@article{SauermannHoehle2018, author = {Sauermann, Antje and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {Word order in German child language and child-directed speech}, series = {Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics}, volume = {3}, journal = {Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics}, number = {1}, publisher = {Ubiquity Press LTD}, address = {London}, issn = {2397-1835}, doi = {10.5334/gjgl.281}, pages = {32}, year = {2018}, abstract = {We report two corpus analyses to examine the impact of animacy, definiteness, givenness and type of referring expression on the ordering of double objects in the spontaneous speech of German-speaking two- to four-year-old children and the child-directed speech of their mothers. The first corpus analysis revealed that definiteness, givenness and type of referring expression influenced word order variation in child language and child-directed speech when the type of referring expression distinguished between pronouns and lexical noun phrases. These results correspond to previous child language studies in English (e.g., de Marneffe et al. 2012). Extending the scope of previous studies, our second corpus analysis examined the role of different pronoun types on word order. It revealed that word order in child language and child-directed speech was predictable from the types of pronouns used. Different types of pronouns were associated with different sentence positions but also showed a strong correlation to givenness and definiteness. Yet, the distinction between pronoun types diminished the effects of givenness so that givenness had an independent impact on word order only in child-directed speech but not in child language. Our results support a multi-factorial approach to word order in German. Moreover, they underline the strong impact of the type of referring expression on word order and suggest that it plays a crucial role in the acquisition of the factors influencing word order variation.}, language = {en} } @article{PetroneTruckenbrodtWellmannetal.2017, author = {Petrone, Caterina and Truckenbrodt, Hubert and Wellmann, Caroline and Holzgrefe-Lang, Julia and Wartenburger, Isabell and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {Prosodic boundary cues in German}, series = {Journal of phonetics}, volume = {61}, journal = {Journal of phonetics}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {London}, issn = {0095-4470}, doi = {10.1016/j.wocn.2017.01.002}, pages = {71 -- 92}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This study investigates prosodic phrasing of bracketed lists in German. We analyze variation in pauses, phrase-final lengthening and f0 in speech production and how these cues affect boundary perception. In line with the literature, it was found that pauses are often used to signal intonation phrase boundaries, while final lengthening and f0 are employed across different levels of the prosodic hierarchy. Deviations from expectations based on the standard syntax-prosody mapping are interpreted in terms of task-specific effects. That is, we argue that speakers add/delete prosodic boundaries to enhance the phonological contrast between different bracketings in the experimental task. In perception, three experiments were run, in which we tested only single cues (but temporally distributed at different locations of the sentences). Results from identification tasks and reaction time measurements indicate that pauses lead to a more abrupt shift in listeners׳ prosodic judgments, while f0 and final lengthening are exploited in a more gradient manner. Hence, pauses, final lengthening and f0 have an impact on boundary perception, though listeners show different sensitivity to the three acoustic cues.}, language = {en} } @article{BrandtKobeleHoehle2014, author = {Brandt-Kobele, Oda-Christina and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {The detection of subject-verb agreement violations by German-speaking children: An eye-tracking study}, series = {Lingua : international review of general linguistics}, volume = {144}, journal = {Lingua : international review of general linguistics}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0024-3841}, doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2013.12.008}, pages = {7 -- 20}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This study examines the processing of sentences with and without subject verb agreement violations in German-speaking children at three and five years of age. An eye-tracking experiment was conducted to measure whether children's looking behavior was influenced by the grammaticality of the test sentences. The older group of children turned their gaze faster towards a target picture and looked longer at it when the object noun referring to the target was presented in a grammatical sentence with subject verb agreement compared to when the object noun was presented in a sentence in which an agreement violation occurred. The younger group of children displayed less conclusive results, with a tendency to look longer but not faster towards the target picture in the grammatical compared to the ungrammatical condition. This is the first experimental evidence that German-speaking five-year old children are sensitive to subject verb agreement and violations thereof. Our results additionally substantiate that the eye-tracking paradigm is suitable to examine children's sensitivity to subtle grammatical violations.}, language = {en} } @article{BollAvetisyanBhataraHoehle2017, author = {Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie and Bhatara, Anjali and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {Effects of musicality on the perception of rhythmic structure in speech}, series = {Laboratory phonology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Laboratory phonology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Ubiquity Press}, address = {London}, issn = {1868-6346}, doi = {10.5334/labphon.91}, pages = {16}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Language and music share many rhythmic properties, such as variations in intensity and duration leading to repeating patterns. Perception of rhythmic properties may rely on cognitive networks that are shared between the two domains. If so, then variability in speech rhythm perception may relate to individual differences in musicality. To examine this possibility, the present study focuses on rhythmic grouping, which is assumed to be guided by a domain-general principle, the Iambic/Trochaic law, stating that sounds alternating in intensity are grouped as strong-weak, and sounds alternating in duration are grouped as weak-strong. German listeners completed a grouping task: They heard streams of syllables alternating in intensity, duration, or neither, and had to indicate whether they perceived a strong-weak or weak-strong pattern. Moreover, their music perception abilities were measured, and they filled out a questionnaire reporting their productive musical experience. Results showed that better musical rhythm perception - ability was associated with more consistent rhythmic grouping of speech, while melody perception - ability and productive musical experience were not. This suggests shared cognitive procedures in the perception of rhythm in music and speech. Also, the results highlight the relevance of - considering individual differences in musicality when aiming to explain variability in prosody perception.}, language = {en} } @article{BhataraBollAvetisyanAgusetal.2016, author = {Bhatara, Anjali and Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie and Agus, Trevor and H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Nazzi, Thierry}, title = {Language Experience Affects Grouping of Musical Instrument Sounds}, series = {Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society}, volume = {40}, journal = {Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0364-0213}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.12300}, pages = {1816 -- 1830}, year = {2016}, language = {en} }