Acoustic and Gestural Correlates of Prominence Indicate Degrees of Contrastivity in Children’s Focus Marking

This study investigated how preschool children use acoustic and gestural correlates of prominence in Catalan to mark three focus types differing in degree of contrastivity: information, contrastive, and corrective focus. Data were obtained from an interactive elicitation task with 116 three-, four-, and five-year-olds. Three acoustic correlates (F0 range, intensity, syllable duration) and three gestural correlates (articulator recruitment, gesture duration, total motion) were analyzed across focus types and age groups. Results showed that all children marked corrective focus with higher values across all acoustic and gestural correlates. To distinguish contrastive from information focus, three-year-olds relied only on articulator recruitment, whereas four- and five-year-olds additionally used higher intensity. The findings indicate that focus types higher in contrastivity are expressed through stronger acoustic and gestural prominence. Overall, the study reveals an early mapping between prominence-related parameters and focus distinctions and highlights the importance of adopting multimodal approaches to the acquisition of pragmatics.