Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension in Answers to WhQuestions
8 views 0 purchase
Course
Children\'s Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension
Institution
Children\'s Sensitivity To Prosody And Ostension
Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension in Answers to WhQuestions
Bethany Stoddard
Goethe Universität
Jill de Villiers
Smith College,
Follow this and additional works at:
Part of the Linguistics Commons, and the Philosophy Commons
Recommended Citation
Stoddard, Bethany an...
Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension in Answers to Wh-
Questions
Bethany Stoddard
Goethe Universität
Jill de Villiers
Smith College, jdevilli@smith.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phi_facpubs
Part of the Linguistics Commons, and the Philosophy Commons
Recommended Citation
Stoddard, Bethany and de Villiers, Jill, "Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension in Answers to Wh-
Questions" (2021). Philosophy: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phi_facpubs/38
This Conference Proceeding has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy: Faculty Publications by an authorized
administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@smith.edu
, BUCLD 45 Proceedings
To be published in 2021 by Cascadilla Press
Rights forms signed by all authors
Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Ostension in Answers to
Wh-Questions.
Bethany Stoddard and Jill de Villiers
1. Introduction**
This paper examines the effects of two often overlooked factors in children’s
answers to wh-questions: the prosodic contour of the question and the complexity
of the visual stimuli. There are two potential effects on the interpretation of a
question in English: whether it is moved, and what kind of prosody it has. In
English, the usual form of a wh-question has a wh-question moved to the front
(1), in Spec CP. In such a case, the nuclear contour is usually falling:
(1) What did the woman buy?
In the case where the wh-question is stressed, the question has a rising nuclear
contour:
(2) What did the woman buy?
In a third variety, the wh-word remains in situ, is stressed, and there is a rising
nuclear contour:
(3) The woman bought what?
A 2010 corpus study of American English by Hedberg et al. examined
prosody in adults’ production of moved wh-questions and its relation to each
question’s pragmatic function in the discourse. They found that wh-questions
have a falling nuclear contour 81% of the time, and a rising nuclear contour 18%
of the time (Hedberg et al., 2010). Their results showed that falling questions are
typically used to get more information about a topic, to introduce a subtopic, or
to influence the discussion of the current topic. Rising questions, on the other
hand, behave much more like wh-in-situ echo questions, and are used to ask for
background information or to clarify information that was not heard. Are children
*
Bethany Stoddard, Lab for German as a Second Language, Goethe Universität
Frankfurt, Germany, bethstoddard1@gmail.com. This work was completed as part of a
BA honors thesis in Linguistics at Smith College.
*
Jill de Villiers, Psychology Department, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller Tutorgrades. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $14.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
