We investigated how Central Swedish-speaking four to eleven-year-old children acquire the prosodic marking of narrow focus, compared to adult controls. Three measurements were analysed: placement of the prominence-marking high tone (prominence H), pitch range effects of the prominence H, and word duration. Subject-verb-object sentences were elicited in sentence-medial and sentence-final focus conditions via a semi-spontaneous elicitation task. The children largely performed in an adult-like manner already at four to five: they predominantly added prominence H to focal words and avoided this tone post-focally in both sentence-medial and sentence-final position. The placement or avoidance of prominence H had largely the same effects on pitch range for children and adults. Finally, the four to eight-year-olds also increased the duration of the focal word, similar to adults. Hence, Central Swedish-speaking children master the use of prosody for focus marking at an earlier age, compared to children acquiring a West Germanic language.

中文翻译：

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瑞典中部窄焦点韵律标记的习得

与成人对照相比，我们调查了说瑞典语中部的 4 至 11 岁儿童如何获得窄焦点的韵律标记。分析了三个测量值：突出标记高音（突出 H）的位置、突出 H 的音高范围效应和单词持续时间。通过半自发的引出任务，在句子中间和句子结尾的焦点条件下引出了主语-动词-宾语句子。孩子们在四五岁时就已经以成人的方式进行了大部分表演：他们主要在焦点词上添加突出 H，并在句子中间位置和句末位置都避免这种语气。放置或避免突出 H 对儿童和成人的音高范围具有大致相同的影响。最后，四到八岁的孩子也增加了焦点词的持续时间，类似于成年人。因此，与学习西日耳曼语的儿童相比，讲瑞典语中部的儿童在更早的时候就掌握了使用韵律进行焦点标记。