Referential interactions of Turkish-learning children with their caregivers about non-absent objects: integration of non-verbal devices and prior discourse

Abstract

This paper examines the way children younger than two use non-verbal devices (i.e., deictic gestures and communicative functional acts) and pay attention to discourse status (i.e., prior mention vs. newness) of referents in interactions with caregivers. Data based on semi-naturalistic interactions with caregivers of four children, at ages 1;00, 1;05, and 1;09, are analyzed. We report that children employ different types of non-verbal devices to supplement their inadequate referential forms before gaining mastery in language. By age 1;09, children show sensitivity to discourse status by using deictic gestures to accompany their non-lexical forms for new referents. A comparison of children's patterns with those in the input they receive reveals that caregivers choose their referential forms in accordance with discourse status information and tend to use different types of non-verbal devices to accompany their lexical and non-lexical referential forms. These results show that non-verbal devices play an important role in early referential discourse.

General- and Language-Specific Factors Influence Reference Tracking in Speech and Gesture in Discourse

“…It is also possible that speakers of Turkish use gestures to disambiguate referents when they are underspecified in speech in low-accessibility contexts, as it would be the case when pronouns are used for re-introduced referents. This would be in line with what Ateş and Küntay (2018) found for Turkish-speaking children. That is, children usually accompanied pronouns with gestures to disambiguate their speech when they used pronouns in low-accessibility contexts.…”

“…Studies examining co-speech gestures accompanying referring expressions in Turkish on the other hand are very few and mostly about children's utterances. In a recent study, Ateş and Küntay (2018) found that by age 1;09, children showed sensitivity to discourse status by using deictic gestures predominantly with new referents. Additionally, Turkish-speaking children were found to use gestures to clarify potentially ambiguous speech (Ateş & Küntay, 2018;Demir, So, Özyürek, & Goldin-Meadow, 2012).…”

“…In a recent study, Ateş and Küntay (2018) found that by age 1;09, children showed sensitivity to discourse status by using deictic gestures predominantly with new referents. Additionally, Turkish-speaking children were found to use gestures to clarify potentially ambiguous speech (Ateş & Küntay, 2018;Demir, So, Özyürek, & Goldin-Meadow, 2012). In Ateş and Küntay, for example, children were approximately six times more likely to use reduced REs (overt and null pronouns) for new referents when they did accompany those new referents with a pointing gesture as opposed to when they did not.…”

Being ostensive (reply to commentaries on “Expression unleashed”)

“…This picture aligns squarely with de Vos ’s arguments that studies that supposedly show pragmatic and/or socio-cognitive “deficits” in homesigners are likely better explained as task effects. Further empirical findings consistent with this idea can be found in several other literatures such as, for instance, discourse pragmatics (e.g., Ateş & Küntay, 2018; Hughes & Allen, 2013; Salazar Orvig et al, 2010; Skarabela, 2007; Skarabela, Allen, & Scott-Phillips, 2013).…”

How do Gestures Actualize Young Learners’ Affection: Sympathizing George’s Gestures as Depicted in The Slithery Day

“…These gestural expressions constitute the working language (Gathercole et al, 2019), such qualities of expressive vocalization and auditory segregation through mapping of the visual properties and voice characteristics (Miller, Gross, & Unsworth, 2019) to support the interactions. So far, non-verbal correspondence utilizes a blend of manual and nonmanual expressive means to sign the spoken language (Ateş & Küntay, 2017); however, it interchangeably expresses and shows recognizable comprehension (Rusu & Chiriță, 2017), just as built up acceptably reasonable correspondence clearly and sensibly. This situation conditionally portrays an empirical teacher's instructional declaration and interrogation in the classroom.…”