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Abstract
The Norwegian focus particle også (‘also’) is ambiguous in a postverbal position but is disambiguated by intonation: While Jonas spiser OGSÅ is (‘Jonas, too, is eating ice cream’) means that Jonas in addition to someone else is eating ice cream (Additional Subject interpretation), Jonas spiser også IS (‘Jonas is eating ice cream too’) means that Jonas is eating ice cream in addition to something else (Additional Object interpretation). Previously, sensitivity to intonation in such ambiguity resolutions was thought to be a late developing ability, arising well into school age. However, more recent studies show earlier sensitivity arising at the age of 3-4.
In this talk, I will present a study investigating the developmental trajectory of Norwegian 3- to 5-year-olds’ sensitivity to intonational cues in utterances containing også. In a combined eye-tracking and picture selection design, participants saw two pictures on display while hearing pre-recorded target utterances. The results show that while 3-year-olds were able to disambiguate between the two interpretations based on the intonational cues, 4-year-olds struggled overall in this ambiguity resolution, and 5-year-olds seemed to be only partly sensitive to the intonational cues. How can we explain this developmental trajectory?
About the speaker
Line is a PhD Fellow at the University of South-Eastern Norway and affiliated with the DEVCOM Lab at IFIKK. Her PhD project investigates children’s acquisition of the pragmatic of intonation through two experiments, one production study and one comprehension study. In addition, her PhD includes theoretical work on the puzzling asymmetry found in children’s language acquisition, where children seem to be able to produce linguistic expressions that they are apparently not yet able to comprehend.
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