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Abbot-Smith, Kirsten; Serratrice, Ludovica – Journal of Child Language, 2015
In Study 1 we analyzed Italian child-directed-speech (CDS) and selected the three most frequent active transitive sentence frames used with overt subjects. In Study 2 we experimentally investigated how Italian-speaking children aged 2;6, 3;6, and 4;6 comprehended these orders with novel verbs when the cues of animacy, gender, and subject-verb…
Descriptors: Word Order, Child Language, Italian, Language Acquisition
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O'Shannessy, Carmel – Journal of Child Language, 2011
The study examines strategies multilingual children use to interpret grammatical relations, focusing on their two primary languages, Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Both languages use mixed systems for indicating grammatical relations. In both languages ergative-absolutive case-marking indicates core arguments, but to different extents in…
Descriptors: Video Technology, Sentences, Language Research, Form Classes (Languages)
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Theakston, Anna L.; Lieven, Elena V. M. – Journal of Child Language, 2008
LChildren pass through a stage in development when they produce utterances that contain auxiliary BE ("he's playing") and utterances where auxiliary BE is omitted ("he playing"). One explanation that has been put forward to explain this phenomenon is the presence of questions in the input that model S-V word order (Theakston, Lieven & Tomasello,…
Descriptors: Word Order, Language Acquisition, Verbs, Linguistic Input
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Bloom, Paul – Journal of Child Language, 1990
Presents a study of young children's understanding that pronouns and proper names cannot be modified by pronominal adjectives. Some nonsyntactic theories are discussed that support the claim that children understand knowledge of word order through the rules that order abstract linguistic categories. (31 references) (GLR)
Descriptors: Adjectives, Child Language, Language Research, Nouns
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Demuth, Katherine; Machobane, 'Malillo; Moloi, Francina – Journal of Child Language, 2003
Theorists of language acquisition have long debated the means by which children learn the argument structure of verbs (e.g. Bowerman, 1974, 1990; Pinker, 1984, 1989; Tomasello, 1992). Central to this controversy has been the possible role of verb semantics, especially in learning which verbs undergo dative-shift alternation in languages like…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Verbs, Semantics, African Languages
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Akhtar, Nameera – Journal of Child Language, 1999
To test hypothesis that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs, 12 children in each of three age groups (2-year olds, 3-year olds, and 4-year olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial, final, and initial. Results suggest English-speaking children's acquisition of a…
Descriptors: Child Language, Generalization, Grammar, Language Acquisition
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Keren-Portnoy, Tamar – Journal of Child Language, 2006
This paper presents a model of syntax acquisition, whose main points are as follows: Syntax is acquired in an item-based manner; early learning facilitates subsequent learning--as evidenced by the accelerating rate of new verbs entering a given structure; and mastery of syntactic knowledge is typically achieved through practice--as evidenced by…
Descriptors: Verbs, Foreign Countries, Word Order, Models
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O'Grady, William; And Others – Journal of Child Language, 1986
Tests the prediction that children acquiring left-branching languages will exhibit a preference for backward patterns of anaphora by presenting data from Japanese and Korean which show the prediction to be false. Findings support the view that any directionality preference for anaphora is the same for all languages. (Author/SED)
Descriptors: Child Language, Children, Generative Grammar, Interviews
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Richards, Meredith Martin – Journal of Child Language, 1979
Ninety children between the ages of three and six described objects which differed on three simultaneous dimensions, using adjective combinations appropriate to the dimensions. Each child performed an imitation, comprehension, and production task. (Author/CFM)
Descriptors: Adjectives, Child Language, Language Acquisition, Language Research
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Kess, Joseph F. – Journal of Child Language, 1979
This article discusses a study by Segalowitz and Galang that reports results showing better mastery of patient-focus sentences than agent-focus sentences for Tagalog children. (CFM)
Descriptors: Child Language, English, Language Acquisition, Language Processing
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Segalowitz, Norman S.; Galang, Rosita G. – Journal of Child Language, 1978
In a study, Tagalog-speaking children, 3-, 5-, and 7-year olds, demonstrated better mastery of patient-focus (passive) than agent-focus (active) sentence structure. These results were attributed to the children's strategy of interpreting the first noun of a sentence to be the agent of the action. (SW)
Descriptors: Child Language, Cognitive Processes, Comprehension, Intellectual Development
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Hickey, Tina – Journal of Child Language, 1990
Examined the development of Irish word order patterns. It was found that the 1.5- to 3-year-olds (N=3) studied used subject-initial utterances more frequently than adults in input, and that for both adults and children the elision of the verb "to be" had a significant role in the placement of subjects in the utterances. (42 references)…
Descriptors: Child Language, Language Acquisition, Language Patterns, Language Research
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Kail, Michele – Journal of Child Language, 2004
This study examined the on-line processing of French sentences in a grammaticality judgment experiment. Three age groups of French children (mean age: 6;8, 8;6 and 10;10 years) and a group of adults were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors were studied: the violation type: agreement violations (number and…
Descriptors: Sentences, Age, Grammar, Word Order