Collaborative Project:Â Information Status and Word Order in Speakers of English, Spanish, and Chinese
When communicating with their interlocutors, speakers mention 'old' entities (mentioned in prior discourse) first, before they refer to entities that are 'new' (introduced for the first time). Prior research has demonstrated a robust preference for the 'old-before-new' ordering preference in different languages. But recent studies conducted in our lab suggest that such a preference is not a default, universal preference. Children exhibit the opposite, 'new-before-old', preference in phrasal conjuncts as do older adults acquiring Spanish. And English-speaking adults show a reduction in their preference for the 'old-before-new' order when placed under a cognitive load. In collaboration with Dr.Chen (CSU, Fresno), we are currently extending our research on information status and word order by investigating child and adult speakers of additional languages, including Chinese and Spanish.