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Event knowledge and early language acquisition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Michael Jeffrey Farrar ,
Margaret J. Friend  and
James N. Forbes
Michael Jeffrey Farrar*
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Margaret J. Friend
Affiliation:
University of Florida
James N. Forbes
Affiliation:
University of Florida
*
Address for correspondence: Psychology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
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Abstract

The role of event knowledge in early language acquisition was investigated. Thirteen two-year-olds were observed interacting with their mothers over a five-week period. During weekly observational sessions, dyads interacted in both a familiar-event context and an unfamiliar-event context. Events were represented by complex toys (e.g. airport, marina, etc.). In the familiar-event, dyads interacted with the same event-toy during each observation period. In the unfamiliar-event, these same dyads interacted with a different novel toy during each observation period. The results indicated that children's increasing event knowledge facilitated their language development. Specifically, children's lexical type use, action verb use, and MLU increased in the familiar-event, but remained unchanged in the unfamiliar-event. Event knowledge also facilitated children's lexical token use. Results are discussed in terms of the role of event knowledge in language acquisition.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , October 1993 , pp. 591 - 606
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by a NIMH grant (RO3 MH44032) and a University of Florida Faculty support grant awarded to the first author. The second and third authors were supported by NICHD predoctoral training fellowships (HD07318–04). We would like to thank the mothers and children who participated in this study.

References

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