Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
1.4
0.9
Journals
Languages
Special Issues
Advances in the Acquisition of Prosody
share announcement

Advances in the Acquisition of Prosody

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2024) | Viewed by 2719

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mariapaola D'Imperio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Aix-Marseille Université & LPL, CNRS, BP 80975, 13604 Aix-en-Provence, France
Interests: prosody; intonation; phonetics; laboratory phonology; language acquisition; speech perception
Prof. Dr. Sónia Frota

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center of Linguistics, University of Lisbon, 1600-214 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: prosody; language acquisition; language development; language disorders; experimental linguistics; multimodal perception
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are guest editing a Special Issue of Languages entitled ‘Advances in the Acquisition of Prosody’.

Prosody is central to language and communication; it comprises sub-syllabic units to sentence and discourse-level units and interfaces with segmental phonology, morphology, and syntax. It is relevant to information structure and pragmatics and plays a key role in language processing and language acquisition. Prosodic impairments may considerably affect social interactions and typical language development. It is thus crucial to understand how prosody is acquired and how it develops in first-language, second-language, and multilingual settings, in perception and production, and in typical and atypical language development. Arriving at a comprehensive picture of the acquisition of prosody requires input from diverse disciplines such as language sciences, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, speech therapy, speech and hearing science, or computer science. This Special Issue aims to advance current knowledge on the acquisition of prosody, taking advantage of recent theoretical and methodological developments in language-related fields, as well as of interdisciplinary undertakings.

We invite cutting-edge original work on prosodic acquisition and development and all approaches to investigating the acquisition of prosody are welcome, including theoretical, instrumental, behavioral, perceptual, electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies. Under-represented languages, topics, or populations, and cross-linguistic or interdisciplinary contributions are particularly welcome.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (mdimperio2@gmail.com and sfrota@edu.ulisboa.pt ) and to Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative Completion Schedule

Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 September 2024
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 11 October 2024
Full Manuscript Deadline: 20 December 2024

Prof. Dr. Mariapaola D’Imperio
Prof. Dr. Sónia Frota
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • language acquisition
  • language development
  • prosody
  • intonation
  • rhythm
  • phrasing
  • prominence
  • stress
  • tone
  • language impairment
  • multimodal prosody
  • atypical prosody
  • word prosody
  • phrasal prosody
  • production of prosody
  • perception of prosody
  • infants
  • toddlers
  • children

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

33 pages, 3118 KiB  
Article
Preschoolers Mark Focus Types Through Multimodal Prominence: Further Evidence for the Precursor Role of Gestures
by Sara Coego, Núria Esteve-Gibert and Pilar Prieto
Languages 2025, 10(5), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10050092 (registering DOI) - 26 Apr 2025
Viewed by 103
Abstract
The present cross-sectional study assessed the role of multimodal cues in marking focus types during early childhood, focusing on prosodic prominence, gesture presence, and gestural prominence. A total of 116 Catalan-speaking three-, four- and five-year-olds participated in a semi-controlled interactive task eliciting words [...] Read more.
The present cross-sectional study assessed the role of multimodal cues in marking focus types during early childhood, focusing on prosodic prominence, gesture presence, and gestural prominence. A total of 116 Catalan-speaking three-, four- and five-year-olds participated in a semi-controlled interactive task eliciting words in three focus conditions: information, contrastive, and corrective. The data were coded manually using holistic assessments for all three measures. The results indicated, first, that children’s prosodic and gestural behavior was key in marking corrective focus. A significant tendency to use more gestures and increase both prosodic and gestural prominence was found in the corrective focus condition across the three age groups. Second, a developmental difference emerged in the acquisition of contrastive focus. Three-year-olds relied solely on gesture presence to encode contrastive focus, being unable to differentiate it prosodically from information focus. In turn, four- and five-year-olds used both gestures and prosody, with contrastive focus not only receiving more gestures than information focus but also increased prosodic prominence. This finding shows that gesture presence is a precursor to prosodic prominence in marking contrastive focus in Catalan, thus supporting the idea that gesture production can bootstrap the expression of focus type distinctions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Acquisition of Prosody)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 3996 KiB  
Article
How Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder Use Prosody and Gestures to Process Phrasal Ambiguities
by Albert Giberga, Ernesto Guerra, Nadia Ahufinger, Alfonso Igualada, Mari Aguilera and Núria Esteve-Gibert
Languages 2025, 10(4), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040061 - 26 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1154
Abstract
Prosody is crucial for resolving phrasal ambiguities. Recent research suggests that gestures can enhance this process, which may be especially useful for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), who have impaired structural language. This study investigates how children with DLD use prosodic and [...] Read more.
Prosody is crucial for resolving phrasal ambiguities. Recent research suggests that gestures can enhance this process, which may be especially useful for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), who have impaired structural language. This study investigates how children with DLD use prosodic and gestural cues to interpret phrasal ambiguities. Catalan-speaking children with and without DLD heard sentences with two possible interpretations, a high (less common) and low (more common) attachment interpretation of the verb clause. Sentences were presented in three conditions: baseline (no cues to high-attachment interpretation), prosody-only (prosodic cues to high-attachment interpretation), and multimodal (prosodic and gestural cues to high-attachment interpretation). Offline target selection and online gaze patterns were analysed across linguistic (DLD vs. TD) and age groups (5–7 vs. 8–10 years old) to see if multimodal cues facilitate the processing of the less frequent high-attachment interpretation. The offline results revealed that prosodic cues influenced all children’s comprehension of phrasal structures and that gestures provided no benefit beyond prosody. Online data showed that children with DLD struggled to integrate visual information. Our findings underscore that children with DLD can rely on prosodic cues to support sentence comprehension and highlight the importance of integrating multimodal cues in linguistic interactions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Acquisition of Prosody)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop