This study explores factors other than the concept of comparison which influence the learning of specific comparative adjective forms, namely, (a) the nature of the perceptual input, and (b) the nature of the event. Thirty subjects, age 4; 5 to 7; 9, were asked to describe objects reflecting various attribute differences in both multiple-object comparison and single-object, dynamic-change tasks. Children used comparative adjectives to talk about dynamic changes prior to static comparisons, and attributes based on visual or tactile input were easier than those based on both. These results are interpreted as indicating that perceptual cue redundancy and heterogeneity affects the learning of attribute dimensions, and that children first use the -er suffix in a non-comparative sense.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the function of word order, inflections and discourse context in the sentence comprehension process. Ten 2; 6 and ten 3; 6 Polish children acted out sentences with toys. The target sentences were either inflected or uninflected, and given inflectional information sentences were ordered SVO or OVS. Context sentences established given information which was in initial or final position in the target sentences. When inflectional information was available, all the children used it effectively with very little interference from OVS and new–given arrangements. In spite of the fact that word order distributes given and new information in adult Polish, children could utilize word order to recover semantic functions with uninflected sentence problems.

The present study tests the hypothesis that many of the grammatical errors that occur during the course of language development can serve as ‘auto-input’ leading directly to the acquisition of new expressive forms. A free-speech corpus of grammatically incorrect sentences was gathered from each of 4 four-year-old subjects. Three additional sets of sentences were constructed: sentences containing errors similar to those actually produced, sentences containing ‘baby errors’ and correct sentences. The children were asked to judge these sentences as correct or incorrect. Significantly fewer corrections were made in the sentences with subject-generated errors than in the sentences with similar errors or ‘baby errors’. These results can be explained by assuming that children learn their own errors.

The use of linguistic and extralinguistic information in identifying conversational topics was studied in 3- and 5-year-old children. Pictures portraying an actor–action–object relation were used to guide conversations. Both active pictures, emphasizing an action relating actor and object via postural cues, and static pictures, which did not, were used. Linguistic topics were implied by prefacing each picture with comments topicalizing actor, action or object. In neutral control groups no topic was implied and, in an explicit control group of 3-year-Olds the actor's action on the object was directly topicalized. While implicit topic definition was sufficient for 5-year-olds' production of contingent replies, explicit definition of a topic was necessary to evoke a similar pattern of replies from 3-year-olds. These findings are discussed in terms of different modes of topic definition and their order of acquisition.

Three- and four-year-old children were tested on their comprehension of the locative prepositions in front of, in back of, ahead of, and behind. Results demonstrated that those prepositions characterized as positive by H. Clark (1973) were, contrary to theoretical predictions, comprehended more poorly than their ostensibly negative counterparts. Discussion of the possible reasons for these findings is included.

Some conjunctions simultaneously convey speakers' presuppositions about the validity of propositions uttered and assertions of particular interclausal relations. Because conveys belief, if + indicative, uncertainty and if + subjunctive, disbelief. While all three conjuctions assert positive entailment, unless, which like if + indicative presupposes uncertainty, asserts negative entailment or denial. The relationship between pragmatic knowledge and reasoning was explored by asking 12 males and 12 females at each of three ages (12, 15, adult) to solve written syllogisms containing the four conjunctions and evaluate single sentences for their pragmatic content. In the pragmatic task, belief was easier to detect than uncertainty or disbelief. Positive entailment was easier than negative entailment. Only entailment influenced syllogistic reasoning with unless harder than the positively entailed conjunctions. At each age linguistic comprehension of negative entailment was related to understanding valid implications in unless syllogisms. The relation between comprehension of pragmatic uncertainty and detection of uncertain conclusions in reasoning increased with age.

Children's acquisition of noun pluralization patterns in Hebrew was studied longitudinally and cross-sectionally. The data show that, through the period of acquisition (age 2–3), children make maximal use of the available morphophonological clues for pluralization; they determine their choice of the plural morpheme according to the nature of the final syllable of the noun singular. They seem totally insensitive to the semantic notion of gender which governs the choice of plurals for animate nouns, as well as to a syntactic notion of gender which in Hebrew determines noun–adjective agreement.

Children (mean age 3; 6) were tested as to the comprehension of the deictic words this, that, here and there in two conditions: as hearers–addressees and as hearers–spectators. It was hypothesized that comprehension of these words depends on the role the comprehender plays in the conversation, and that a spectator's role is more difficult than an addressee's. Comprehension in a pragmatic condition (with a pointing gesture accompanying the utterance) was contrasted with a semantic condition (without gesture), and the prediction was that the pragmatic use of the words would facilitate comprehension. It was also theorized that this and here are marked, whereas that and there are unmarked. Therefore, it was predicted that this and here would be more difficult to comprehend than that and there. All the initial predictions were confirmed by the analysis of variance. The results are discussed within recent theories of pragmatics, semantics and cognitive development.

An analysis was undertaken to determine the grammatical and semantic means by which children achieve textual coherence, in narratives in particular and discourse in general. Twenty-one stories from twelve children aged two to five were analysed, with particular attention given to noun phrases (NPs) which were introduced and reiterated at least once in subsequent story clauses. In recognition of the agent-oriented nature of narrative and its sense of the succession of events, children introduced and reiterated primarily + animate NPs in their stories, expressing them predominantly as agents. With respect to discourse coherence in general, most reiterated NPs appeared in subject position both with introduction and subsequent mention, suggesting they were elements of focus. The given-new distinction was well preserved, too. Though at age five stories became considerably longer and denser with reiterated NPs, features of textual coherence held for all the age groups considered.

This study determined whether young children are sensitive to the contextual influence of previous discourse on judgements of the adequacy of referential communications. Four- and six-year-old children were read short stories containing terminal referential communications that were either ambiguous or informative relative to a perceptual display of candidate-referential objects. Contextual information was given in the story prior to the terminal communication that was irrelevant to the ambiguous communications or that made these communications functionally informative. The subjects were required to say whether the listener in the story could identify one unique referent. The results showed that the judgements of both groups of children were sensitive to the discourse context of the communications. The children discriminated between the functionally informative and ambiguous communications.

There has been continuing interest in the Semantic Feature Hypothesis (SFH) over the last ten years but there appears to have been no experimental study which explores a complete semantic field nor one which uses a cross-cultural sample. Eighty New Zealand children, Maori and non-Maori, aged between 4; 0 and 4; 11, were tested for word recognition of the spatial adjectives following Bierwisch's (1967) componential analysis. The study extended previous work on the SFH by comparing performance on feature recognition, and by examining effect of word context on ease of discrimination. Results supported the view that word meaning is learned in bits, but failed to support any other predictions based on SFH. There was difference between the samples in performance on word recognition but no difference on features. It is suggested that more attention should be given to the characteristics of individual words as agents for the acquisition of other words.