L’intonazione delle narrazioni di bambini ed adulti italiani

Un’analisi all’interno dell’approccio autosegmentale metrico

Abstract

This study aims to compare the intonation used in narratives by Italian 3-year-old children and adults. Indeed, just few studies investigated the prosodic characteristic of complex language, such as discourse or narration, in childhood (e.g., Redford, Dilley, Gamache & Wieland, 2012; De Ruiter, 2014). The intonation was transcribed using the ToBI system, cast within the Autosegmental-Metrical theory. The results show that 3-year-old children can use the same nuclear pitch accent than adults, but they do not produce rising boundary tones in the same measure than adults. These results are discussed considering the possible relationships between intonation and cognitive development.