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Exploring Ambiguity Within Children’s Narratives

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • Cohesion is a key factor of intelligible language, so it is important to know when and how cohesion develops. This study focuses on linguistic ambiguity as a breakdown of cohesion within the fictional retellings of the Pink Panther cartoon In the Pink of the Night by 29 monolingual, English-speaking, Canadian children. Previous research has highlighted relationships between cohesion, ambiguity, and pronominal reference, though not the combination of all three. Therefore, this study seeks to fill the gap in the literature concerning cohesion in children’s narratives with multiple characters, wherein ambiguity inversely measures cohesion. Ambiguity is calculated through the use of unclear pronominal reference with respect to specific characters within the narrative. This study utilizes previous research in conjunction with collected data to explore the use and clarity of pronominal reference in children’s narratives. Results from this study imply that while children create cohesion the majority of the time, ambiguity emphasizes pronouns as a main factor of narrative cohesion.

  • Date created
    2021-04-01
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Research Material
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-822x-5e42
  • License
    Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International