Japanese Children's Sensitivity to Prosody and Grammar in Interpreting Adjectives

摘要

In this study, we experimentally investigated how Japanese children interpret adjectives located in front of noun phrases, such as 'marui(round) onigiri-no(hce ball-Gen) hako(boxy and N-N compounds, such as 'marui(round) onigiri-bako(rice ball-box)'. The former can be interpreted either as (i) a round box for rice balls or (ii) a box for round rice balls depending on prosody, while the latter can only be interpreted as (i), due to a constraint on compounds. Many children, however, chose (ii) interpretation both for noun phrases and compounds. This result indicates that children cannot make use of prosodic cues and/or knowledge of grammar instantly as they make processing decisions.