Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Acquisition of Prosodic Patterns in English and Greek

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

At the core of this research is a fundamental question: how and when do children acquire the prosodic patterns of their mother tongue? Although young infants are sensitive to the prosodic properties of their language, children may not fully master their phonological use until the age of 12. This dissertation project will be the first large scale study of the development of prosody using acoustic data. Data will be collected from three age groups (6-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 12-year-olds) to assess the developmental patterns in the production of prosody in two languages: Greek and English. The study examines prosodic phenomena operating in different domains (compound, phrase and clitic stress) in order to explain the order in which they are acquired. Comparing Greek and English will lead to a better understanding of the prosodic properties that languages have in common, as opposed to those determined by the specific linguistic system one learns. Since phonological development plays a major role in the development of reading skills, the findings may yield insights relevant to education. Understanding the developmental process may also contribute to improved methods of instruction for children with developmental problems in prosody (e.g. autism).