in pitch level over time. Mandarin Chinese mothers hyperarticulate lexical tones in IDS when talking to toddlers and potentially facilitate tone acquisition and word learning.
Highlights
In tone languages, pitch is employed to differentiate lexical meanings
Our main aim was to investigate the general tone hyperarticulation phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese infant-directed speech (IDS); we focus on the fixed effects of Condition and Age, as well as the interaction between these two factors
Our results showed that tone hyperarticulation was present in IDS addressing 18- and 24-month-old children, but the specific tonal cues differed between the two groups: for 18-month-olds, Tone 1 had a higher F0 in IDS, and Tones 2, 3, and 4 had higher F0 and a larger F0 range in IDS
Summary
Pitch is employed to differentiate lexical meanings. Tones in Mandarin Infant-Directed Speech early language input—i.e., infant-directed speech (IDS). Most previous studies have focused on IDS in the first year of life, when perceptual reorganization is taking place (Werker and Tees, 1984); comparatively little is known about how tonal input changes in the second year, when children start to become verbal and gain vocabulary at a rapid speed (Bloom, 2001). As tonal information is crucial to distinguishing word meanings, the current study investigates whether lexical tones in Mandarin Chinese IDS addressing 18and 24-month-old children are hyperarticulated—and if so, whether the tonal cues change depending on the age of the child
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