Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type

It has been suggested that acquiring the appropriate use of referring expressions consists of a shift from an initial focus on global accessibility factors, e.g., animacy or character type, towards primarily considering local accessibility factors, such as information status, referential function an...

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Main Authors: Ina Lehmkuhle, Josefin Lindgren
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2022-05-01
Series:Discours
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/discours/11723
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author Ina Lehmkuhle
Josefin Lindgren
author_facet Ina Lehmkuhle
Josefin Lindgren
author_sort Ina Lehmkuhle
collection DOAJ
description It has been suggested that acquiring the appropriate use of referring expressions consists of a shift from an initial focus on global accessibility factors, e.g., animacy or character type, towards primarily considering local accessibility factors, such as information status, referential function and topicality. At which age this shift takes place remains an open question. The present study investigates anaphoric reference in picture-based written narratives by German-speaking 10-year-olds and adults. We analyse and compare the extent to which referential function (maintenance vs. reintroduction), a local accessibility factor, and character type (main character vs. secondary character), a global accessibility factor, influence children’s and adults’ choice of referring expression. The results show that referential function affected referential choice in both children and adults, with significantly higher proportions of pronouns in maintenance than in reintroduction. However, character type only influenced the children, who produced a significantly higher proportion of pronouns with main characters than with secondary characters. These results suggest that children’s referring expression use is not yet fully adultlike at age 10, and that adults and children weigh local and global accessibility factors differently: global factors play a role in children’s referential choice in addition to local ones, whereas adults are primarily influenced by local accessibility factors.
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spelling doaj-art-13c1852573104c7190856e37fb6c05862025-01-30T09:53:12ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232022-05-012910.4000/discours.11723Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character TypeIna LehmkuhleJosefin LindgrenIt has been suggested that acquiring the appropriate use of referring expressions consists of a shift from an initial focus on global accessibility factors, e.g., animacy or character type, towards primarily considering local accessibility factors, such as information status, referential function and topicality. At which age this shift takes place remains an open question. The present study investigates anaphoric reference in picture-based written narratives by German-speaking 10-year-olds and adults. We analyse and compare the extent to which referential function (maintenance vs. reintroduction), a local accessibility factor, and character type (main character vs. secondary character), a global accessibility factor, influence children’s and adults’ choice of referring expression. The results show that referential function affected referential choice in both children and adults, with significantly higher proportions of pronouns in maintenance than in reintroduction. However, character type only influenced the children, who produced a significantly higher proportion of pronouns with main characters than with secondary characters. These results suggest that children’s referring expression use is not yet fully adultlike at age 10, and that adults and children weigh local and global accessibility factors differently: global factors play a role in children’s referential choice in addition to local ones, whereas adults are primarily influenced by local accessibility factors.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/11723referring expressionsGermanaccessibilitycharacter typemaintenanceprimary school children
spellingShingle Ina Lehmkuhle
Josefin Lindgren
Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
Discours
referring expressions
German
accessibility
character type
maintenance
primary school children
title Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
title_full Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
title_fullStr Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
title_full_unstemmed Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
title_short Anaphoric Reference in Written Narratives by German-Speaking 10-Year-Olds and Adults: The Influence of Referential Function and Character Type
title_sort anaphoric reference in written narratives by german speaking 10 year olds and adults the influence of referential function and character type
topic referring expressions
German
accessibility
character type
maintenance
primary school children
url https://journals.openedition.org/discours/11723
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