Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T12:55:34.003Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The psycholinguistics of developing text construction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2008

RUTH A. BERMAN
RUTH A. BERMAN*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Ruth A. Berman, Department of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel69978. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper outlines functionally motivated quantifiable criteria for characterizing different facets of discourse – global-level principles, categories of referential content, clause-linking complex syntax, local linguistic expression and overall discourse stance – in relation to the variables of development, genre and modality. Concern is with later, school-age language development, in the conviction that the long developmental route of language acquisition can profitably be examined in the context of extended discourse. Findings are reviewed from a cross-linguistic project that elicited narrative and expository texts in both speech and writing at four age groups: (9–10 years, 12–13, 16–17 and adults). Clear developmental patterns emerge from middle childhood to adulthood, with significant shifts in adolescence; global-level text organization is mastered earlier in narratives than in expository essays, but the latter promote more advanced use of local-level lexicon and syntax; and spoken texts are more spread out than their denser written counterparts in clause-linkage, referential content and lexical usage. These and other findings are discussed in terms of the growth and reorganization of knowledge about types of discourse and text-embedded language use.

Type
Special Review Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 735 - 771
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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.)

Footnotes

[*]

This paper developed from an invited talk to the Forum on Brain and Language, Bar Ilan University, January 2006. Bracha Nir-Sagiv of Tel Aviv University was of invaluable help in all aspects of this paper, from ideas via coding to statistics. I am indebted to Dorit Ravid for her insights and support in our joint projects, to Anat Hora, Irit Katzenberger, Iris Levin, Ana Sandbank and Batia Seroussi for their helpful comments, and to two anonymous reviewers, to an associate editor of the journal, and to Edith Bavin as journal editor for important feedback. Inadequacies that remain are mine alone.

