Interpretation of Contrastive Pitch Accent in Six- to Eleven-Year-Old English-Speaking Children (and Adults)

Autor/inn/en	Ito, Kiwako; Bibyk, Sarah A.; Wagner, Laura; Speer, Shari R.
Titel	Interpretation of Contrastive Pitch Accent in Six- to Eleven-Year-Old English-Speaking Children (and Adults)
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 41 (2014) 1, S.84-110 (27 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
DOI	10.1017/S0305000912000554
Schlagwörter	Suprasegmentals; Comprehension; Eye Movements; Children; Adults; Age Differences; Language Processing + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Verstehen; Verständnis; Augenbewegung; Child; Kind; Kinder; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Sprachverarbeitung
Abstract	Both off-line and on-line comprehension studies suggest not only toddlers and preschoolers, but also older school-age children have trouble interpreting contrast-marking pitch prominence. To test whether children achieve adult-like proficiency in processing contrast-marking prosody during school years, an eye-tracking experiment examined the effect of accent on referential resolution in six- to eleven-year-old children and adults. In all age groups, a prominent accent facilitated the detection of a target in contrastive discourse sequences (pink cat ? green cat), whereas it led to a garden path in non-contrastive sequences (pink rabbit ? green monkey: the initial fixations were on rabbits). While the data indicate that children as young as age six immediately interpret contrastive accent, even the oldest child group showed delayed fixations compared to adults. We argue that the children's slower recovery from the garden path reflects the gradual development in cognitive flexibility that matures independently of general oculomotor control. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10