How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input?: A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech.

Catherine Elizabeth Laing; Marilyn Vihman; Tamar Keren-Portnoy

How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input? A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech.

Catherine Elizabeth Laing, Marilyn Vihman, Tamar Keren-Portnoy

Language and Linguistic Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Onomatopoeia are frequently identified amongst infants’ earliest words (Menn & Vihman, 2011), yet few authors have considered why this might be, and even fewer have explored this phenomenon empirically. Here we analyse mothers’ production of onomatopoeia in infant-directed speech (IDS) to provide an input-based perspective on these forms. Twelve mothers were recorded interacting with their 8-month-olds; onomatopoeic words (e.g. quack) were compared acoustically with their corresponding conventional words (duck). Onomatopoeia were more salient than conventional words across all features measured: mean pitch, pitch range, word duration, repetition and pause length. Furthermore, a systematic pattern was observed in the production of onomatopoeia, suggesting a conventionalised approach to mothers’ production of these words in IDS.

Original language	English
Number of pages	24
Journal	Journal of Child Language
Early online date	27 Sept 2016
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2017

Bibliographical note

This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details (no embargo)

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IDS paper_revised Jul 2016_final for PURE
This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details (no embargo)
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Cite this

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title = "How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input?: A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech. ",

abstract = "Onomatopoeia are frequently identified amongst infants{\textquoteright} earliest words (Menn & Vihman, 2011), yet few authors have considered why this might be, and even fewer have explored this phenomenon empirically. Here we analyse mothers{\textquoteright} production of onomatopoeia in infant-directed speech (IDS) to provide an input-based perspective on these forms. Twelve mothers were recorded interacting with their 8-month-olds; onomatopoeic words (e.g. quack) were compared acoustically with their corresponding conventional words (duck). Onomatopoeia were more salient than conventional words across all features measured: mean pitch, pitch range, word duration, repetition and pause length. Furthermore, a systematic pattern was observed in the production of onomatopoeia, suggesting a conventionalised approach to mothers{\textquoteright} production of these words in IDS.",

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