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The past conditional verb form in French children: the role of semantics in late grammatical development*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Yves Boloh  and
Christian Champaud
Yves Boloh*
Affiliation:
Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier
Christian Champaud
Affiliation:
C.N.R.S., Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Paris
*
Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III, Département de Psychologie, Route de Mende, BP 5043-34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

As shown by Bowerman (1986), it has proved remarkably difficult to find clear-cut interpretations of why children face problems with conditionals. The present study reassesses a part of this puzzle by analysing four- to eight-year-old French children's acquisition of conditional verb forms. Relevant data in the literature and results of an experiment designed to gain information on the temporal meaning of young children's past conditional verb forms are presented and discussed. Among others, they are shown to provide weak support for interpretations stressing the role of conceptual problems and related mapping problems. Meeting one of Slobin's (1985) proposals, an interpretation is suggested that views the lateness of the past conditional verb form as due to an unexpected juxtaposition of ‘possibility’ and ‘non-possibility’ in its semantic representation. It is argued that such a juxtaposition cannot be achieved on the sole basis of cognitive development and that it requires the preliminary mastery of the conditional verb form.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 169 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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Footnotes

[*]

We are grateful to Melissa Bowerman, Oswald Ducrot, Henri Lehalle, Clive Perdue and two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this work and to Wendy Penso for rereading the English version of the text. We also thank the editor of the Journal for constructive suggestions for the improvement of the paper. This research was supported in part by a grant to the first author from the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris.

References

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