DEPE - Development of Prosodic Structure and Intonation
Research on the acquisition of prosody has recently seen a renewed interest, in particular on the linguistics side. Despite the already considerable body of work on the development of timing and F0 patterns (see the reviews in [NO&C2003] and [S&B2002], respectively), much of the early research has notably not been linguistically informed so that advances on the linguistic field could boost our understanding of prosodic development. On the other hand, most of the research has been centred on very few languages (mostly Germanic), leaving claims of universality or language-specificity hard to test. This project aims at contributing to this field, by providing insight to central questions on the acquisition and development of prosody. Largely focusing on European Portuguese (EP) but always from a cross-linguistic approach, we aim at giving a contribution to determine (i) what is the pattern of emergence and development of different aspects of grammatical knowledge, with a special focus on prosody; (ii) how different aspects of grammatical knowledge relate – i.e. what are the precedence relations in the emergence and development of the various aspects of prosodic knowledge, what is the contribution of prosody for the emergence and development of other aspects of grammar, such as word segmentation, the development of the lexicon, the emergence of multiword sentences and word order setting; and (iii) what in language acquisition is biologically determined and/or universal and what is dependent of the ambient language, and in the latter case what is the role of frequency vs. grammar in the acquisition of phonology. These goals will be pursued by a thorough research in four key areas: (1) the emergence and development of prosodic domains at the word and phrase levels; (2) the development of the intonational system; (3) the pace of temporal patterns in early child speech; (4) the processing of prosody in early and adult grammar. Our main focus on EP is a response to the needs to enlarge the number of languages studied in the field; the cross-linguistic approach we assume is a response to the need to do so from both theoretically and methodologically comparable perspectives. Thus, three other languages are also investigated for some of the topics, namely Dutch, Catalan and Spanish, following similar research questions and methodologies, and allowing for cross-linguistic generalizations. Main innovative features of the project are the following: (i) several topics will be investigated for the first time, not only in the languages under observation, but in the field itself, such as the relevance of higher-level prosodic structure for different aspects of phonological and syntactic development; (ii) the scope of observation from the first months of life to 5-6 years of age is unique in studies on the acquisition of EP (and largely to be done for other languages as well); (iii) the study of perception of prosody by infants and children acquiring EP is conducted for the first time; (iv) the attempt to integrate various aspects relevant to the understanding of language acquisition and development, which are usually studied separately, namely perception and production, child speech, child directed speech and adult speech, prosodic structure, prominence, intonation, rhythm and temporal patterns, several aspects of grammatical knowledge (phonology, lexicon, syntax); (v) the setting the first baby and child lab available to research in linguistics in Portugal, with conditions to perform perception studies with babies, and know-how for conducting experiments with this specific population. Besides contributing to crucial topics in current research on language acquisition, the project also aims at producing new linguistically informed and thorough accounts of the grammar and processing of prosody in EP, as well as new databases of child speech, with immediate gains in applied fields such as speech pathology diagnosis and therapy or first and second language teaching and learning. The project explores resources already available in the research unit, namely equipment and recorded databases of child speech. It heavily builds on prior work of members of the research team, crucially profiting from the knowledge gathered in past few years in the fields of comparative phonology and phonetics ([Che2007], [Fro2000], [Fro2009], [F&V2002], [Vig2003], [Pri2009]). Importantly, it also builds on joint work among members of the team (several joint papers on intonation and phrasing in Romance in recent years, e.g. [FDEP&V2007], a collaboration in a special issue of Language & Speech in 2006, a symposium at IASCL in 2008, and a number of ongoing advance training dissertation projects). This research will be conducted in connection with established laboratories (Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, EHESS, Paris; Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics, Grup d’Estudis de Prosòdia (UAB – Universitat Pompeu Fabra).
