Attention and prominence in language production and acquisition (B06)

• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281511265

In the project, we manipulate the attention of a speaker describing a transitive event and investigate how this manipulation is reflected in the linguistic formulation of the produced utterances, specifically in the use of linguistic markers of prominence. Phase I of the project established the effects of different conceptual and perceptual attention-drawing factors on message generation and linguistic formulation in adult German speakers. Against this baseline of adult behaviour, in phase II, the project’s focus will be on exploring how the interaction between attention and linguistic prominence develops in children.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1252: Prominence in Language
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Martina Penke