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Three-year-olds can predict a noun based on an attributive adjective: evidence from eye-tracking*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

ELENA TRIBUSHININA  and
WILLEM M. MAK
ELENA TRIBUSHININA*
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
WILLEM M. MAK
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Elena Tribushinina, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands. tel.: +31302536228; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper investigates whether three-year-olds are able to process attributive adjectives (e.g., soft pillow) as they hear them and to predict the noun (pillow) on the basis of the adjective meaning (soft). This was investigated in an experiment by means of the Visual World Paradigm. The participants saw two pictures (e.g., a pillow and a book) and heard adjective–noun combinations, where the adjective was either informative (e.g., soft) or uninformative (e.g., new) about the head-noun. The properties described by the target adjectives were not visually apparent. When the adjective was uninformative, the looks at the target increased only upon hearing the noun. When the adjective was informative, however, the looks at the target increased upon hearing the adjective. Three-year-olds were as fast as adult controls in predicting the upcoming noun. We conclude that toddlers process adjective–noun phrases incrementally and can predict the noun based on the prenominal adjective.

Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 425 - 441
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

[*]

We would like to thank the Action Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript. Many thanks also to all participants who have made this investigation possible. This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) grant number 275-70-029 to the first author.

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