Infants have access to the prosodic aspects of their ambient language
even prior to birth, but many aspects of prosody are produced and
comprehended well after infancy. One of these aspects includes
prosody related to internal states such as beliefs,
desires, feelings and emotions. In this chapter, we review the
literature on prosody related to internal states, paying special
attention to prosodic meanings associated with
emotions and belief states and
drawing from production and comprehension studies of preschool- and
school-aged children. We show that there are many parallels in the
development of these two aspects of prosody, suggesting the
usefulness of studying them in tandem. Implications for these
findings are discussed as well as fruitful directions for future
work.
Article outline
Introduction
Children’s use of prosody for conveying and perceiving
emotions
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