Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-fnl2l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-09T11:19:13.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How children talk about what happened*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Francesco Antinucci  and
Ruth Miller
Francesco Antinucci
Affiliation:
Instituto di Psicologia, CNR, Rome and University of California, Berkeley
Ruth Miller
Affiliation:
Instituto di Psicologia, CNR, Rome and University of California, Berkeley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates the development of past tense expressions in the speech of children from 1; 6 to 2; 6. It is shown that this development depends crucially on the child's cognitive construction of the time dimension, as described by Piaget (1954, 1971). In this process two different cognitive routes are followed, depending on the type of event the child has to encode. Past events resulting in the end state of some object are gradually grasped and encoded by means of a practical process–effect coordination. Past states and activities, on the contrary, i.e. past events that do not result in an end state, are referred to through a more primitive distinction between a pretend vs. a real world. This difference is formally reflected in the differential past-tense marking appearing on verbs which describe the two different types of event.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 167 - 189
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Antinucci, F. & Gebert, L. (in the Press). L'aspetto verbale in polacco. To appear in Ricerche slavistiche.Google Scholar
Battaglia, S. & Pemicone, G. (1957). La grammatica italiana. Torino: Loescher.Google Scholar
Bever, T. G. (1970). The cognitive basis of linguistic structures. In Hayes, J. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Bever, T. G. & Langendoen, D. T. (1972). The interaction of speech perception and grammatical structure in the evolution of language. In Stockwell, R. P. & Macaulay, R. K. S. (eds), Linguistic change and generative theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1974). Learning the structure of causative verbs: a study in the relationship of cognitive, semantic, and syntactic development. PRCLD 8. 142–78.Google Scholar
Bronkadt, J. P. & Sinclair, H. (1973). Time, tense and aspect. Cognition 2. 107–30.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. & Garrett, M. (1966). Some reflections on competence and performance. In Lyons, J. & Wales, R. J. (eds), Psycholinguistics papers. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (1970). The acquisition of language. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (1974). Semiotic extension. (Unpublished manuscript.)Google Scholar
Mehler, J. & De Boysson-Bardies, B. (1971). Psycholinguistique, message et codage verbal: études sur le rappel de phrases. L'Année Psychologique 71. 547–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. (1951). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. (1971). The child's conception of time. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Regula, M. & Jernej, J. (1965). Grammatica italiana descrittiva. Bern: Francke Verlag.Google Scholar
Veneziano, E. (1974). A proposal for early language analysis. (Unpublished manuscript.)Google Scholar