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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Multimodality and Complexity in Children’s Negations

Résumé

Previous research in first language acquisition has shown that negation is a great locus to analyze children's spoken and non-spoken means of expression (Clark, 1970). The present study scrutinizes the interplay between modalities of expression (speech, gestures, vocalizations and body movements) in the construction of negation to account for the complexity of language. This multimodal study brings together functionalist and constructivist theoretical approach (Tomasello, 2003), embodied interaction and gesture studies. The data is composed of two monolingual French and English children filmed monthly from 10 months to 4 years old in natural mother-child dyadic interactions. A negation was coded when the child or the mother used 1) a spoken negation like no or not in English, non or pas in French, 2) when the speaker used body movements (headshake, pushing objects away) that contributed to express negation and 3) when the interlocutor understood the speaker's behavior as being negative. Using a coding system relying on the use of several compatible programs to combine qualitative and quantitative analyses (Beaupoil-Hourdel et al. 2015), all combinations of spoken and non-spoken negations were coded. Overall, 1172 multimodal negations with 537 occurrences in the English data and 635 in the French data were analyzed. Previous work on the role of gestures in spoken and gestural multimodal utterances have shown that gesture 1) can be equivalent to speech, 2) can complement speech and thus contribute to the construction of meaning in interaction, or 3) can supplement speech by adding a layer of meaning to the spoken utterance (Capirci et al., 1996). This study shows that when children combine modalities to express negation, one can identify several levels of syntactic and cognitive complexity (Sekali, 2012) in the construction of meaning. Cognitive complexity corresponds to the internalized structure of utterances rendered visible by the use of modalities whereas syntactic complexity refers to complex sentences. It is thus necessary to analyze the role of all combinations of modalities of expression in children to understand the complexity of language. Results show that several levels of cognitive/syntactic complexity are possible: 1) the multimodal utterance is neither cognitively nor syntactically complex; 2) the multimodal utterance is cognitively but not syntactically complex; 3) the multimodal utterance is cognitively and syntactically complex. Adopting a multimodal approach helps broaden our understanding of complex structure. Indeed, in 3) children produce single-clause utterances and thus simple syntactic sentences. Yet, the association of speech with a non-spoken modality contributes to simultaneously and multimodally express complex sentences with two or more predicates. This study shows that the use of synchronized modalities in negative contexts should be considered a syntactic and cognitive skill. Multimodality therefore implies the re-evaluation of what a complex utterance is.
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Dates et versions

hal-01365269 , version 1 (13-09-2016)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01365269 , version 1

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Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel. Multimodality and Complexity in Children’s Negations. ISGS 7, Aliyah Morgenstern, Jul 2016, Paris, France. ⟨hal-01365269⟩
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