Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T03:40:59.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of prosodic and visual information in disambiguating wh-indeterminates: The case of Korean three-year-olds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2021

Hye-Jung CHO Open the ORCID record for Hye-Jung CHO [Opens in a new window] ,
Jieun KIAER Open the ORCID record for Jieun KIAER [Opens in a new window] ,
Naya CHOI Open the ORCID record for Naya CHOI [Opens in a new window]  and
Jieun SONG Open the ORCID record for Jieun SONG [Opens in a new window]
Hye-Jung CHO
Affiliation:
Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
Jieun KIAER*
Affiliation:
Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Naya CHOI
Affiliation:
Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
Jieun SONG
Affiliation:
Department of Speech, Hearing & Phonetic Sciences, University College London, UK Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
*
Address for correspondence: Jieun Kiaer, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE, UK) E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Korean language, questions containing ambiguous wh-words may be interpreted as either wh-questions or yes-no questions. This study investigated 43 Korean three-year-olds’ ability to disambiguate eight indeterminate questions using prosodic and visual cues. The intonation of each question provided a cue as to whether it should be interpreted as a wh-question or a yes-no question. The questions were presented alongside picture stimuli, which acted as either a matched (presentation of corresponding auditory-visual stimuli) or a mismatched contextual cue (presentation conflicting auditory-visual stimuli). Like adults, the children preferred to comprehend questions involving ambiguous wh-words as wh-questions, rather than yes-no questions. In addition, children were as effective as adults in disambiguating indeterminate questions using prosodic cues regardless of the visual cue. However, when confronted with conflicting auditory-visual stimuli (mismatched), the quality of children's responses was less accurate than adults’ responses.

Keywords

prosodic cuecontextual cueyoung childrendisambiguationwh-phrasesKorean
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 326 - 348
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agosto, D. E. (1999). One and inseparable: Interdependent storytelling in picture storybooks. Children's Literature in Education, 30(4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of memory and language, 59(4), 390–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2014). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823.Google Scholar
Casillas, M., Bobb, S. C., & Clark, E. V. (2016). Turn-taking, timing, and planning in early language acquisition. Journal of child language, 43(6), 1310–1337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, H., Jeon, H., Shin, M., & Kim, H. (2013). A Study on Selection of Basic Vocabulary for Infants and Toddlers. Journal of Speech-Language & Hearing Disorders, 22(3), 169–187.Google Scholar
Chang, S. J. (1973). A generative study of discourse: Pragmatic aspects of Korean with reference to English. Language Research, 9(2), D1–D149.Google Scholar
Chang, S. W. (1998). The study of the actual usage of the Korean Wh-words. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 23(4), 691–708.Google Scholar
Cho, Y. Y. (1990). Syntax and phrasing in Korean. In Inkelas, S. & Zec, D. (Eds.), The phonology-syntax connection (pp. 47–62). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Choe, J. -W. (1985). Pitch-accent and q/wh words in Korean. In Kuno, S., Whitman, J., Lee, I. -H., & Kang, Y. -S. (Eds), Harvard studies in Korean linguistics (pp. 113–123). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Choi, E. (2000). A Study of Vocabulary Development of Korean Children (Master's thesis). Retrieved from <http://dcollection.yonsei.ac.kr/public_resource/pdf/000000123905_20190422152738.pdf>..' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Choi,+E.+(2000).+A+Study+of+Vocabulary+Development+of+Korean+Children+(Master's+thesis).+Retrieved+from+.>Google Scholar
Choi, S. (1988). The semantic development of negation: a cross-linguistic longitudinal study. Journal of Child Language, 15(3), 517–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Choi, Y. (2009). Preschool-aged children's use of prosody in sentence processing, Korean Journal of Communication Disorders, 14, 442–455.Google Scholar
Choi, Y., & Mazuka, R. (2003). Young children's use of prosody in sentence parsing. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 32(3), 197–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clancy, P. M. (1989). Form and function in the acquisition of Korean wh-questions. Journal of child language, 16(2), 323–347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual review of psychology, 64, 135–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1970). Discourse Agreement: How Children Answer Questions. Cognition and the development of language, 79–107.Google Scholar
Hair, J., Anderson, R., Tatham, R., & Black, W. (1998). Multivariate data analysis (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hirschberg, J., & Ward, G. (1992). The influence of pitch range, duration, amplitude and spectral features on the interpretation of the rise-fall-rise intonation contour in English. Journal of phonetics, 20(2), 241–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffner, C., Cantor, J., & Thorson, E. (1989). Children's responses to conflicting auditory and visual features of a televised narrative. Human Communication Research, 16(2), 256–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jun, S.-A. (1993). The phonetics arid phonology of Korean prosody (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from <https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1220465077&disposition=inline>..>Google Scholar
Jun, S. A. (1998). The accentual phrase in the Korean prosodic hierarchy. Phonology, 15(2), 189–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jun, S., & Oh, M. (1996). A prosodic analysis of three types of wh- phrases in Korean. Language and Speech, 39(1), 37–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jusczyk, P. W., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Nelson, D. G. K., Kennedy, L. J., Woodward, A., & Piwoz, J. (1992). Perception of acoustic correlates of major phrasal units by young infants. Cognitive psychology, 24(2), 252–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kang, H., & Yi, B. (2017). Development of ‘wh’- words in children's spontaneous speech. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 42(2), 219–234.Google Scholar
Kim, J. (2014). A longitudinal study of children's acquisition of negative sentences. The journal of Language & Literature, 59, 7–40. DOI : 10.15565/jll.2014.09.59.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H. Y. (1990). The structure of Korean prosody (Doctoral dissertation). University College London [published by Hanshin Publishing Co., Seoul, Korea]. Retrieved from < http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1382398/1/395201.pdf >..>Google Scholar
Lee, J., & Kwon, D. (2005). A study on the development of 2–4 children's comprehension of wh-question. Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders, 14(1), 185–204.Google Scholar
Lyons-Ruth, K. (1977). Bimodal perception in infancy: Response to auditory-visual incongruity. Child Dez~elopnzerlt, 48, 820–827.Google Scholar
Moradlous, S., Zheng, X., Tian, Y., & Ginzburg, J. (2020). Wh-Questions are understood before polar-questions: Evidence from English, German, and Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 1–27. doi:10.1017/S0305000920000276Google Scholar
Nazzi, T., Jusczyk, P., & Johnson, E. K. (2000). Language discrimination by English-learning 5-month-olds: Effects of rhythm and familiarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 1–19. Retrieved from <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X00926986>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (1999). Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition, 73(3), 265–292. Retrieved from <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001002779900058X>.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwarcz, J. H. (1982). Ways of the illustrator: Visual communication in children's literature. Chicago: American Library Association.Google Scholar
Shady, M., & Gerken, L. (1999). Grammatical and caregiver cues in early sentence comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 26, 163–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vandergrift, K. E. (1980). Child and story: The literary connection (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.Google Scholar
Volkmar, F. R., & Siegel, A. E. (1979). Young children's responses to discrepant social communications. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20, 139–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoon, K. E. (2010). Questions and responses in Korean conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(10), 2782–2798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yun, J. (2012). The deterministic prosody of indeterminates. In Proceedings of the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 285–93). Somerville, MA. Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Yun, J. (2015). The influence of sentence-final intonation and phonological phrasing on the interpretation of wh-indeterminates. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 76, 25–34.Google Scholar
Zhou, P., Su, Y., Crain, S., Gao, L., & Zhan, L. (2012). Children's use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: A view from Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 39(4), 687–730. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000911000249CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed