Abstract

DODANE, Christelle; MARTEL, Karine  and  VASCONCELOS, Angelina Nunes de. Prosody, pragmatics and emergency of syntax in the child’s language. Lingüística [online]. 2019, vol.35, n.2, pp.149-169.  Epub Dec 01, 2019. ISSN 2079-312X.  https://doi.org/10.5935/2079-312x.20190022.

To better understand the role of the pause during the emergence of the first syntax in the acquisition of French, we analyzed the first two-word combinations in a longitudinal study gathering the productions of two French monolingual children, filmed in interaction with their parents, between 15 and 25 months.

The results show that the criterion of pause is very important in the construction of the first syntax, but that it must be studied in conjunction with other prosodic cues, such as the lengthening of the last syllable of each word and the intonation contour. In the absence of grammatical words, it is these different cues that help to bring together and strengthen the prosodic and semantic cohesion within the two-word sentences. In addition, they confirm the existence of a transition period when children use SSWUs (Successive Single-Word Utterances) before producing a majority of two-word sentences.

Keywords : prosody; syntax; pauses; acquisition; French.

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