2013 Searching for a new method to study the use of lexicosyntactic and intonational cues in turn projection by Dutch and English children

Children learn language in the context of conversations. Successful coordination and comprehension of conversations relies heavily on the ability to anticipate upcoming speaker changes (turn-transitions). Two linguistic cues that are used to anticipate such turn-transitions are lexicosyntactic and intonational information. This study will address if we can disentangle these two cues in natural dialogues and if so, how Dutch and English toddlers weight these cues in their anticipation of upcoming turn-transitions. Because children receive rich intonational input and are very sensitive to intonation from an early age [1,2], children may rely more on intonational than on lexicosyntactic cues. This would contrast adult behaviour, as adults seem to rely more on lexicosyntactic cues [3].

In this talk I will demonstrate the materials that will be used for this study. The current study is the first developmental study that will address the potential different roles of lexi- cosyntactic and intonational cues in natural dialogues. Previous developmental turn-taking experiments always used materials with flattened intonational contour to get rid of the intonational content or band-pass filtered speech to get rid of lexicosyntactic content. In contrast, our materials consist of dialogues between puppets in which natural speech is used. To control for the linguistic cues, each dialogue includes four different target conditions. These target conditions are manipulated for lexicosyntactic completion (incomplete declarative vs. complete interrogative) and intonational completion (incomplete intonational contour vs. interrogative contour). Possible advantages and disadvantages of this new approach will be discussed. Also, first pilot results of Dutch adults will be presented.

[1] Fernald, Anne., Simon,Thomas (1984). Expanded Intonational Contours in Mothers Speech to Newborns In: Developmental psychology 20:1. (p.101-113)
[2] Moon, Christine., Cooper-Panneton, Robin. (1993). Two Days Old Prefer their Native Language In: Infant behavior and development 16. (p.495-500)
[3] Ruiter, de, J.-P., Mitterer, Holger., Enfield, N.J. (2006). Projecting the end of a speakers turn: A cognitive cornerstone of conversation. In: Language 82. (p.515-535)