The Competition Between Processing and Discourse-Pragmatic Factors in Children's and Adults' Production of Adverbial When-Clauses.

Purpose: This is the first study to investigate the combined effects of processing-based factors (i.e., clause length and clause order) and discourse-pragmatic factors (i.e., information structure) on children's and adults' production of adverbial when-clauses. Method: In a sentence repetition task,...

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Published in:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 66; no. 12; pp. 5048 - 5061
Main Authors: Shijie Zhang, Junge, Bianca, Lieven, Elena, Brandt, Silke, Theakston, Anna
Format: Article
Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Dec2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Dec2023
      vid: 66
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00238
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        atl: The Competition Between Processing and Discourse-Pragmatic Factors in Children's and Adults' Production of Adverbial When-Clauses.
      aug:
        au:
          Shijie Zhang
          Junge, Bianca
          Lieven, Elena
          Brandt, Silke
          Theakston, Anna
        affil:
          Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
          Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
      su:
        Hearing
        Age distribution
        Comparative grammar
        Task performance
        Undergraduates
        Language acquisition
        Discourse analysis
        Vocabulary
        Children
        Adults
        Statistics
        Thought & thinking
        Phonological awareness
        Comparative studies
        Descriptive statistics
        Research funding
        Data analysis software
        Data analysis
        Prompts (Psychology)
      sug:
        subj:
          Hearing
          Age distribution
          Comparative grammar
          Task performance
          Undergraduates
          Language acquisition
          Discourse analysis
          Vocabulary
          Children
          Adults
          Statistics
          Thought & thinking
          Phonological awareness
          Comparative studies
          Descriptive statistics
          Research funding
          Data analysis software
          Data analysis
          Prompts (Psychology)
      ab: Purpose: This is the first study to investigate the combined effects of processing-based factors (i.e., clause length and clause order) and discourse-pragmatic factors (i.e., information structure) on children's and adults' production of adverbial when-clauses. Method: In a sentence repetition task, 16 three-year-old and 16 five-year-old children as well as 17 adults listened to and watched an animated story and then were asked to repeat what they had just heard and seen. Each story contained an adverbial when-clause and its main clause. The sentences were manipulated for their clause order, information structure, and clause length. Results: Adults tended to change main--when clause orders to when--main in their repetitions, and they showed a strong preference for the given--new order of information. In contrast, 3-year-olds tended to change when--main clause orders to main--when, and they showed a preference for the new--given order of information. In addition, 3-year-olds tended to produce short--long clause orders irrespective of what they had heard, whereas adults produced both short--long and long--short orders in line with the input. In general, 5-year-olds were more adultlike in their production compared to 3-year-olds. Conclusions: Young children were strongly affected by processing-based factors in their production of complex sentences. They tended to order main and when-clauses in a way that requires less planning and processing load. However, they have not yet attained an adultlike sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic factors. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24422635
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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