ERIC Number: EJ981877
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Sep
Pages: 44
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
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Available Date: N/A
Children's Use of Phonological Information in Ambiguity Resolution: A View from Mandarin Chinese
Zhou, Peng; Su, Yi; Crain, Stephen; Gao, Liqun; Zhan, Likan
Journal of Child Language, v39 n4 p687-730 Sep 2012
How do children develop the mapping between prosody and other levels of linguistic knowledge? This question has received considerable attention in child language research. In the present study two experiments were conducted to investigate four- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosody in ambiguity resolution. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking to assess children's use of stress in resolving structural ambiguities. Experiment 2 took advantage of special properties of Mandarin to investigate whether children can use into national cues to resolve ambiguities involving speech acts. The results of our experiments show that children's use of prosodic information in ambiguity resolution varies depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Children can use prosodic information more effectively to resolve speech act ambiguities than to resolve structural ambiguities. This finding suggests that the mapping between prosody and semantics/pragmatics in young children is better established than the mapping between prosody and syntax.
Descriptors: Syntax, Semantics, Language Research, Child Language, Cues, Speech Acts, Pragmatics, Mandarin Chinese, Phonology, Language Acquisition, Intonation, Suprasegmentals, Young Children, Eye Movements, Cognitive Mapping, Ambiguity (Semantics)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
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Language: English
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