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Who, why, when, and how: a development study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Helen S. Cairns  and
Jennifer Ryan Hsu
Helen S. Cairns
Affiliation:
Queens College and City University of New York
Jennifer Ryan Hsu
Affiliation:
City University of New York
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Abstract

Fifty children between the ages of 3; 0 and 5; 6 were asked six types of wh- questions following videotaped sequences. It is argued that differential difficulty of various forms of who questions supports a parallel model of information retrieval and processing during discourse. The differential difficulty of why and when questions are, however, attributable to a necessary progression in the ability to encode the relevant concepts linguistically. Responses to how questions are difficult because they involve a number of unrelated skills.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , October 1978 , pp. 477 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

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