Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:40:35.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comprehension and production of adjectives and seriation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Linnea C. Ehri
Linnea C. Ehri
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To explore adjective language development and to examine its relationship to seriation, several tasks were given to 40 children aged 4;0 to 8;0. Comprehension and production of various adjective forms were measured: vocabulary, coordination, comparison. The ability to order objects by size was used to assess intuitive-level seriation. In addition to yielding information about children's meanings and use of adjective forms, results indicated that vocabulary and comprehension were more important than language production for distinguishing senators from non-senators. The relevance of findings for Sinclair de Zwart's observations and for the Clarks' hypotheses about adjective development is discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , October 1976 , pp. 369 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Clark, E. V. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonym pairs in two semantic fields. JVLVB 11. 750–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1973). What's in a word? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1970). The primitive nature of children's relational concepts. In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H.(1973). Space, time, semantics and the child. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, M. & Balfour, G. (1968). Less is more: a study of language comprehension in children. BJPsych 59. 461–72.Google Scholar
Donaldson, M. & Wales, R. J. (1970). On the acquisition of some relational terms. In Wales, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Elkind, D. (1968). Discrimination, seriation, and numeration of size and dimensional differences in young children: Piaget replication study VI. In Sigel, I. E. & Hooper, F. H. (eds), Logical thinking in children. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Entwisle, D. R. (1966). Word associations of young children. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.Google Scholar
Inhelder, B., Bovet, M., Sinclair, H. & Smock, C. D. (1966). On cognitive development. AmPsych 21. 160–4.Google Scholar
Inhelder, B. & Piaget, J. (1964). The early growth of logic in the child. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Klatzky, R. L., Clark, E. V. & Macken, M. (1973). Asymmetries in the acquisition of polar adjectives: linguistic or conceptual? JExChPsych 16. 32–46.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. & Benedict, H. (1974). The comprehension of relative, absolute, and contrastive adjectives by young children. JPsycholingRes 3. 333–42.Google Scholar
Palermo, D. S. (1973). More about less: a study of language comprehension. JVLVB 12. 211–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palermo, D. S. (1974). Still more about the comprehension of‘less’. DevPsych 10. 827–9.Google Scholar
Peisach, E. (1973). Relationship between knowledge and use of dimensional language and achievement of conservation. DevPsych 9. 189–97.Google Scholar
Rohwer, W. D. Jr, Ammon, P. R. & Cramer, P. (1974). Understanding intellectual development. Hinsdale, Ill.: Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Sinclair de Zwart, H. (1967). Acquisition du langage et développement de la pensée. Paris: Dunod.Google Scholar
Sinclair de Zwart, H. (1969). Developmental psycholinguistics. In Elkind, D. & Flavell, J. H. (eds), Studies in cognitive development. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (in the Press). Suggested universals in the ontogenesis of grammar. In Honsa, V. & Hardman-De-Bautista, M. J. (eds), Memorial volume to Ruth Hirsh Weir. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar