Cross-linguistic Comparisons of Typical Planning Disfluencies and Lexical Filled Pauses in the Child-directed Speech of Native English and Native Spanish Speakers

Disfluencies are common in spontaneous speech and have been interpreted as signals of error repair and planning in the production of monolingual, adult-directed speech. However, speakers may produce disfluencies differently depending on context. In the few studies of disfluency in the context of child-directed speech (CDS) in English, disfluencies occur but do so less frequently than in adult-directed speech. Language characteristics and bilingualism may also effect disfluency production. This is the first study to analyze disfluency types in spontaneous speech data from both bilinguals and monolinguals in the context of child-directed speech. In the current study, we measured rates and proportions of three typical disfluencies: nonlexical filled pauses (NFPs), silent pauses, and repetitions. Because of their role in speech planning, we refer to them as typical planning disfluencies (TPDs). We also measured an additional disfluency type, lexical filled pauses (LFPs), as this type was common in our corpus. TPDs and LFPs in CDS were compared between native, monolingual English speakers (MONO-E) and native Spanish speakers (NSS) who were also bilingual in English. TPDs and LFPs were also compared between the NSS group and MONO-E groups in English. Lastly, TPDs and LFPs were compared within the NSS group between their second language (L2) of English and their first language (L1) of Spanish. We found no significant differences in the rates of TPDs between MONO-E and NSS groups in their native languages. Rates of TPDs were significantly higher in NSS English in comparison with the MONO-E group. Rates of TPDs were also higher within the NSS group in English than in Spanish. These results indicate that TPD production increases for speakers in their L2, possibly due to increased cognitive demands and an increased need for the planning time. Of all TPDs, the rate of NFPs was disproportionately higher for the NSS group in their L1 than in their L2 and in comparison with the MONO-E group. These findings indicate that for Spanish-English bilinguals in this context, NFPs may be influenced by different factors than repetitions and silent pauses. This supports earlier research that indicates NFPs function differently than other disfluencies. LFPs were more frequent for the NSS group in both Spanish and English as compared to the MONO-E group. This may support earlier research that found differences in interactional features in CDS between speakers of American English and speakers from Spanish-speaking cultures. The NSS group did not have a significantly different rate of LFPs between their L2 and L1, indicating that LFPs may be less influenced by cognitive demands than TPDs in this particular context. LFP use may be a feature of spontaneous speech that is more particular to individual and cultural speech styles that speakers generalize across languages.

Author

• Sturgill, Charlotte

Language

• en

Keyword

• disfluencies
• Spanish
• Child-directed speech
• bilingualism
• speech production
• filled pauses

Date created

• 2014

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Speech and Hearing Science

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Brundage, Shelley B

Committee Member(s)

• Core, Cynthia
• Hancock, Adrienne

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/fj236221c