Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Acquisition of Prosodic Patterns in English and Greek

这项研究的核心是一个基本问题：儿童是如何以及何时习得母语的韵律模式的？虽然婴儿对自己语言的韵律特性很敏感，但孩子们可能要到12岁才能完全掌握语音的使用。本论文项目将是第一个使用声学数据进行韵律发展的大规模研究。数据将从三个年龄组（6岁，9岁和12岁）收集，以评估两种语言韵律产生的发展模式：希腊语和英语。本研究考察了在不同领域（复合重音、短语重音和附重读）中运行的韵律现象，以解释它们习得的顺序。比较希腊语和英语将有助于更好地理解语言的共同韵律特性，而不是由学习的特定语言系统决定的韵律特性。由于语音发展在阅读技能的发展中起着重要作用，这些发现可能会产生与教育相关的见解。了解发展过程也有助于改善有韵律发育问题的儿童（如自闭症）的教学方法。

At the core of this research is a fundamental question: how and when do children acquire the prosodic patterns of their mother tongue? Although young infants are sensitive to the prosodic properties of their language, children may not fully master their phonological use until the age of 12. This dissertation project will be the first large scale study of the development of prosody using acoustic data. Data will be collected from three age groups (6-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 12-year-olds) to assess the developmental patterns in the production of prosody in two languages: Greek and English. The study examines prosodic phenomena operating in different domains (compound, phrase and clitic stress) in order to explain the order in which they are acquired. Comparing Greek and English will lead to a better understanding of the prosodic properties that languages have in common, as opposed to those determined by the specific linguistic system one learns. Since phonological development plays a major role in the development of reading skills, the findings may yield insights relevant to education. Understanding the developmental process may also contribute to improved methods of instruction for children with developmental problems in prosody (e.g. autism).