Why Do Children Pay More Attention to Grammatical Morphemes at the Ends of Sentences?

Autor/in	Sundara, Megha
Titel	Why Do Children Pay More Attention to Grammatical Morphemes at the Ends of Sentences?
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 45 (2018) 3, S.703-716 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
Schlagwörter	Toddlers; Grammar; Morphemes; Sentences; Speech Communication; Acoustics; Recall (Psychology); Listening; Sensory Experience; Verbs + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Grammatik; Morphem; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Akustik; Abberufung; Hörvorgang; Zuhören; Sinnerfahrung
Abstract	Children pay more attention to the beginnings and ends of sentences rather than the middle. In natural speech, ends of sentences are prosodically and segmentally enhanced; they are also privileged by sensory and recall advantages. We contrasted whether acoustic enhancement or sensory and recall-related advantages are necessary and sufficient for the salience of grammatical morphemes at the ends of sentences. We measured 22-month-olds' listening times to grammatical and ungrammatical sentences with third person singular -s. Crucially, by cross-splicing the speech stimuli, acoustic enhancement and sensory and recall advantages were fully crossed. Only children presented with the verb in sentence-final position, a position with sensory and recall advantages, distinguished between the grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Thus, sensory and recall advantages alone were necessary and sufficient to make grammatical morphemes at ends of sentences salient. These general processing constraints privilege ends of sentences over middles, regardless of the acoustic enhancement. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Cambridge University Press. 100 Brook Hill Drive, West Nyack, NY 10994-2133. Tel: 800-872-7423; Tel: 845-353-7500; Fax: 845-353-4141; e-mail: subscriptions_newyork@cambridge.org; Web site: http://journals.cambridge.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01