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Preschool children's sentence comprehension: strategies with respect to word order*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Henrietta Lempert  and
Marcel Kinsbourne
Henrietta Lempert
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Marcel Kinsbourne
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

Fifty-two children aged 2; 5 to 6; 3 acted out the meaning of reversible passive and inverted cleft sentences. The younger children overgeneralized two strategies that led to passive sentence reversal. In order of frequency, they are: (1)‘agent + action’ (the noun preceding the verb being interpreted as agent even when it is the second noun), and (2) ‘order-of-mention’ (the first noun being treated as agent). Whereas younger children tended to use an individually consistent approach to both structures, older children were more likely to vary their approaches when they did not comprehend a structure.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1980 , pp. 371 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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Footnotes

*

We gratefully acknowledge indebtedness to Peter Landry, Phyllis Couse, Joanna Briggs and staff of the Learning Center, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto, for their assistance and interest. This research was funded by Medical Research Council Grant MA-6461. Address for correspondence: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1.

References

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