When Speech Is Ambiguous, Gesture Steps In: Sensitivity to Discourse-Pragmatic Principles in Early Childhood

Autor/inn/en	So, Wing Chee; Demir, Ozlem Ece; Goldin-Meadow, Susan
Titel	When Speech Is Ambiguous, Gesture Steps In: Sensitivity to Discourse-Pragmatic Principles in Early Childhood
Quelle	In: Applied Psycholinguistics, 31 (2010) 1, S.209-224 (16 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7164
DOI	10.1017/S0142716409990221
Schlagwörter	Speech Communication; Nouns; Child Language; Young Children; Pragmatics; Discourse Analysis; Nonverbal Communication; Video Technology; Chinese; English; Form Classes (Languages) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Frühe Kindheit; Pragmalinguistik; Diskursanalyse; Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation; China; Chinesen; English language; Englisch; Analytischer Sprachbau
Abstract	Young children produce gestures to disambiguate arguments. This study explores whether the gestures they produce are constrained by discourse-pragmatic principles: person and information status. We ask whether children use gesture more often to indicate the referents that have to be specified (i.e., third person and new referents) than the referents that do not have to be specified (i.e., first or second person and given referents). Chinese- and English-speaking children were videotaped while interacting spontaneously with adults, and their speech and gestures were coded for referential expressions. We found that both groups of children tended to use nouns when indicating third person and new referents but pronouns or null arguments when indicating first or second person and given referents. They also produced gestures more often when indicating third person and new referents, particularly when those referents were ambiguously conveyed by less explicit referring expressions (pronouns, null arguments). Thus Chinese- and English-speaking children show sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles not only in speech but also in gesture. (Contains 4 figures and 11 notes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10