In a production experiment and two follow-up perception experiments on read German we investigated the (de-)coding of discourse-new, inferentially and textually accessible and given discourse referents by prosodic means. Results reveal that a decrease in the referent’s level of givenness is reflected by an increase in its prosodic prominence (expressed by differences in the status and type of accent used) providing evidence for the relevance of different intermediate types of information status between the poles given and new. Furthermore, perception data indicate that the degree of prosodic prominence can serve as the decisive cue for decoding a referent’s level of givenness.

本研究探討溝通動態與手勢之關係。本研究相較於過去的研究提供了中文口語語料的量化結果，除了檢視語言上的溝通動態值與手勢出現、手勢類型的關係以外，並加入手勢特徵進而檢視。語言上的溝通動態值分別以「資訊狀態」與「主題連續性」來決定溝通動態值之高低，並且將手勢所伴隨的語詞依詞性分開分為名詞與動詞，檢視是否手勢上會依循語碼原則（the coding principle）：當溝通動態值越高，所使用的代碼材料便越多；當溝通動態值越低，所使用的代碼材料越少。結果發現，以決定溝通動態值的標準來看，資訊狀態較主題連續性更能依語碼原則反應溝通動態值。原因是因為資訊狀態反應訊息的新舊差異性，而主題連續性反應的是舊訊息當中的不同的「舊」的程度差異，因此前者較能反應溝通動態與手勢之關係；而以手勢伴隨的語詞而言，動詞較名詞更能依語碼原則反應溝通動態值。因為動詞相較於名詞而言，在語言上無完整的語碼系統以反應溝通動態值之高低，因此倚賴手勢出現與手勢特徵來反應語言上的溝通動態值之高低。 / The study investigates the correlation between communicative dynamism (CD) and gesture. Different from the previous studies, the present study provides quantitative analysis based on Chinese conversational data. The study examines the correlation between CD in language and the occurence of gestures, gestural types and gestural features. The various degrees of CD are deteremined by two separate criteria, namely “information status” and “topic continuity”. Morover, the study also distinguishes between the nominal affiliates of gesture and the verbal counterparts. The study found that gestures occur at the two extremities of CD. Gestures tend to co-occur with linguistic elements bearing the highest or the lowest CD. In addition, based on the criterion of “information status”, stroke duration and handedness were found to reflect the various degrees of CD. On the other hand, based on the criterion of “topic continuity”, all gestural features including stroke duration, gestural space, handedness and stroke frequency have no correlation with CD.

本研究自語言的想像和傳承起興，探討新聞報導時間的變化。主採敘事學觀點，輔以語言學相關概念綜論新聞文本時間敘事的特色，並進而論及其時間想像及歷史感。 文本取材自人民日報和聯合報共十一則報導，逐篇進行言說模式及窗口分析，其結果說明新聞報導的歷史感非只憑敘述過去事件，更須著重過去和現在素材的連接，不同的連接形式，即敘事時間次序、頻率、節奏的變化各有其意義，並以指示語及各種資訊狀態縫合文本時間的跳躍和變動。而文本中的可然世界(作者或故事人物的精神活動之敘述)則在時間交錯處編織出可供讀者掌握過去、現在、未來時間的各種想像。 / This study, originated from imagination and inheritance of language, aims at examining features of narrative time. Taken a narratologic perspective with concepts borrowed from linguistics, this research discusses the narrativity in news text and also further explores temporarity and sense of history in news. A total of 11 news stories selected from the People’s Daily (Beijing) and the United Daily News (Taipei) were then analyzed by using the methods of discourse analysis and window analysis respectively. The results showed that the sense of history in news was more than simple description of the past events. In fact, it (the sense of history) could only be emphasized by connecting materials of both the past and the present. Further, with different forms of time connection, such as frequency, order, and tempo, news texts could be understood with the use of deixis and information status despite time fluctuation and change. Finally the possible world delineated in any news text would construct the readers’ imagination and allow them to hold the past, the present and the future all together. Keywords: time imagination, narrative theory, deixis, information status, discursive structure, here and now

Die Dissertation befasst sich mit der Verwendung referentieller Ausdrücke im narrativen Diskurs monolingualer und bilingualer Kinder im Russischen und Deutschen. Insgesamt wurden 188 Erzählungen untersucht, elizitiert durch Bildergeschichten von 60 bilingualen und 68 monolingualen Kindern in 3 Altersgruppen (4-, 5- und 6-Jährige). Das Hauptziel der Studie war herauszufinden, wie russisch-deutsch bilinguale Kinder und monolinguale Kinder der jeweiligen Sprachen mit der Wahl der referentiellen Ausdrücke im narrativen Diskurs umgehen und ob ihre Leistung und Entwicklung in Bezug auf die grammatische und pragmatische Verwendung referentieller Ausdrücke für die Einführung, Weiterführung und Wiedereinführung von Referenten ähnlich sind. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Kinder bereits im Alter von 4 Jahren ein gut ausgebildetes Repertoire an referentiellen Ausdrücken haben und ein gutes Verständnis für deren pragmatische Verwendung sowie für die Unterscheidung zwischen den Informationsstatus von Referenten new (neu), given (gegeben) und accessible (zugänglich) zeigen. Die Verwendung von referentiellen Ausdrücken entwickelt sich bei monolingualen und bilingualen Kindern in der analysierten Altersspanne signifikant, insbesondere in Bezug auf ihre Wahl für die Einführung und Wiedereinführung von Referenten. Trotz teilweise signifikanter Unterschiede in den Altersgruppen monolingualer und bilingualer Kinder zeigen alle Stichproben ähnliche Ergebnisse spätestens im Alter von 6 Jahren, d.h. dass bilinguale Kinder in der Lage sind, im Laufe des Spracherwerbsprozesses bis zu diesem Alter die Referenzsysteme ihrer beiden Sprachen entsprechend zu reorganisieren und referentielle Ausdrücke zielsprachlich zu verwenden. Gleichzeitig verwenden bilinguale Kinder ähnliche referentielle Strategien und zeigen teilweise parallele Entwicklungsmuster in beiden Sprachen. Solche Parallelen sind zum Teil auch zwischen den monolingualen Stichproben im Russischen und Deutschen zu beobachten. / This dissertation deals with the use of referential expressions in the narrative discourse of monolingual and bilingual children in Russian and German. A total of 188 narratives, elicited with picture stories from 60 bilingual and 68 monolingual children in 3 age groups (4, 5, and 6 years of age) were examined. The main aim of the study was to find out how Russian-German bilingual children and monolingual children of the respective languages deal with the choice of referential expressions in narrative discourse and whether their performance and development in terms of grammatical and pragmatic use of referential expressions for introducing, maintaining and reintroducing referents is similar. The results indicate that children already have a well-developed repertoire of referential expressions at age 4 and demonstrate a good understanding of the pragmatic use of referential expressions and of the distinction between different information statuses of referents, defined as new, given, and accessible. The use of referential expressions develops significantly in monolingual and bilingual children in the analyzed age range, especially with regard to the choice of referential expressions for the introduction and reintroduction of referents. Despite partly significant differences within age groups in monolingual and bilingual children, all samples show similar results by age 6 at the latest, i.e., bilingual children are able to reorganize the reference systems of their two languages accordingly during the language acquisition process up to this age and to use referential expressions in a manner that corresponds to the target language. At the same time, bilingual children use similar referential strategies and show partly parallel developmental patterns in their two languages. Such parallels are also observed between monolingual samples in Russian and German to some extent.