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Pointing and naming are not redundant: Children use gesture to modify nouns before they modify nouns in speech
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Abstract:
Nouns form the first building blocks of children’s language, but are not consistently modified by other words until around 2 ½ years of age. Before then, children often combine their nouns with gestures that indicate the object labeled by the noun, for example, pointing at a bottle while saying “bottle.” These gestures are typically assumed to be redundant with speech. Here we present data challenging this assumption, suggesting that these early pointing gestures serve a determiner-like function (i.e., point at bottle + “bottle” = that bottle). Using longitudinal data from 18 children (8 girls), we analyzed all utterances containing nouns and focused on (1) utterances containing an unmodified noun combined with a pointing gesture, and (2) utterances containing a noun modified by a determiner. We found that the age at which children first produced point+noun combinations predicted the onset age for determiner+noun combinations. Moreover, point+noun combinations decreased following the onset of determiner+noun constructions. Importantly, combinations of pointing gestures with other types of speech (e.g., point at bottle + “gimme” = gimme that) did not relate to the onset or offset of determiner+noun constructions. Point+noun combinations thus appear to selectively predict the development of a new construction in speech. When children point to an object and simultaneously label it, they are beginning to develop their understanding of nouns as a modifiable unit of speech.
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Keyword:
Article
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036003
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052559/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24588517
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How handshape type can distinguish between nouns and verbs in homesign
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