Infant-directed speech in Brazilian Portuguese:
The prosody of questions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-460x202258879Resumen
Infant-directed speech (IDS) is the register commonly used in infant-adult interactions in many linguistic communities, and presents a number of special lexical, syntactic and prosodic particularities when compared to adult speech, such as words with syllable reduplication, high question rate and exaggerated prosody. In this study, we focus on interrogatives and their prosodic properties as the object of investigation. Data analysis of interactions of ten Brazilian Portuguese-acquiring infants aged 4 to 12 months and their caregivers, revealed that questions corresponded to 33% of the total utterances produced and are emphasized mainly by marked pitch (raised pitch range and expanded pitch span), as well as increased duration. Moreover, the pitch contours of Wh and Yes/No questions followed their respective patterns observed in adult speech. These results are compatible with those found in the literature and indicate that, in general, the IDS used in Brazilian Portuguese has similar characteristics to this register in other languages.
Citas
Adriaans, F., & Swingley, D. (2017). Prosodic exaggeration within infant- directed speech: Consequences for vowel learnability. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(5), 3070-3078. https://doi. org/10.1121/1.4982246.
Barbosa, P. A. (2000). “Syllable-timing in Brazilian Portuguese”: Uma crítica a Roy Major. DELTA, 16(2), 369-402. https://doi. org/10.1590/S0102-44502000000200006.
Benders, T., StGeorge, J., & Fletcher, R. (2021). Infant-directed speech by Dutch fathers: Increased pitch variability within and across utterances. Language Learning and Development, 17(3), 292-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2021.1876698.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2019). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 6.1.08) [Computer software]. http://www.praat.org.
Braga, G., Frota, S., & Fernandes-Svartman, F. (2022). Guinea-Bissau Portuguese: What the intonation of yes-no question shows about this variety. Special issue Prosody and interfaces (Ed. by C. Serra, F. Fernandes-Svartman, and M. Cruz). DELTA, 38(3), Article 202258942, 1-27. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678460X202258942.
Campbell, N. & Mokhtari, P. (2003). Voice quality: The 4th prosodic dimension. In M. J. Solé, D. Recasens, & J. Romero (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2417–2420). https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/ icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2003/papers/p15_2417.pdf.
Castro, B. S. A., Martins-Reis, V. O., Baptista, A. C., & Celeste, L. C. (2014). Fluency profile: Comparison between Brazilian and European Portuguese speakers. CoDAS, 26(6), 444-446. https://doi. org/10.1590/2317-1782/20142014184.
Cavalcante, M. C. B. & Barros, A. T. M. C. (2012). Manhês: Qualidade vocal e deslocamentos na dialogia mãe-bebê. Veredas – Revista de Estudos Linguísticos, 16(spe), 25-39. https://periodicos.ufjf.br/index. php/veredas/article/view/25054.
Chiang, C., Geffen, S., & Mintz, T. H. (2018). Distinguishing questions and statements using sentence-initial prosodic cues. In A. B. Bertolini & M. J. Kaplan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 153-158). http://www. lingref.com/bucld/42/BUCLD42-12.pdf.
Cinelli, E. (2021, September 17). How prosody plays a role in language development. Verywell Family. https://www.verywellfamily.com/ prosody-and-language-acquisition-5191264.
Cooper, R. P., & Aslin, R. N. (1990). Preference for infant-directed speech in the first month after birth. Child Development, 61(5), 1584-1595. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130766.
Cristia, A. (2013). Input to language: The phonetics and perception of infant-directed speech. Language and Linguistics Compass, 7(3), 157-170. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12015.
Cristia, A., Dupoux, E., Gurven, M., & Stieglitz, J. (2019). Child-directed speech is infrequent in a forager-farmer population: A time allocation study. Child Development, 90(3), 759-773. https://doi.org/10.1111/ cdev.12974.
Dadalto, E. V., & Goldfeld, M. (2006). Características do maternalês em duas crianças de idades distintas. Distúrbios da Comunicação, 18(2), 201-208. https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/dic/article/ view/11786/8520.
