Arunachalam Sudha
Dept. of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences, 635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
J Mem Lang. 2016 Jun 1;88:104-116. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2016.02.001.
This paper introduces a new experimental paradigm for studying children's real-time language processing of their parents' unscripted speech. Focusing on children's processing of referential expressions, or the phrases that parents used to label particular objects, we engaged dyads in a game in which parents labeled one of several objects displayed on a screen, and the child was to quickly identify it as their eye gaze was tracked. There were two conditions; one included a competitor object (e.g., the target was a striped umbrella and the display also included an umbrella with polka dots), while the other one did not (e.g., only one umbrella was present). The results revealed evidence of children's incremental processing of their parents' referential expressions. They also showed faster processing of postnominally-modified as compared to prenominally-modified referential expressions. Parents tended to produce postnominally-modified referential expressions in the more difficult experimental condition in which there was a competitor object, suggesting either that these expressions are also easier for them to produce, or that they accommodate their children by producing more easily processed expressions. We discuss the potential of this paradigm for advancing theories of the relationship between child-directed language input and children's language processing.
本文介绍了一种新的实验范式，用于研究儿童对父母即兴讲话的实时语言处理。聚焦于儿童对指称表达的处理，即父母用来指代特定物体的短语，我们让亲子对参与一个游戏，在游戏中父母给屏幕上显示的几个物体之一贴上标签，同时跟踪孩子的目光，孩子要快速识别出该物体。有两种条件；一种条件下有一个竞争物体（例如，目标是一把条纹雨伞，展示中还包括一把带圆点的雨伞），而另一种条件下没有（例如，只出现一把雨伞）。结果揭示了儿童对父母指称表达进行增量处理的证据。他们还表现出与前置修饰的指称表达相比，对后置修饰的指称表达处理得更快。在有竞争物体的更困难的实验条件下，父母倾向于使用后置修饰的指称表达，这表明要么这些表达对他们来说也更容易产生，要么他们通过产生更容易处理的表达来适应孩子。我们讨论了这种范式在推进关于儿童导向语言输入与儿童语言处理之间关系理论方面的潜力。
