Intonation with single words: purposive and grammatical use

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study examined the transition to purposive use of intonation with single words for two children. Contrary to Bloom's (1973) claim of no systematic use of intonation in the one-word period, purposive use of rising tones was demonstrated in the context of indicating interest and naming objects. One child, by 1;3, clearly used rising tones to ask ‘legitimate’ questions in which the content of the replies mattered. If an informative response was not given he repeated his question accentuating the rising tone. The other child also sought informative replies, although this could only be established at 1;6. In addition, by 1;5 both children demonstrated widespread grammatical use of intonation in which a word was combined with distinct intonations to indicate a meaning distinction equivalent to one made by the grammar of the language. There were, however, earlier developments that presaged the way, so that the transition to grammatical use of intonation was gradual.

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