Comprehension of Temporal Sentences by Japanese Children (original) (raw)
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The function of local cues in the acquisition of Japanese temporal sentences
Language Sciences, 1992
This study examines the role of Slobin's (1982) 'local cues' in the acquisition of temporal clauses in Japanese. The local cue under consideration is the grammatical aspect expressed by the verb-ru/-ra form in Japanese temporal clauses, especially in mae 'before', aro 'after', and roki 'when' clauses. Ninety-six children, equally divided into three age groups of 3, 4 and 5 yr, were examined in two distinct tasks. The performance on ato and V-la toki in the first ("actout") task was significantly better than on mae and V-m roki sentences. The results suggest that the children are sensitive to the local cues expressed by the V-ru/-ta form and indicate that the success of the verb forms as a cue depends on whether the verb forms can express the temporal relations clearly and consistently. These results confirm Slobin's claim that overt and clear surface cues facilitate a child's sentence processing. Although there was no significant difference found in the second ("story") task, an explanation for this result is also offered.
First Language, 2003
The acquisition of temporal relations in the narratives of Thai children (aged 4 years, 6 years and 9 years) and of adults as control was investigated. Narratives were elicited using the 'frog story'. Results revealed common and languagespecific developmental patterns: (1) a developmental progression from relating events at a local to a more global level; (2) use of fewer forms that have a broader range of functions in the younger children; (3) acquisition of least restricted forms prior to more restricted forms; (4) qualified support for the acquisition of sequentiality prior to simultaneity. In the youngest children there was a greater reliance on usage of grammatical aspect; subsequently, as children acquired the ability to use bi-referential reference, temporal connectives played a more significant role. Eventually mature narrators are able to use a combination of explicit and implicit linguistic devices.
Production of temporal terms by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2011
This study investigated changes in the production of temporal terms over the preschool years. Ninetythree parents of 3-, 4-and 5-year-old children completed a questionnaire in which they indicated their child's production, and accurate use, of a list of temporal words. The results suggest that use and command emerge at different ages for different terms. Correlation and difference analyses were conducted to document the pattern of development. Words representing the present (e.g., now) and very general temporal terms (e.g., 'later') were produced and used accurately by the majority of even the youngest children. Some terms describing specific timeframes (e.g., 'yesterday') were also produced from a young age but demonstrated more gradual acquisition of appropriate use across the preschool years. Other terms appeared in children's vocabularies only later in the preschool years, and were inaccurately used even by the oldest children (e.g., 'hours'). These findings provide an initial survey of reported child competence with temporal words that has implications for research, education, and judicial contexts.
The acquisition of temporal reference cross-linguistically using two acting-out comprehension tasks
Journal of psycholinguistic research, 2004
The acquisition of temporal event referencing, encoded by the temporal connectives : then, before, after, when, while, together, until, and since in English, Thai and Lisu was investigated using two acting-out comprehension tasks, a Marble task and a Toy task. Forty children aged 3.6-7.6 years from each language participated. The Marble and Toy tasks differed in their cognitive complexity: in the Marble task the child had to act out only one clause, whereas in the Toy task the child had to act out both clauses. This task manipulation affected performance in Lisu children only. Language-general effects were found, namely "then" and "together" were relatively early and "since" was relatively late in acquisition. Language-specific effects were found for Thai and Lisu. Results confirm that characteristics of task and test sentences affect children's comprehension of sentences expressing temporal relations and can partially account for the disparity in acquisition order found in previous studies.
Temporal Knowledge Expressed in Preschoolers' Descriptions of Familiar Activities
1981
Forty-three children, 2:11 to 5 :6, described six familiar activities: making cookies, going to the grocery, baving'a birthday party, going to axestaurant, getting dressed, and having a fire drill. The described each event three times, The descriptions were elicited b initially asking "What happens when...?" or "What do you do when...? and then providing non-directive probes such as "Can you tell tie more?" and "Anything else?" Reviews of the children's descriptions ind cate that the request for description of events divorced from th immediate context elicits a sophistication in temporal structure and relational vocabulary that is often not accessed in either experimental or free-play settings with t;4 * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *. from the original document.
On the acquisition of the meaning of before and after
1971
It was proposed that children acquire the meanings of words component by component. Forty children between 3;O and 5;O were asked to act out instructions containing the temporal conjunctions before and after (e.g., Before the boy jumped the gate, he patted the dog) and to answer questions demanding before and after in their replies. The results showed four stages in acquisition: first, children understood neither word; second, children understood before but not after; third, children interpreted after as if it meant before; and fourth, children understood both words correctly. Linguistically, the results indicated that children acquire the separate meaning-components of before and after hierarchically, from the superordinate component on down.
3 The acquisition of temporality
Three reasons render the expression of temporality a particularly in-teresting issue in language acquisition research. Firstly, temporality is a fundamental category of human experience and cognition, and all human languages have developed a wide range of devices to express it. These devices are similar, but not identical, across languages, and this well-defined, or at least well-definable, variability presents the learner with a clear set of acquisitional problems, and allows the re-searcher to study in which order, and in which way, these problems are approached. Secondly, the expression of temporality in a par-ticular language typically involves the interplay of several means -lexical (eg., inherent verb meaning), morphological (e.g., tense mark-ing), syntactic (e.g., position of temporal adverbs), pragmatic (e.g., rules of discourse organisation). This allows the researcher to study how an interacting system, rather than some isolated phenomenon, is acquired. Thirdly, one major ...
Six-year-old children's understanding of sentences adjoined with time adverbs
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1973
The adjoining of clauses with temporal links is the basis for many sentences that convey sequence of events. The present study attempts to delineate 6-year-old children's (N=30) understanding of the meaning sequences imparted by sentences adjoined with “after”, “before”, and “until”. Their performance of the meaning sequence for each of 24 carefully constructed sentences is compared to an adult model. Analysis of the results (using a Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Rank Test) indicated that: (1)Ss understood sentences adjoined with “after” according to an adult model more frequently than “before” adjoined sentences (P<0.01); (b) “Until” adjoined sentences with a negative marker in the main clause were understood according to an adult model more often than “until” adjoined sentences with no such negative element, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01; (3)Ss understood “before” adjoined sentences according to an adult model more often than “until” adjoined sentences, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01. In general, the results indicated that 6-year-olds have not yet completed development of an “adult grammar” with respect to adjoining clauses with temporal links, “after”, “before”, and “until”.
Taking Away the Supportive Context: How Preschoolers Talk about the "Then-and-There
1981
Linguistic and cognitive competencies of preschoolers were revealed by interviewing them about routine activities. It was found that freeing, preschoolers' speech from constraints inherent in talking about the immediate context results in their demonstrating control over a variety of language-related skills that are generally assumed to be beyond their competence. These include: (1) the simple ability to talk about, and thus presumably to represent, events not taking place in the here-and-now: (2) the ability to, and preference for, talking about these.in general rather than specific terms; (3) the use of timeless reference: (4) the sensitivity to the temporal structure of activities and the ability to move "backwards" withit a temporal structure to effect a "repair"; and (5) the appropriate use of a varietrof relational terms that are infrequent in context-bound "-speech and that preschoolers appear net to understand in direct tests of comprehension. Attention is focused on the way in which the, use of "if" and "or" indicated the flexibility and complexity of preschoolers' representations of familiar activities, and on the possibility of interpreting many of their "if" statements as timeless hypothetical references. In addition, the evidence that preschoolers' knowledge of familiar activities includes a representation of alternative and conditional pathways suggests that questioning them about such activities might provide a means of assessment of their ability to use the verb forms "could" and "would.." (SW)