Five-year-olds produce prosodic cues to distinguish compounds from lists in Australian English

Although previous research has indicated that five-year-olds can use acoustic cues to disambiguate compounds (N₁ + N₂) from lists (N₁, N₂) (e.g., 'ice-cream' vs. 'ice, cream') (Yoshida & Katz, 2004, 2006), their productions are not yet fully adult-like (Wells, Peppé & Goulandris, 2004). The goal of this study was to examine this issue in Australian English-speaking children, with a focus on their use of F₀, word duration, and pauses. Twenty-four five-year-olds and 20 adults participated in an elicited production experiment. Like adults, children produced distinct F₀ patterns for the two structures. They also used longer word durations and more pauses in lists compared to compounds, indicating the presence of a boundary in lists. However, unlike adults, they also inappropriately inserted more pauses within the compound, suggesting the presence of a boundary in compounds as well. The implications for understanding children's developing knowledge of how to map acoustic cues to prosodic structures are discussed.