as an exaggerated stress. These prosodic characteristics are thought to assist children in acquiring phonemes, segmenting words, and recognizing phrasal boundaries. And though there is no evidence to indicate that infant-directed speech is necessary for language acquisition, these specific prosodic features have been observed in many different languages. Aprosodia An aprosodia is an acquired or developmental impairment in comprehending or generating the emotion conveyed in spoken language. Aprosody is often accompanied by the inability to properly utilize variations in speech, particularly with deficits in ability to accurately modulate pitch, loudness, intonation, and rhythm of word formation. This is seen sometimes in persons with Asperger syndrome. Brain regions involved Producing these nonverbal elements requires intact motor areas of the face, mouth, tongue, and throat. This area is associated with Brodmann areas 44 and 45 (Broca's area) of the left frontal lobe. Damage to areas 44/45, specifically on the right hemisphere, produces motor aprosodia, with the nonverbal elements of speech being disturbed (facial expression, tone, rhythm of voice). Understanding these nonverbal elements requires an intact and properly functioning right-hemisphere perisylvian area, particularly Brodmann area 22 (not to be confused with the corresponding area in the left hemisphere, which contains Wernicke's area). Damage to the right inferior frontal gyrus causes a diminished ability to convey emotion or emphasis by voice or gesture, and damage to right superior temporal gyrus causes problems comprehending emotion or emphasis in the voice or gestures of others. The right Brodmann area 22 aids in the interpretation of prosody, and damage causes sensory aprosodia, with the patient unable to comprehend changes in voice and body language. See also Paralanguage Phonological hierarchy Prosodic unit Prosody (poetry) Semantic prosody, or discourse prosody References Further reading NESPOR, Marina. Prosody: an interview with Marina Nespor ReVEL, vol. 8, n. 15, 2010. Nolte, John. The Human Brain 6th Edition Shapiro, Karl., Beum, Robert. The Prosody Handbook: A Guide to Poetic Form. United States: Dover Publications, 2012. ISBN 9780486122670 Fox, Anthony. Prosodic Features and Prosodic Structure: The Phonology of 'Suprasegmentals'. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford, 2000. ISBN 9780191589768 Romero-Trillo, Jesús. Pragmatics and Prosody in English Language Teaching. Germany: Springer, 2012. ISBN 9789400738829 External links Lessons in Prosody (from the University of Freiburg, preserved by the Internet Archive) Prosody on the Web - (a tutorial on prosody) Systemic functional linguistics Phonology Phonetics Linguistics terminology