De Looze, C., & Hirst, D. (2014). The OMe (octave median) scale: A natural scale for speech prosody. In N. Campbell, D. Gibbon, & D. Hirst (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Speech Prosody (pp. 910-914). https://www.isca-speech.org/ archive_v0/SpeechProsody_2014/pdfs/175.pdf.
De Pablo, I, Murillo, E., & Romero, A. (2020). The effect of infant-directed speech on early multimodal communicative production in Spanish and Basque. Journal of Child Language, 47(2), 457-471. https://doi. org/10.1017/S0305000919000412.
Faria, B. S., Oliveira, K. V., Godoy e Silva, J. P., Reis, C., Ghio, A., & Gama, A. C. C. (2012). Electroglottography of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese through objective multiparameter vocal assessment (EVA). Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, 78(4), 29-34. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1808-86942012000400007.
Fernald, A. (1992). Human maternal vocalizations to infants as biologically relevant signals: An evolutionary perspective. In J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind. Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 391-428). Oxford University Press.
Fernald, A., & Kuhl, P. (1987). Acoustic determinants of infant preference for motherese speech. Infant Behavior and Development, 10(3), 279- 293. https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-6383(87)90017-8.
Fernald, A., & O’Neill, D. K. (1993). Peekaboo across cultures: How mothers and infants play with voices, faces, and expectations. In K. MacDonald (Ed.), Parent–child play: Descriptions and implications (pp. 259–285). State University of New York Press.
Fernald, A., & Simon, T. (1984). Expanded intonation contours in mothers’ speech to newborns. Developmental Psychology, 20(1), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.20.1.104.
Fernald, A., Taescher, T., Dunn, J., Papousek, M., De Boysson-Bardies, B., & Fukui, I. (1989). A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers’ and fathers’ speech to preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 16(3), p. 477-501. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0305000900010679.
Floccia, C., Keren-Portnoy, T., DePaolis, R., Duffy, H., Delle Luche, C., Durrant, S., White, L., Goslin, J., & Vihman, M. (2016). British English infants segment words only with exaggerated infant-directed speech stimuli. Cognition, 148, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cognition.2015.12.004.
Frota, S., Butler, J., & Vigário, M. (2014). Infant’s perception of intonation: Is it a statement or a question? Infancy, 19(2), 194-213. https://doi. org/10.1111/infa.12037.
Garnica, O. K. (1977) Some prosodic and paralinguistics features of speech to young children. In C. E. Snow & C. A. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to children: Language input and acquisition (pp. 63-88). Cambridge University Press.
Garnica, O. K. (1974). Some prosodic characteristics of speech to young children. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Stanford University.
Geffen, S., & Mintz, T. (2017). Prosodic differences between declaratives and interrogatives in infant-directed speech. Journal of Child Language, 44(4), 968-994. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000916000349.
Gobl, C., & Chasaide, A. N. (2003). The role of voice quality in communicating emotion, mood and attitude. Speech Communication, 40(1-2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-6393(02)00082-1.
Gout, A., Christophe, A., & Morgan, J. L. (2004). Phonological phrase boundaries constrain lexical access: II Infant data. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(4), 548-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jml.2004.07.002.
Graf Estes, K., & Hurley, K. (2013). Infant-directed prosody helps infants map sounds to meanings. Infancy, 18(5), 797-824. https:// doi.org/10.1111/infa.12006.
Grichkovtsova, I., Morel, M., & Lacheret, A. (2012). The role of voice quality and prosodic contour in affective speech perception. Speech Communication, 54(3), 414-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2011.10.005.
Grieser, D. L., & Kuhl, P. K. (1988). Maternal speech to infants in a tonal language: Support for universal prosodic features in motherese. Developmental Psychology, 24(1), 14-20. https://doi. org/10.1037/0012-1649.24.1.14.
Guimarães, I., & Abberton E. (2005). Fundamental frequency in speakers of Portuguese for different voice samples. Journal of Voice, 19(4), 592-606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.11.004.
