Welcome to the Center for Research on Language (CRL)

CRL brings together faculty, students and research associates who share an interest in the nature of language, the processes by which language is acquired and used, and the mediation of language in the human brain.

CRL is housed in the Cognitive Science Building on the Thurgood Marshall Campus at the University of California, San Diego and boasts an interdisciplinary academic staff comprised of specialists in a wide variety of fields:

  • Cognitive science
  • Communication
  • Communication disorders
  • Computer science
  • Developmental psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Neurosciences
  • Pediatrics
  • Psycholinguistics

CRL Talks

April 24

Asymmetric distribution of other-initiated repair and cognition in parent-child turn-taking

Jack Terwilliger

How is intersubjectivity possible when interacting with a toddler? Lapses in intersubjectivity occur frequently, and so, if a child is to learn language or participate meaningfully with others, these lapses must be remediated turn-by-turn as they occur in conversation. A primary way remediation happens is through other-initiated self-repair – a behavior requiring both metalinguistic and metacognitive skills. During other-initiated repair, a recipient monitors for trouble understanding a speaker and then indexes a source of trouble in the speaker’s prior talk to request clarification. While repair initiation is likely consequential for both language and social cognitive development, the development of this behavior in children has received little systematic investigation. In this talk, I will describe how other-initiated self-repair is distributed between caregivers and children aged 12- to 42-months, how its distribution changes over development, and how children first begin initiating repair. Additionally I will discuss the possible implications of other-initiated self-repair on language and social cognitive development.