Bilingual acquisition of intonation : a study of children speaking German and English / / Ulrike Gut

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910829072603321
• Autore: Gut Ulrike
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Tübingen, [Germany] : , : Max Niemeyer Verlag, , 2000; ©2000
• ISBN: 3-11-092988-0
• Edizione: [Reprint 2014]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (188 p.)
• Collana: Linguistische Arbeiten, , 0344-6727 ; ; 424
• Classificazione: ER 300
• Disciplina: 401/.93
• Soggetti: Language acquisition; Intonation (Phonetics); Bilingualism in children; German language - Acquisition; English language - Acquisition
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Notational Conventions -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Bilingual acquisition of intonation -- 3. Bilingual acquisition of nucleus placement -- 4. Bilingual acquisition of the system of pitch -- 5. Bilingual acquisition of intonational phrasing -- 6. The study - research questions, method and analysis -- 7. Results -- 8. The acquisition of nucleus placement -- 9. The acquisition of the system of pitch -- 10. The acquisition of intonational phrasing -- 11. Summary and discussion -- 12. References
• Sommario/riassunto: This book investigates the acquisition of intonation by German/English bilingual children. Intonation is analysed both auditorily and instrumentally, and the transcription system of the British Tradition and the ToBI system in the autosegmental-metrical approach of intonation analysis are employed. Based on longitudinal data of three children comprising the ages 2 years 1 month (2;1) to 5 years 6 months (5;6), the acquisition sequence for the phonological rules and phonetic production of nucleus placement, pitch and intonational phrasing is sketched. Some phonological functions of nucleus placement and pitch ; such as the marking of contrast or the type of speech act are mastered as early as 2;1 whilst intonational phrasing is first used phonologically at 4;6. Mastery of the phonetic production of all three intonational systems is acquired much later, and acquisition is not completed yet at 5;6. In general, interindividual differences and a clear separation of both language systems are apparent in all children, with a considerable time lag in the acquisition of the weaker language. It is concluded that both transcription systems for intonation need to be modified for the analysis of child speech and that the autosegmental-metrical approach with its distinction between the phonological and the phonetic level proves a more flexible and descriptively valuable tool.