Learning to use demonstratives in conversation: what do language specific strategies in Turkish reveal?

Abstract

A B S T R A C TPragmatic development requires the ability to use linguistic forms, along with non-verbal cues, to focus an interlocutor's attention on a referent during conversation. We investigate the development of this ability by examining how the use of demonstratives is learned in Turkish, where a three-way demonstrative system (bu, şu, o) obligatorily encodes both distance contrasts (i.e. proximal and distal) and absence or presence of the addressee's visual attention on the referent. A comparison of the demonstrative use by Turkish children (6 four-and 6 six-year-olds) and 6 adults during conversation shows that adultlike use of attention directing demonstrative, şu, is not mastered even at the age of six, while the distance contrasts are learned earlier. This language specific development reveals that designing referential forms in consideration of recipient's attentional status during conversation is a pragmatic feat that takes more than six years to develop.

Acquisition of Turkish demonstrative pronouns in children

“…It is stated that children cannot demonstrate adult-like competence in their use of demonstratives until the age of six or seven (Clark and Şengül 1978;cited in Küntay 2002;Küntay 2006). Therefore, to examine children's developmental stages and age differences in their use of demonstratives, children aging between three and five were chosen.…”

“…They also refer to linguistic elements of a discourse which expand their meaning within the discourse situation. Küntay & Özyürek (2006) investigated the development of linguistic forms, along with nonverbal cues, by examining how the use of demonstratives is learned in Turkish. A comparison of the demonstrative use by Turkish children (6 four-and 6 six-year-olds) and 6 adults during conversation was made.…”

“…Although some studies have been conducted to find out the developmental stages of demonstratives, they did not focus on the ages between 3 and 5. Küntay and Özyürek (2006) looked at the developmental stages of DPs in children at the age of 4 and 6, and concluded that DPs are not fully learned until the age of 6. However, none of the studies in my knowledge looked at the developmental stages of DPs between the ages 3 and 5.…”

Electrophysiological evidence for the role of shared space in online comprehension of spatial demonstratives

“…The authors name this an N600 effect, which would be a delayed variant of the canonical N400 effect for semantically anomalous words (Kutas & Federmeier, 2011;Kutas & Hillyard, 1980). The egocentric proximity account has been challenged by a number of studies that argued that a referent's relative proximity to the speaker is not the only or not the most important parameter in determining the selection of demonstratives in a particular context (Anderson & Keenan, 1985;Burenhult, 2003;Da Milano, 2007;Himmelmann, 1996;Küntay & Özyürek, 2006;Levinson, 1983;Piwek, Beun, & Cremers, 2008). Some three-term systems would have the medial demonstrative refer to entities close to the addressee (e.g., Japanese : Diessel, 1999: Diessel, , 2005Levinson, 2004) thus taking the addressee's location into account.…”

“…Some three-term systems would have the medial demonstrative refer to entities close to the addressee (e.g., Japanese : Diessel, 1999: Diessel, , 2005Levinson, 2004) thus taking the addressee's location into account. In other languages, the visibility, geographical location (e.g., uphill or downhill), and height of the referent (Anderson & Keenan, 1985;Diessel, 1999), or the presence or absence of joint attention between speaker and addressee (Küntay & Özyürek, 2006;Levinson, 2004) on the referent would also play a role in which demonstrative a speaker would select. Nevertheless, the egocentric proximity account is omnipresent in typologies of demonstrative systems (Diessel, 2005).…”