The developmental path of phonological encoding of focus in Dutch

This paper gives an overview of recent studies on the use of phonological means (accent placement and choice of accent type) to encode focus in Dutch-speaking children aged between 1;9 and 8 in both spontaneous and elicited production. It is argued that learning to use the phonological means to encode focus is a gradual process. In the light of current findings, a first proposal was put forward on the developmental path to adult-like phonological encoding of focus in Dutch.