Gussenhoven, C. (2004). The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616983. Guzman, M., Correa, S., Muñoz, D., & Mayerhoff, R. (2013). Influence
on spectral energy distribution of emotional expression. Journal of Voice, 27(1), Article 129.e1-129.e10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jvoice.2012.08.008.
Hart, J., Collier, R., & Cohen, A. (1990). A perceptual study of intonation: An experimental-phonetic approach to speech melody. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627743.
Hedberg,N.,Sosa,J.M.,Görgülu,̈ E.,&Mameni,M.(2010).Prosodyand pragmatics of wh-interrogatives. In M. Heijl (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/actes2010/CLA2010_ Hedberg_et_al.pdf.
Kitamura, C., Thanavishuth, C., Burnham, D., & Luksaneeyanawin, S. (2001). Universality and specificity in infant-directed speech: Pitch modifications as a function of infant age and sex in a tonal and non- tonal language. Infant Behavior and Development, 24(4), 372-392. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(02)00086-3.
Klatt, D. H., & Klatt, L.C. (1990). Analysis, synthesis, and perception of voice quality variations among female and male talkers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 87(2), 820-857. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.398894.
Ladd, D. R. (2008). Intonational phonology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808814. Laver, J. (1980). The phonetic description of voice quality. Cambridge
University Press.
Liberman, M. (2018, November 26). A better way to calculate pitch range.
Language Log. https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=40788. Martins, V. O., & Andrade, C. R. F. (2008). Perfil evolutivo da fluência da fala de falantes do português brasileiro. Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica, 20(1), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-56872008000100002.
Matsuoka, A., & Name, C. (2011). O uso de pistas prosódicas na identificação do adjetivo por crianças e adultos falantes do PB. In Anais do VII Congresso Internacional da ABRALIN (pp. 577-587).
Meireles, A. R., & Barbosa, P. A. (2008). Speech rate effects on speech rhythm. In Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2008 (pp. 327–330). https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/pdfs/speechprosody_2008/ meireles08_speechprosody.pdf.
Meireles, A. R., Tozetti, J. P., & Borges, R. R. (2010). Speech rate and rhythmic variation in Brazilian Portuguese. In Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2010. Paper 875. https://www.isca-speech.org/archive_v0/ sp2010/papers/sp10_875.pdf.
Miranda, L., Moraes, J., & Rilliard, A. (2022). Effects of F0 movements, intensity, and duration in the perceptual identification of Brazilian Portuguese wh-questions and wh-exclamations. Special issue Prosody and interfaces (Ed. by C. Serra, F. Fernandes-Svartman, and M. Cruz). DELTA, 38(3), Article 202258882, 1-29. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-460X202258882.
Moraes, J. A. (2008). The pitch accents in Brazilian Portuguese: Analysis by synthesis. In Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2008 (pp. 389-397). https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/pdfs/speechprosody_2008/ moraes08_speechprosody.pdf.
Name, C., & Sosa, J. M. (2020a). The prosody of questions in Brazilian Portuguese infant-directed speech. In N. Minematsu, M. Kondo, T. Arai & R. Hayashi (Eds.), Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2020 (pp. 334-337). https://doi.org/10.21437/SpeechProsody.2020-68.
Name, C., & Sosa, J. M. (2020b). Cadê o amor da mamãe? As interrogativas na fala dirigida à criança adquirindo o PB. Veredas - Revista de Estudos Linguísticos, 24(1), 72-93. https://doi.org/10.34019/1982-2243.2020.v24.30916.
Narayan, C. R., & McDermott, L. C. (2016). Speech rate and pitch characteristics of infant-directed speech: Longitudinal and cross- linguistic observations. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 139, 1272-1281. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4944634.
Newport, E., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (1977). Mother, I’d rather do it myself: Some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In C. Snow, & C. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to children: Language input and acquisition (pp.109-149). Cambridge University Press.
Niwano, K., & Sugai, K. (2003). Pitch characteristics of speech during mother-infant and father-infant vocal interactions. The Japanese Journal of Special Education, 40(6), 663-674. https://doi.org/10.6033/ tokkyou.40.663.
