% pubman genre = article
@article{item_1555293,
title = {{Young children{\textquotesingle}s sensitivity to listener knowledge and perceptual context in choosing referring expressions}},
author = {Wittek, Angelika and Tomasello, Michael},
language = {eng},
issn = {0142-7164},
doi = {10.1017/S0142716405050290},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
address = {Cambridge, England},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-10},
abstract = {{Speakers use different types of referring expressions depending on what the listener knows or is attending to; for example, they use pronouns for objects that are already present in the immediate discourse or perceptual context. In a first study we found that 2.5- and 3.5-year-old children are strongly influenced by their interlocutor{\textquotesingle}s knowledge of a referent as expressed in her immediately preceding utterance. Specifically, when they are asked a question about a target object ("Where is the broom?"), they tend to use null references or pronouns to refer to that object ("On the shelf" or "It{\textquotesingle}s on the shelf"); in contrast, when they are asked more general questions ("What do we need?") or contrast questions ("Do we need a mop?") that reveal no knowledge of the target object they tend to use lexical nouns ("A broom" or "No, a broom"). In a second study we found that children at around their second birthday are not influenced by immediately preceding utterances in this same way. Finally, in a third study we found that 2.5- and 3.5-year-old children{\textquotesingle}s choice of referring expressions is very little influenced by the physical arrangements of objects in the perceptual context, whether it is absent or needs to be distinguished from a close-by alternative, when they request a target object from a silent adult. These results are discussed in terms of children{\textquotesingle}s emerging understanding of the knowledge and attentional states and other persons. [References: 17]}},
journal = {{Applied Psycholinguistics}},
volume = {26},
number = {4},
pages = {541--558},
}