ABSTRACT Infants’ pointing is associated with concurrent and later language development. The communicative intention behind the point – i.e., imperative versus declarative – can affect both the nature and strength of these associations, and is therefore a critical factor to consider. Parents’ pointing is associated with both infant pointing and infant language; however, less work has examined the intent behind parents’ points. We explore relations between parents’ and infants’ pointing at the level of communicative intention, and examine how pointing relates to concurrent and longitudinal infant language skills. In a sample of 52 mother-infant dyads, we measured mother and infant pointing at infant age 12-months, and infant expressive and receptive language at 12-, 18-, and 24-months. We found that mothers produced points with a variety of intentions, however we did not find relations between mother and infant pointing within the different communicative intentions. Replicating previous research, infant declarative pointing was related both concurrently and longitudinally to their language ability. Mothers’ declarative pointing was related to their infants’ concurrent language, while their imperative pointing was not. Further, there was an interaction between parent and infant declarative pointing, such that the positive relation between parents’ declarative pointing and their infants’ concurrent receptive language was present only for those infants who were also producing declarative points themselves. Findings suggest that parents’ declarative pointing may support both their infants’ early word learning and, perhaps, provides a model for their infant to begin using points as well. This study constitutes an important initial exploration of these relations.

中文翻译：

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意图重要吗？父母指示、婴儿指示与语言能力发展之间的关系


摘要 婴儿的指向与同时期和后期的语言发展有关。观点背后的沟通意图（即命令式与声明式）会影响这些关联的性质和强度，因此是需要考虑的关键因素。父母的指向与婴儿的指向和婴儿的语言都相关；然而，很少有人研究父母观点背后的意图。我们在交际意图层面探讨父母和婴儿的指向之间的关系，并研究指向与婴儿并发和纵向语言技能的关系。在 52 名母婴二人组样本中，我们在 12 个月大时测量了母亲和婴儿的指向性，并在 12 个月、18 个月和 24 个月时测量了婴儿的表达性和接受性语言。我们发现母亲产生的指向具有多种意图，但是我们没有发现母亲和婴儿的指向在不同的交际意图中存在关系。重复之前的研究，婴儿的陈述性指向与他们的语言能力同时和纵向相关。母亲的陈述性指向与婴儿的并发语言相关，而命令性指向则不然。此外，父母和婴儿的陈述性指向之间存在相互作用，因此父母的陈述性指向和婴儿同时接受的语言之间的正相关关系仅对那些自己也产生陈述性点的婴儿存在。研究结果表明，父母的陈述性指示可能支持婴儿的早期单词学习，并且可能为婴儿开始使用指示提供了一个模型。这项研究构成了对这些关系的重要初步探索。