Cross-linguistic Differences in Talking About Scenes.
Speakers of English and Tamil differ widely in which relational roles they overtly express with a verb. This study provides new information about how speakers of these languages differ in their descriptions of the same scenes and how explicit mention of roles and other scene elements vary with the properties of the scenes themselves. Specifically, we find that English speakers, who in normal speech rely more on explicit mention of verb arguments, in fact appear to be more affected by the pragmatic manipulations used in this study than Tamil speakers. Additionally, although the mention of scene items increases with development in both languages, Tamil-speaking children mention fewer items than do English-speaking children, showing that the children know the structure of the language to which they are exposed.
Sethuraman
Nitya
N
(Correspondence Author), Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Rd, 4012 CB, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA, (313)-593-5139 (office).
Smith
Linda B
LB
Cognition. 2003 Sep;89(2):67-103
12915295
J Child Lang. 1996 Feb;23(1):103-28
8733563
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2000 Dec;43(6):1337-49
11193956
J Abnorm Psychol. 2001 Feb;110(1):40-8
11261398
Cognition. 1991 Aug;40(1-2):21-81
1786672
Cognition. 2003 Apr;87(3):151-78
12684198
J Child Lang. 2005 May;32(2):407-26
16045257