Disfluencies signal reference to novel objects for adults but not children
Date
2018-01
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Cambridge University Press : Journal of Child Language
Abstract
Speech disfluencies can guide the ways in which listeners interpret spoken language. Here, we examined whether three-year-olds, five-year-olds, and adults use filled pauses to anticipate that a speaker is likely to refer to a novel object. Across three experiments, participants were presented with pairs of novel and familiar objects and heard a speaker refer to one of the objects using a fluent ("Look at the ball/lep!") or disfluent ("Look at thee uh ball/lep!") expression. The salience of the speaker's unfamiliarity with the novel referents, and the way in which the speaker referred to the novel referents (i.e., a noun vs. a description) varied across experiments. Three- and five-year-olds successfully identified familiar and novel targets, but only adults' looking patterns reflected increased looks to novel objects in the presence of a disfluency. Together, these findings demonstrate that adults, but not young children, use filled pauses to anticipate reference to novel objects.
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Citation
Owens, S. J., Thacker, J. M., & Graham, S. A. (2018). Disfluencies signal reference to novel objects for adults but not children. "Journal of Child Language". 2018. pp. 1-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000917000368