Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T14:47:39.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The emergence of present perfect verb forms: semantic influences on selective imitation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Cynthia J. Johnson
Cynthia J. Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates forms and functions of the perfect in 22 preschool children. Children retold and re-enacted two-sentence stories which modelled the perfect. Although the perfect appeared to be emerging in imitative speech, including certain ungrammatical forms, children varied in the extent to which they used it and appreciated its meaning of current relevance. Three factors were found to influence children's selective imitation and paraphrasing of the perfect: form of the verb (present perfect versus perfect progressive), semantic sense of the perfect, and duration of the lexical verb. Children's performance demonstrates the need to consider not only the developmental frequency of advanced, optional verb forms but the generality of their use and their relation to the child's lexicon.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 325 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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

Antinucci, F. & Miller, R. (1976). How children talk about what happened. JChLang 3. 167–89.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Hood, L. & Lightbown, P. (1974). Imitation in language development: if, when, and why. CogPsychol 6. 380–420.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Lifter, K. & Hafitz, J. (1980). Semantics of verbs and the development of verb inflection in child language. Lg 56. 386–412.Google Scholar
Braine, M. (1976). Children's first word combinations. Monogr.Soc.Res.Ch.Deuel. 41 (No. 1). 1–104.Google Scholar
Bronckart, J. & Sinclair, H. (1973). Time, tense, and aspect. Cognition 2. 107–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, H. H. & Stafford, R. A. (1969). Memory for semantic features in the verb. JExpPsychol 80. 326–34.Google Scholar
Clark, R. (1977). What's the use of imitation? JChLang 4. 341–59.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Cromer, R. F. (1974). The development of language and cognition: the cognition hypothesis. In Foss, B. (ed.), New perspectives in child development. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Crystal, D., Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (1976). The grammatical analysis of language disability. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
de Villiers, J. & de Villiers, P. (1973). A cross-sectional study of the development of grammatical morphemes in child speech. JPsycholingRes 2. 267–78.Google ScholarPubMed
Engelkamp, J. (1976). On the interrelations of syntax and semantics. PsychRes 39. 87–98.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. (1971). Types of lexical information. In Steinberg, D. & Jakobovits, L. (eds), Semantics: an interdisciplinary reader in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Fletcher, P. (1979). The development of the verb phrase. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds), Language acquisition: studies in first language development. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Fletcher, P. (1981). Description and explanation in the acquisition of verb-forms. JChLang 8. 93–108.Google Scholar
Harner, L. (1976). Children's understanding of linguistic reference to past and future. JPsycholingRes 5. 65–84.Google Scholar
Harner, L. (1981). Children talk about the time and aspect of actions. ChDev 52. 498–506.Google Scholar
Harner, L. (1982). Talking about the past and the future. In Friedman, W. J. (ed.), The developmental psychology of time. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harris, R. J. & Brewer, W. F. (1973). Deixis in memory for verb tense. JVLVB 12. 590–7.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1977). The acquisition of regular and irregular past tense forms. JVLVB 16. 589–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1978). Children's judgements of grammatical and ungrammatical irregular past-tense verbs. ChDev 49. 319–26.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1981). More on children's initial failure to relate specific acquisitions. JChLang 8. 485–8.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. & Maratsos, M. (1975). What children can say before they will. MPQ 21. 88–111.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1969). Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula. Lg 45. 715–62.Google Scholar
Lee, L. (1974). Developmental sentence analysis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Leech, G. (1970). Towards a semantic description of English. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Moerk, E. (1977). Processes and products of imitation: evidence that imitation is progressive. JPsycholingRes 6. 187–202.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. E. (1976). Facilitating children's syntax acquisition. DevPsychol 13. 101–7.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, N. & Naremore, R. (1975). On the acquisition of present perfect ‘have’ in normal children. L & S 18. 219–26.Google Scholar
Osgood, C. (1971). Where do sentences come from? In Steinberg, D. & Jakobovits, L. (eds), Semantics: an interdisciplinary reader in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. (1965). A linguistic study of the English verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. (1964). The English verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973). A concise grammar of contemporary English. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. (1979). Topic selection in parent-child discourse. Discourse Processes 2. 145–53.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. (1981). Talking about there and then: the emergence of displaced reference in parent-child discourse. In Nelson, K. E. (ed), Children's language, Vol. 4. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Smith, C. (1980). The acquisition of time talk in relations between child and adult grammars. JChLang 7. 263–78.Google Scholar
Snow, C. (1981). The uses of imitation. JChLang 8. 205–12.Google ScholarPubMed
Wells, G. (1979). Learning and using the auxiliary verb in English. In Lee, V. (ed.), Language development. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar