Utterances in infant-directed speech are shorter, not slower

Andrew Martin; Yosuke Igarashi; Nobuyuki Jincho; Reiko Mazuka

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015

Utterances in infant-directed speech are shorter, not slower

Andrew Martin^*, Yosuke Igarashi, Nobuyuki Jincho, Reiko Mazuka

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It has become a truism in the literature on infant-directed speech (IDS) that IDS is pronounced more slowly than adult-directed speech (ADS). Using recordings of 22 Japanese mothers speaking to their infant and to an adult, we show that although IDS has an overall lower mean speech rate than ADS, this is not the result of an across-the-board slowing in which every vowel is expanded equally. Instead, the speech rate difference is entirely due to the effects of phrase-final lengthening, which disproportionally affects IDS because of its shorter utterances. These results demonstrate that taking utterance-internal prosodic characteristics into account is crucial to studies of speech rate.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	52-59
Number of pages	8
Journal	Cognition
Volume	156
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015
Publication status	Published - 2016 Nov 1

Keywords

Final lengthening
Infant-directed speech
Speech rate

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Language and Linguistics
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Cognitive Neuroscience

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015

Cite this

@article{065d516508374879a866c8ad45026106,

title = "Utterances in infant-directed speech are shorter, not slower",

abstract = "It has become a truism in the literature on infant-directed speech (IDS) that IDS is pronounced more slowly than adult-directed speech (ADS). Using recordings of 22 Japanese mothers speaking to their infant and to an adult, we show that although IDS has an overall lower mean speech rate than ADS, this is not the result of an across-the-board slowing in which every vowel is expanded equally. Instead, the speech rate difference is entirely due to the effects of phrase-final lengthening, which disproportionally affects IDS because of its shorter utterances. These results demonstrate that taking utterance-internal prosodic characteristics into account is crucial to studies of speech rate.",

keywords = "Final lengthening, Infant-directed speech, Speech rate",

author = "Andrew Martin and Yosuke Igarashi and Nobuyuki Jincho and Reiko Mazuka",

year = "2016",

month = nov,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015",

language = "English",

volume = "156",

pages = "52--59",

journal = "Cognition",

issn = "0010-0277",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Utterances in infant-directed speech are shorter, not slower

AU - Martin, Andrew

AU - Igarashi, Yosuke

AU - Jincho, Nobuyuki

AU - Mazuka, Reiko

PY - 2016/11/1

Y1 - 2016/11/1

N2 - It has become a truism in the literature on infant-directed speech (IDS) that IDS is pronounced more slowly than adult-directed speech (ADS). Using recordings of 22 Japanese mothers speaking to their infant and to an adult, we show that although IDS has an overall lower mean speech rate than ADS, this is not the result of an across-the-board slowing in which every vowel is expanded equally. Instead, the speech rate difference is entirely due to the effects of phrase-final lengthening, which disproportionally affects IDS because of its shorter utterances. These results demonstrate that taking utterance-internal prosodic characteristics into account is crucial to studies of speech rate.

AB - It has become a truism in the literature on infant-directed speech (IDS) that IDS is pronounced more slowly than adult-directed speech (ADS). Using recordings of 22 Japanese mothers speaking to their infant and to an adult, we show that although IDS has an overall lower mean speech rate than ADS, this is not the result of an across-the-board slowing in which every vowel is expanded equally. Instead, the speech rate difference is entirely due to the effects of phrase-final lengthening, which disproportionally affects IDS because of its shorter utterances. These results demonstrate that taking utterance-internal prosodic characteristics into account is crucial to studies of speech rate.

KW - Final lengthening

KW - Infant-directed speech

KW - Speech rate

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84982843950&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84982843950&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015

DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.015

M3 - Article

C2 - 27513869

AN - SCOPUS:84982843950

SN - 0010-0277

VL - 156

SP - 52

EP - 59

JO - Cognition

JF - Cognition

ER -

Utterances in infant-directed speech are shorter, not slower

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this