References

REFERENCES

Aksu-Koç, A. & von Stutterheim, C. (1994). Temporal relations in narrative: Simultaneity. In Berman, R. A. & Slobin, D. I., Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study, 393–456. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bar-Ilan, L. & Berman, R. A. (2007). The Latinate–Germanic divide and register differentiation in developing text production across adolescence. Linguistics 45, 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E. & Goodman, J. (1997). On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: Evidence from acquisition, aphasia, and real time processing. In Altmann, G. (ed.) Language and cognitive processes 12, 507–586 [Special Issue on the Lexicon].Google Scholar
Benson, M. S. (1993). 4- and 5-year olds' narratives in pretend play and storytelling. First Language 13, 203–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1986). A step-by-step model of language learning. In Levin, I. (ed.) Stage and structure: Re-opening the debate, 191–219. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1988). On the ability to relate events in narrative. Discourse Processes 11, 469–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1993). The development of language use: Expressing perspectives on a scene. In Dromi, E. (ed.) Language and cognition: A developmental perspective, 172–201. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1994). Formal, lexical, and semantic factors in the acquisition of Hebrew resultative participles. In Gahl, S., Dolbey, A. & Johnson, C. (eds) Berkeley Linguistic Society 20, 82–92.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1995). Narrative competence and storytelling performance: How children tell stories in different contexts. Journal of Narrative and Life History 5, 285–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1996). Form and function in the development of narrative abilities: The case of ‘and’. In Slobin, D. I., Gerhardt, J., Kyratzis, A. & Guo, J. (eds) Social interaction, social context, and language, 243–68. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1997). Narrative theory and narrative development: The Labovian impact. Journal of Narrative and Life History 7, 235–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1998). Typological perspectives on connectivity. In Dittmar, N. & Penner, Z. (eds) Issues in the theory of language acquisition, 203–224. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (2003). Genre and modality in developing discourse abilities. In Moder, C. L. & Martinovic-Ziv, A. (eds) Discourse across languages and culture, 329–56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (2004). Between emergence and mastery: The long developmental route of language acquisition. In Berman, R. A. (ed.) Language development across childhood and adolescence, 9–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (ed.) (2005). Journal of Pragmatics 37(2) [Special issue on Developing Discourse Stance Across Adolescence].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. (2007). Development of language knowledge and use across adolescence. In Hoff, E. & Shatz, M. (eds) Handbook of language development, 346–67. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (in press). Language development in narrative contexts. In Bavin, E. (ed.) Handbook of child language, chapter 20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Katzenberger, I. (1998). Cognitive and linguistic factors in development of picture-series narration. Studia Iltaliani I Linguistica Teorica e Applicata 27, 21–47.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Katzenberger, I. (2004). Form and function in introducing narrative and expository texts: A developmental perspective. Discourse Processes 38, 57–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2004). Linguistic indicators of inter-genre differentiation in later language development. Journal of Child Language 31, 339–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2007). Comparing narrative and expository text construction across adolescence: A developmental paradox. Discourse Processes 43, 79–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (in press-a). Clause-packaging in narratives: A crosslinguistic developmental study. In Guo, J., Lieven, E., Ervin-Tripp, S., Budwig, N., Özçalişkan, S. & Nakamura, K. (eds) Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan I. Slobin. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (in press-b). Spoken and written language across the school years. In Aram, D. & Korat, O. (eds) Festschrift in honor of Iris Levin. Jerusalem: Magnes Press [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (in press-c). The language of expository texts: Developmental perspectives. In Nippold, M. & Scott, C. (eds) Expository discourse in children, adolescents, and adults: Development and disorders. Taylor & Francis Publishers.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (in press-d). Cognitive and linguistic factors in evaluating text quality: Global versus local? In Evans, V. & Pourcel, S. (eds) New directions in cognitive linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Ravid, D. (in press-a). Analyzing narrative informativeness in speech and writing. In Tyler, A., Kim, Y. & Takada, M. (eds) Language in the context of use: Cognitive approaches to language and language learning, 79–101. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Ravid, D. (in press-b). Becoming a literate language user: Oral and written text construction across adolescence. In Olson, D. R. & Torranced, N. (eds) Cambridge Handbook of Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Verhoeven, L. (2002). Developing text production abilities across languages and age groups. Written Language and Literacy 5(1), 1–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biber, D. (1988). Variation across spoken and written English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Britton, B. K. (1994). Understanding expository text: Building mental structure to induce insights. In Gernsbacher, M. A. (ed.) Handbook of psycholinguistics, 641–74. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J. (2006). From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. Language 26, 711–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camps, A. & Milian, M. (eds) (2000). Metalinguistic activity in learning to write. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Carlisle, J. F. (2000). Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading. Reading and Writing 12, 169–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chafe, W. L. (1994). Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow of language in speech and writing. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Croft, W. & Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Dijk, T. A. (1980). Macrostructures. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Dockrell, J. E. & Messer, D. (2004). Lexical acquisition in the early school years. In Berman, R. A. (ed.) Language development across childhood and adolescence, 35–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H. & Miller, S. A. (1993). Cognitive development, 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Gayraud, F. (2000). Développement de la différenciation oral/écrit vu à travers le lexique. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Lumière, Lyon 2.Google Scholar
Graesser, A. C. & Bertus, E. L. (1998). The construction of causal inferences while reading expository texts on science and technology. Scientific Studies of Reading 2, 247–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1989). Spoken and written language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M. (1986). Psychosocial aspects of language acquisition. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds) Language acquisition, 2nd ed., 9–29. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, M. (2003). Children's discourse: Person, space, and time across languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, J. A. & Shapiro, L. R. (1991). From knowing to telling: The development of children's scripts, stories, and personal narratives. In McCabe, A. & Peterson, C. (eds) Developing narrative structure, 89–135. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Huitt, W. (2004). Bloom et al.'s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [17/01/05], from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html.Google Scholar
