Prosodic Phenomena

Abstract
Prosodic phenomena such as stress, tone, and intonation have been the focus of much developmental research as well as theoretical work in phonology. This review presents an overview of research that explores the relationship between the development of prosodic phenomena and linguistic models of phonological structure, particularly, metrical stress theory and autosegmental phonology. The review surveys what is currently known about the developmental course of stress, tone, and intonation in infants and children, introduces research that investigates the role of organizational principles of phonological structure in the acquisition of these prosodic phenomena, and discusses the evidence and arguments for this approach toward understanding phonological acquisition.