The role of intonation in processing left- and right- dislocations in French.

International audienceThis study attempts to determine the effects of intonation morphemes in French on the processing of simple reversible sentences containing a dislocated element. Synthetic speech stimuli were used. Subjects (80 children aged 5.0 and 6.0 and 48 adults, all monolingual, native French speakers) generally processed the sentences better when they retained the standard subject-verb-object order characteristic of most French utteranccs. When that ordcr was not maintained, appropriate intonation promoted the correct attribution of roles in sentences with 8 dislocated object. The on-line analysis of adult response timing suggested that intonation morphemes serve as processing instructions for these subjects, guiding them in deciding whether to express their answer immediately or to delay responding