Hunt, K. W. (1965). Grammatical structures written at three grade levels (Research Report No. 3). Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Inhelder, B. & Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence. New York, NY: Basic Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1979). A functional approach to language: A study of determiners and reference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1986). From metaprocesses to conscious access: Evidence from children's metalinguistic and repair data. Cognition 23, 95–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Katzenberger, I. (1994) Cognitive and linguistic factors in the development of picture-series narration. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Tel Aviv University [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Katzenberger, I. (2004) The super-structure of written expository texts: A developmental perspective. In Ravid, D. & Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, H. (eds) Perspectives on language and language development, 327–36. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Kuhn, D. (1999). A developmental model of critical thinking. Educational Researcher 28, 16–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupersmitt, J. (2006). Temporality in texts: A crosslinguistic developmental study of form–function relations in narrative and expository discourse. Unpublished PhD, Bar-Ilan University.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Levy, Y., Schlesinger, I. M. & Braine, M. D. S. (eds) (1988). Categories and processes in language acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Loban, W. (1976). Language development: Kindergarten through grade twelve. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Malvern, D. D., Richards, B. J., Chipere, N. & Durán, P. (2004). Lexical diversity and language development: Quantification and assessment. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandler, J. M. (1987). On the psychological reality of story structure. Discourse Processes 10, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchman, V. & Bates, E. (1994). Continuity in lexical and morphological development: A test of the critical mass hypothesis. Journal of Child Language 21, 339–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marchman, V. & Thal, D. (2005). Words and grammar. In Tomasello, M. & Slobin, D. I. (eds) Beyond nature–nurture: Essays in honor of Elizabeth Bates, 139–64. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, C. & Thompson, S. A. (1988). The structure of discourse and ‘subordination’. In Haiman, J. & Thompson, S. A. (eds) Clause combining in grammar and discourse, 275–330. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. & Klee, T. (1995). Quantifying language disorders in children. In Fletcher, P. & MacWhinney, B. (eds) Handbook of child language, 545–72. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mitzner, T. L. & Kemper, S. (2003). Oral and written language in late adulthood: Findings from the nun study. Experimental Aging Research 29, 457–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, K. (ed.) (1986). Event knowledge: Structure and function in development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Nippold, M. A. (2006). Later language development: The school-age and adolescent years. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.Google Scholar
Nir-Sagiv, B. (2005). Crosslinguistic and developmental perspective on word length as a criterion for vocabulary complexity. Poster presented at The International Association of the Study of Child Language (IASCL), Berlin, July 2005.Google Scholar
Nir-Sagiv, B. (submitted). Clause packages as constructions in developing narrative discourse. Tel Aviv University doctoral dissertation.Google Scholar
Nir-Sagiv, B., Bar-Ilan, L. & Berman, R. A. (2008). Vocabulary development across adolescence: Text-based analyses. In Kupferberg, I. & Stavans, A. (eds) Studies in language and language education: Essays in honor of Elite Olshtain, 47–74. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.Google Scholar
Nir-Sagiv, B., Sternau, M., Berman, R. A. & Ravid, D. (in press). Register differentiation as a feature distinguishing school-age usage across the variables of genres (narrative/expository) and modality (written/spoken). Script: The Israeli Journal of Language and Literacy [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1994). The world on paper: The conceptual and cognitive implications of reading and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paus, T. (2005). Mapping brain maturation and cognitive development during adolescence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9, 60–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perfetti, C. (2007). Reading ability: Lexical quality to comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading 11, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C. & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics: Three ways of looking at a child's narrative. New York, NY: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. (2004 a). Emergence of linguistic complexity in later language development: Evidence from expository text construction. In Ravid, D. & Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, H. (eds) Perspectives on language and language development, 337–56. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. (2004 b). Derivational morphology revisited: Later lexical development in Hebrew. In Berman, R. A. (ed.) Language development across childhood and adolescence, 53–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, D. (2006). Semantic development in textual contexts during the school years: Noun Scale analyses. Journal of Child Language 33, 791–821.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ravid, D. & Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, H. (eds) (2004). Perspectives on language and language development: Essays in honor of Ruth A. Berman. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. & Berman, R. A. (2006). Information density in the development of spoken and written narratives in English and Hebrew. Discourse Processes 41, 117–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, D. & Tolchinsky, L. (2002). Developing linguistic literacy: A comprehensive model. Journal of Child Language 29, 417–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reilly, J. S. (1992). How to tell a good story: The intersect of language and affect in children's narratives. Journal of Narrative and Life History 2, 355–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhart, T. (1995). From text to meaning: Strategies of evaluation. In Shen, Y. (ed.) Cognitive aspects of narrative structure, 4–37. Tel Aviv: Porter Institute, Tel Aviv University [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Sandbank, A. (2002). The interplay between the written language and writing conventions in writing texts. In Tolchinsky, L. (ed.) Developmental aspects of learning to write, 55–76. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Sanders, T., Schilperoord, J. & Spooren, W. (eds) (2001). Text representation: Linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santrock, J. W. (1996). Adolescence, 6th ed.Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.Google Scholar
Schrire, S. (2002). The learning process, moderation and discourse patterns in asynchronous computer conferencing. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Florida.Google Scholar
Scinto, L. F. M. (1986). Written language and psychological development. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Scott, C. (1988). Spoken and written syntax. In Nippold, M. (ed.) Later language development: Ages nine through nineteen, 49–95. Boston, MA: College-Hill.Google Scholar
Scott, C. M. & Windsor, J. (2000). General language performance measures in spoken and written narrative and expository discourse of school-age children with language learning disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 43, 324–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shen, Y. (1988). The X-bar grammar for stories: Story grammar revisited. Text 9, 415–67.Google Scholar
Shen, Y. (2004). Why do we need evaluation devices anyway? In Ravid, D. & Shyldkrot, H. B. (eds) Perspectives on language and language development, 131–42. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1996). From ‘thought and language’ to ‘thinking for speaking’. In Gumperz, J. J. & Levinson, S. C. (eds) Rethinking linguistic relativity, 70–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (2001). Form–function relations: How do children find out what they are? In Bowerman, M. & Levinson, S. C. (eds) Language acquisition and conceptual development, 406–449. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (2003). Language and thought online: Cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity. In Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (eds) Language in mind: Advances in the investigation of language and thought, 157–91. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (2004). The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Strömqvist, S. & Verhoeven, L. (eds) Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives, 219–57. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Steinberg, L. (2005). Cognitive and affective development in adolescence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9, 69–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strömqvist, S., Nordqvist, Å. & Wengelin, Å. (2004). Writing the frog story: Developmental and cross-modal perspectives. In Strömqvist, S. & Verhoeven, L. (eds) Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives, 359–94. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strömqvist, S. & Verhoeven, L. (eds) (2004). Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolchinsky, L. (2004). The nature and scope of later language development. In Berman, R. A. (ed.) Language development across childhood and adolescence, 233–47. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolchinsky, L., Johansson, V. & Zamora, A. (2002). Text openings and closings: Textual autonomy and differentiation. Written Language and Literacy 5, 219–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (ed.) (1998). The new psychology of language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language structure, Volume 1. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
van den Broek, P., Linzie, B., Fletcher, C. & Marsolek, C. J. (2000). The role of causal discourse structure in narrative writing. Memory & Cognition 28, 711–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weist, R. M. (1990). Time concepts in language and thought: Filling the Piagetian void from two to five years. In Levin, I., & Zakay, D. (eds) Time and human cognition: A life-span perspective, 54–109. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar