When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood

WING CHEE SO; ÖZLEM ECE DEMIR; SUSAN GOLDIN-MEADOW

doi:10.1017/S0142716409990221

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When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood

Journal article

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When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood

WING CHEE SO, ÖZLEM ECE DEMIR and SUSAN GOLDIN-MEADOW

Applied psycholinguistics, Vol.31(1), pp.209-224

01/2010

DOI: 10.1017/S0142716409990221

PMCID: PMC2854417

PMID: 20401173

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2854417View

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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.

Details

Title: Subtitle: When speech is ambiguous, gesture steps in: Sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic principles in early childhood
Creators: WING CHEE SO - National University of Singapore
ÖZLEM ECE DEMIR - University of Chicago
SUSAN GOLDIN-MEADOW - University of Chicago
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Applied psycholinguistics, Vol.31(1), pp.209-224
DOI: 10.1017/S0142716409990221
PMID: 20401173
PMCID: PMC2854417
NLM abbreviation: Appl Psycholinguist
ISSN: 0142-7164
eISSN: 1469-1817
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; New York, USA
Number of pages: 16
Alternative title: Referential expression in speech and gesture
Language: English
Date published: 01/2010
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Center for Social Science Innovation
Record Identifier: 9984002321402771

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