Hi folks,
I've sunk some time into this one today, and I think I've figured out the problem. I'm running Mac 10.9.2, MS Word 2011 (14.3.9). I'm trying to make a bulleted list, and I want to dictate it. However, "new line" only inserts a new line in MS Word and does not create a new bullet. The enter key makes a new line with a new bullet, but the dictation command "new line" doesn't make a new bullet (only a new line under the same bullet).
This is just a guess, but I think Microsoft Word uses the input from the keyboard directly, instead of using the characters the keyboard types. The end of line character that Mavericks Dictation inserts seems to be the same as what the Return key types (a Unix style LF (a.k.a. unicode 000a or /n)), but Microsoft Word doesn't behave the same when you insert 000a via Mac unicode input. I suspect that Word waits for the keyboard entry to generate the XML tags for the new list item. By the way, TextEdit lists don't work with Mavericks Dictation either. Pages '09 does have a robust response to both dictation and unicode 000A insertion, so you can dictate bulleted lists in Pages.
Summary: Word isn't programmed to use "new line" from Mavericks Dictation for editing bulleted lists or outlines. "new line" does create a new line in Word if you're just writing normal text.