Thorson Jill C, Franklin Lauren R, Morgan James L
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Lang Learn Dev. 2023;19(4):458-479. doi: 10.1080/15475441.2022.2149400. Epub 2022 Dec 16.
This study examined how toddler looking to a discourse referent is mediated by the information status of the referent and the pitch contour of the referring expression. Eighteen-month-olds saw a short discourse of three sets of images with the proportion of looking time to a target analyzed during the final image. At test, the information status of the referent was either or and the referring expression was presented with one of three pitch contours (, (H*), or (L+H*)). In Experiment 1, toddlers looked reliably longer to a target referent when it was either to the discourse or carried a non-flat pitch contour. In Experiment 2, the referring expression was removed to observe effects of information status alone on looking to a target referent. Toddlers looked significantly longer to a target when it was versus . More fine-grained time course analyses of eye movements revealed differences in the speed and duration of fixation to a target. Overall, the experiments show that discourse reference in toddlers is mediated by the presence of newness and pitch contours, even in the case of information.
本研究考察了幼儿对语篇所指对象的注视是如何受到所指对象的信息状态以及指称表达的音高轮廓的调节的。18个月大的幼儿观看了由三组图像组成的简短语篇，并在最后一幅图像中分析了对目标的注视时间比例。在测试中，所指对象的信息状态为已知或未知，并且指称表达以三种音高轮廓之一呈现（高音、降升调（H*）或升调（L+H*））。在实验1中，当目标所指对象对于语篇来说是新的或者带有非平调的音高轮廓时，幼儿对其注视的时间显著更长。在实验2中，去掉了指称表达，以观察仅信息状态对注视目标所指对象的影响。与已知对象相比，幼儿对未知目标的注视时间显著更长。对眼动更细致的时间进程分析揭示了对目标注视的速度和持续时间的差异。总体而言，这些实验表明，即使在已知信息的情况下，幼儿的语篇指称也受到新异性和音高轮廓的调节。