Papoušek, M., Papoušek, H., & Haekel, M. (1987). Didactic adjustments in fathers’ and mothers’ speech to their 3-month-old infants. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 16, 491-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF01073274.
Peter, V., Kalashnikova, M., Santos, A., & Burnham, D. (2016). Mature neural responses to infant-directed speech but not adult-directed speech in pre-verbal infants. Nature Scientfic Reports, 6, Article 34273. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34273.
Räsänen, O., Kakouros, S., & Soderstrom, M. (2018). Is infant-directed speech interesting because it is surprising? Linking properties of IDS to statistical learning and attention at the prosodic level. Cognition, 178, 193-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.05.015.
Rietveld, T., & Vermillion, P. (2003). Cues for perceived pitch register. Phonetica, 60(4), 261–272. https://doi.org/10.1159/000076376. Saint-Georges, C., Chetouani, M., Cassel, R., Apicella, F., Mahdhaoui,
A., Muratori, F., Laznik, M.-C., & Cohen, D. (2013). Motherese in interaction: At the cross-road of emotion and cognition? (A systematic review). PLoS One, 8(10), Article e78103. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0078103.
Silva, V. (1999). Análise eletroglotográfica de diferentes tipos de vozes [Trabalho de conclusão de curso]. Centro de Estudos da Voz.
Silva, I. O., & Name, C. (2014). A sensibilidade de bebês brasileiros a pistas prosódicas de fronteiras de sintagma entoacional na fala dirigida à criança. Letrônica, 7(1), 4-25. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2014.1.16855.
Snow, E. C. (1977). Mothers’ speech research: from input to interaction. In C. Snow, & C. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to children: Language input and acquisition (pp. 31-49). Cambridge University Press.
Snow, E. C. (1995). Issues in the study of input: Finetuning, universality, individual and developmental differences, and necessary causes. In P. Fletcher, & B. MacWhinney (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp. 180-193). Blackwell.
Soderstrom, M. (2007). Beyond babytalk: Re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants. Development Review, 27(4), 501-532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.06.002.
Soderstrom, M., Blossom, M., Foygel, R., & Morgan, J. (2008).Acoustic cues and grammatical units in speech to two preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 35(4), 869-902. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000908008763.
Soley, G., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2020). Infants’ expectations about the recipients of infant-directed and adult-directed speech. Cognition, 198, 104214, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104214.
Sosa, J. M. (2003). Wh-questions in Spanish: Meanings and configuration variability. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2, 229-247. https://raco.cat/index.php/CatalanJournal/article/view/308981.
Splendore, K. M., Constantini, A. C., & Da Silva, K. C. (2019). Investigação da prosódia e da linguagem na interação mãe-bebê. Working Papers em Linguística, 20(1), 172-188. https://doi.org/10.5007/19848420.2019v20n1p172.
Thiessen, E. D., Hill, E. A., & Saffran, J. R. (2005). Infant-directed speech facilitates word segmentation. Infancy, 7(1), 53-71. https:// doi.org/10.1207/s15327078in0701_5.
Thorson, J., Borras-Comes, J., Crespo-Sendra, V., Vanrell, M., & Prieto, P. (2014). The acquisition of melodic form and meaning in yes-no interrogatives by Catalan and Spanish children. Probus, 27(1), 73-99. https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2013-0019.
Wang, Y., Seidl, A., & Cristia, A. (2016). Acoustic characteristics of infant- directed speech as a function of prosodic typology. In J. Heinz, R. Goedemans, & H. Van der Hulst (Eds.), Dimensions of phonological stress (pp. 311-326). Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/9781316212745.012.
Weber, A., Fernald, A., & Diop, Y. (2017). When cultural norms discourage talking to babies: Effectiveness of a parenting program in Rural Senegal. Child Development, 88(5), 1513-1526. https://doi. org/10.1111/cdev.12882.
Weirich, M., & Simpson, A. (2019). Effects of gender, parental role, and time on infant- and adult-directed read and spontaneous speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(11), 4001-4014. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-S190047.
