Social cues and the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns by bilingual speakers

Fabiola Tortajada, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

Gestures are a crucial part of communication as they aid listeners in identifying meaning in conversation. The present study investigates the relationship between attention-direction gestures and the interpretation of discourse information in bilingual and monolingual speakers. Most research to this day has focus on the production of non-verbal cues in bilingual speakers, while the domain in comprehension of non-verbal cues has not yet been explored in this population. The aim of the present study is to contribute to filling this gap, by examining how bilingual speakers use attention-directing cues, such as Looking and Pointing, when they interpret discourse information (i.e., ambiguous pronouns) provided either by a native or a non-native speaker.

Subject Area

Linguistics

Recommended Citation

Tortajada, Fabiola, "Social cues and the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns by bilingual speakers" (2016). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI10250120.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI10250120

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