This review summarizes research on the role of prosody in the comprehension of spoken language. Prosody, which includes stress, pitch, tempo, and loudness, plays a crucial role in how listeners process spoken words, syntax, and discourse structure. The research is divided into three main areas: (1) the use of prosody in the recognition of spoken words, (2) the use of prosody in the computation of syntactic structure, and (3) the role of prosody in the processing of discourse structure. In each area, progress has been made towards new conceptions of prosody's role in processing, and in particular, this has involved abandoning previously held deterministic views of the relationship between prosodic structure and other aspects of linguistic structure. Prosody is an intrinsic determinant of the form of spoken language, influencing the timing, amplitude, and frequency spectrum of utterances. Listeners process prosodically determined variation when recognizing normal speech. The research reviewed here focuses on how prosody is used in the recognition of spoken words, in the computation of syntactic structure, and in the comprehension of discourse structure. It is shown that prosody plays a key role in these processes, and that the processing of spoken language is facilitated by coherent prosodic structure appropriate for sentences. In the recognition of spoken words, prosody is used to activate stored lexical representations and to select among alternative candidate words. Studies have shown that prosody can help listeners locate word boundaries and recognize words even when they are not clearly distinguished by segmental cues. In the computation of syntactic structure, prosody is used to resolve global and local ambiguities. In the processing of discourse structure, prosody is used to integrate concepts with an existing discourse model. The research reviewed here shows that the role of prosody in processing is complex and that the relationship between prosodic structure and other aspects of linguistic structure is not deterministic. Instead, it is more nuanced and involves a range of interactions between prosody and other aspects of linguistic structure.This review summarizes research on the role of prosody in the comprehension of spoken language. Prosody, which includes stress, pitch, tempo, and loudness, plays a crucial role in how listeners process spoken words, syntax, and discourse structure. The research is divided into three main areas: (1) the use of prosody in the recognition of spoken words, (2) the use of prosody in the computation of syntactic structure, and (3) the role of prosody in the processing of discourse structure. In each area, progress has been made towards new conceptions of prosody's role in processing, and in particular, this has involved abandoning previously held deterministic views of the relationship between prosodic structure and other aspects of linguistic structure. Prosody is an intrinsic determinant of the form of spoken language, influencing the timing, amplitude, and frequency spectrum of utterances. Listeners process prosodically determined variation when recognizing normal speech. The research reviewed here focuses on how prosody is used in the recognition of spoken words, in the computation of syntactic structure, and in the comprehension of discourse structure. It is shown that prosody plays a key role in these processes, and that the processing of spoken language is facilitated by coherent prosodic structure appropriate for sentences. In the recognition of spoken words, prosody is used to activate stored lexical representations and to select among alternative candidate words. Studies have shown that prosody can help listeners locate word boundaries and recognize words even when they are not clearly distinguished by segmental cues. In the computation of syntactic structure, prosody is used to resolve global and local ambiguities. In the processing of discourse structure, prosody is used to integrate concepts with an existing discourse model. The research reviewed here shows that the role of prosody in processing is complex and that the relationship between prosodic structure and other aspects of linguistic structure is not deterministic. Instead, it is more nuanced and involves a range of interactions between prosody and other aspects of linguistic structure.