ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the development of specularity, complementarity, and reversibility related to intonation in the speech of two children from approximately 1 to 2 years old. The speech of two urban, middle-class Brazilian dyads was longitudinally analyzed: one girl, Raquel (R) and one boy, Tiago (T) were observed. The temporary formal reduction of T's set of original tones has discursive purposes: It is a strategy of linguistic reversibility or reciprocity. The chapter states that data were collected naturalistically, recorded at the children's homes in monthly video tape and weekly audio tape sessions. Highly routinized activities, like feeding, bathing, and dressing-up were also recorded, although not with the same frequency as playing or reading activities. The chapter also reveals that the specularity process is carried out by the senior interlocutor as well. Specularity manifested by both segmental and suprasegmental matching continues during the course of language development, although not with the same frequency as in the earlier stages.