Página do projecto disponível em http://labfon.letras.ulisboa.pt/babylab/pt/projectos.html
(2016). Early Prosodic Development: Emerging intonation and phrasing in European Portuguese. In Interdisciplinary approaches to intonational grammar in Ibero-Romance (M. E. Armstrong, N. Henriksen & M. M. Vanrell, pp. 295-324). Philadelphia, USA: John Benjamins. http://doi.org/10. 1075/ihll.6.14fro . |
(2015). A Stress “Deafness” Effect in European Portuguese. Language And Speech, 58(1), 48-67. http://doi.org/10.1177/0023830914565193 . |
(2014). Infants Perception of Intonation: Is It a Statement or a Question?. Infancy 19. . |
(2013). Word stress perception in European Portuguese. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2013). . |
(2013). Report: The 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation. Iascl- Child Language Bulletin, 33. . |
(2012). Palavras complexas na aquisição do Português: estudo de caso. In A. Costa, C. Flores & N. Alexandre (eds). Textos Seleccionados do XXVIII Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística (pp. 604-624). Lisboa: APL. . |
(2012). Pitch First, Stress Next? Prosodic Effects on Word Learning in a Intonation Language. In Proceedings of the 36th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development edited by Alia K. Biller, Esther Y. Chung, and Amelia E. Kimball (pp. 190-201). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. . |
(2012). A focus intonational morpheme in European Portuguese: Production and Perception, in Prosody and Meaning. In (pp. 163-196). Elordieta & P. Prieto. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. . |
(2012). Pitch First, Stress Next? Prosodic Effects on Word Learning in a Intonation Language. In Proceedings of the 36th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development edited by Alia K. Biller, Esther Y. Chung, and Amelia E. Kimball (pp. 190-201). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. . |
(2012). MacArthur-Bates Communicative Inventories (CDI) for European Portuguese - Short Form I / CDI para o Português Europeu - Forma reduzida: Nível I. Lisboa: Laboratório de Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
(2012). MacArthur-Bates Communicative Inventories (CDI) for European Portuguese - Short Form II / CDI para o Português Europeu - Forma reduzida: Nível II. Lisboa: Laboratório de Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
(2012). Proso-Quest - Questionário Parental sobre o desenvolvimento da estrutura prosódica e entoação. Lisboa: Laboratório de Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
(2012). FreLex – Lexical frequency. Ferramenta electrónica para contabilização de frequências lexicais. . |
(2012). Frequência na Fonologia do Português: recursos e aplicações. In Nada na linguagem lhe é estranho. Estudos em homenagem a Isabel Hub Faria (pp. 613-631). A. Costa & I. Duarte. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. . |
(2011). Prosódia dos tipos frásicos em variedades do Português Europeu: produção e percepção. In XXVI ENAPL. Textos Seleccionados 2010 (pp. 208-22). M. A. Costa, I. Falé & P. Barbosa. Lisboa: APL. . |
(2011). Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension. (S. Frota, Elordieta, G., & Prieto, P., Eds.). Dordrecht: Springer. |
(2011). Introduction. In S. Frota, G. Elordieta & P. Prieto (eds.) Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension (pp. 1-15). Dordrecht: Springer. . |
(2011). Para uma caracterização da distinção entre palavras prosódicas e clíticas com base em dados de frequência. In M. A. Costa, I. Falé & P. Barbosa (eds.) Textos Seleccionados do XXVI Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística (pp. 589-603). Lisboa: APL. . |
(2010). The intonational phrase constrains coda development. In Language Acquisition and Development. Proceedings of GALA 2009. A. Castro, J. Costa, M. Lobo & F. Pratas. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars. . |
LumaLiDaOn - version 2 (with prosodic labelling). Lisboa: Lab. Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
LumaLiDaAudy - Audio Child Speech Database with phonetic transcription and prosodic labelling. Lisboa: Lab. Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
PLEX5 – A production lexicon of child speech for European Portuguese / Um léxico infantil para o Português Europeu. Lisboa: Laboratório de Fonética CLUL/FLUL. . |
CDS_EP: A lexicon of Child Directed Speech from the FrePoP database (0;11 to 3;04) . Laboratório de Fonética, CLUL/FLUL. . |
2013
Butler, J., M. Vigário & S. Frota. 2013. Infants´ perception of intonation and its use in early word learning. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Chen, A. & S. Frota. 2013. Cross-linguistic research on early intonational development: current findings and future directions. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Correia, S., S. Frota, J. Butler & M. Vigário. 2013. A stress “deafness” effect in European Portuguese. Presented at the Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia conference, Lisbon, 25-26th June.
Correia, S., S. Frota, J. Butler & M. Vigário. 2013. Words stress perception in European Portuguese. Poster presented at the 14th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech), Lyon, 25-29th August 2013.
Esteve-Gibert, N., P. Prieto & U. Liszkowski. 2013. Infants’ early pragmatic understanding of pointing gestures: the role of prosody and gesture shape. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Frota, S., J. Butler, C. Severino, S. Correia & M. Vigário. 2013. Infants' perception of intonation categories. Poster presented at the Workshop on Infant Language Development, Donostian-San Sebastian, Spain, 19-22 June.
