Infants' Use of Shared Linguistic Information to Clarify Ambiguous Requests

• Patricia A. Ganea ^[1] ; Megan M. Saylor ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Virginia

     University of Virginia

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Vanderbilt University

     Vanderbilt University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 78, Nº. 2, 2007, págs. 493-502
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Do infants use past linguistic information to interpret an ambiguous request for an object? When infants in this research were shown 2 objects, and asked for 1 with an indefinite request (e.g., “Can you get it for me?”), both 15- and 18-month-olds used the speaker's previous reference to an absent object to interpret the request. The 18-month-olds did so even when the request was made after a 2.5-min delay. When the request was made by a person who did not participate in the conversation, the infants did not use the previous verbal information. These results demonstrate infants' ability to use language as a source of information in ambiguous contexts and indicate an early appreciation of the shared nature of conversation.