Frota, S., Severino, C., Butler, J. & Matos, N. 2013. Development of CDI short forms for European Portuguese. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Frota, S., Severino, C., Butler, J., Correia, S. & Vigário, M. 2013. Adaptação dos questionários MacArthur-Bates (CDI) ao Português Europeu: formas reduzidas para o Nível I (8 a 18 meses) e Nível II (16 a 30 meses). Talk given at the XXIX Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Ling uística. Coimbra. 23-25 October.
Vigário, M. & S. Frota. 2013. The DEPE project. An overview. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Vigário, M., Butler, J. & Correia, S. 2013. Early prosodic development in European Portuguese: Proso-quest, a parental report of infants prosodic skills. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Prosody and Intonation, Lisbon, 27th June.
Frota, S. 2013. Percepção infantil e aquisição da linguagem. Conferência convidada no âmbito do Painel Audição e Linguagem - Papel da perceção Auditiva no desenvolvimento da linguagem, inserido nas Jornadas Científicas de Audiologia da Coimbra Health School Annual Meetings. Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Coimbra, 21 Abril.
2012
Butler, J., S. Frota & M. Vigário. 2012. Early discrimination of declarative and question intonation. Poster presented at the 3rd Early Language Acquisition (ELA) conference, Lyon, 5th-7th December.
Butler, J., S. Frota & M. Vigário. 2012. Infants' perception of intonation: Is it a statement or a question? Talk given at TIE5 - Fifth European Conference on Tone and Intonation, Oxford.
Butler, J., S. Frota & M. Vigário. 2012. Infants' perception of intonation: Is it a statement or a question? Poster presented at the Workshop on the Acquisition of Syntax of Romance languages - Romance Turn V, Lisbon.
Correia, S., S. Frota, J. Butler & M. Vigário. 2012. Percepção do acento em posição nuclear e pós nuclear. Talk given at the XVIII Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística. Universidade do Algarve.
Correia, S. 2012. Word stress perception in nuclear and post-nuclear position in Portuguese. Poster presented at 5th Tone and Intonation Conference 2012. Oxford, UK, 6-8th September.
Fonseca, J. & M. Vigário. 2012. Localização cerebral do processamento de informação prosódica: resultados preliminares. Talk given at the 6º Congresso Português do Acidente Vascular Cerebral, Porto.
Frota, S., M. Vigário & S. Correia. 2012. Aspectos da percepção, produção e compreensão da linguagem nos primeiros anos de vida. Invited talk, Centro de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Infantil-CADIN.
Vigário, M., S. Frota, J. Butler & L. Wheeldon. 2012. Units of phonological encoding revisited: evidence from asymmetrical clitics and lexical/phrasal compounds. Talk given at TIE5 - Fifth European Conference on Tone and Intonation, Oxford.
2011
Frota, S. 2011. Lisbon BabyLab: estudar a percepção e compreensão da linguagem nos primeiros anos de vida. Invited talk, Laboratório de Fala, Fac. de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Porto.
Frota, S., C. Severino, J. Butler, S. Correia & M. Vigário. 2011. Early interpretation of stress and pitch contrasts in European Portuguese. IASCL 2011 (Congress of the International Association for the Study of Child Language, Montreal). Poster.
Frota, S., J. Butler, S. Correia & C. Severino. 2011. Stress and pitch contrasts in early word learning in European Portuguese. Talk given at the XXVII ENAPL. Univ. Nova, Lisboa.
Vigário, M., S. Frota & F. Martins. 2011. Asymmetries between prosodic words and clitics in the frequency of phonological patterns: implications for language acquisition. Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia, Univ. Rovira i Virgili. Poster.
Vigário, M., S. Frota & N. Matos. 2011. Early prosodic development: Evidence from intonation and tempo. IASCL 2011 (Congress of the International Association for the Study of Child Language), Montreal. Poster.
Vigário, M., S. Frota & N. Matos. 2011. Early prosodic development in European Portuguese: Evidence from intonation and tempo. International Child Phonology Conference, York. Poster.
Vigário, M. & P. Garcia. 2011. Aquisição da morfologia derivacional no Português Europeu: estudo de caso. Talk given at the XXVII ENAPL. Univ. Nova, Lisboa.
2010
Frota, S. 2010. Prosodic structure in early child speech: Evidence from intonation, tempo and coda production. Invited talk at the Workshop on Prosodic Development. Universitat Pompeu Fabra.