Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:39:11.600Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's judgements of correct and reversed sentences with ‘if’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Harriet F. Emerson
Harriet F. Emerson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Judgements of grammatical acceptability were made for correct and reversed ‘Y if X’ and ‘If X, Y’ sentences. Children aged 4; 10–8; 7 judged sentences ‘sensible’ or ‘silly’ and modified the sentences to make them ‘silly’ or ‘sensible’. Children failed to differentiate correct and reversed-order sentences prior to age 7 or 8. There was no evidence of an order-of-mention response strategy, but ‘If X, Y’ and ‘If Y, X’ sentences were easier to judge than ‘Y if X’ and ‘X if Y’, suggesting that children prefer sentences in which stated order parallels temporal order. The strategies used to modify the sentences changed with age from content changes to order reversals. The modifications suggested that contingency becomes a component of the meaning of if before the child assigns unidirectional event order as a component of if.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , February 1980 , pp. 137 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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

[*]

The author would like to thank Drs D. Bruce and V. Emerson for their comments on the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Miss V. B. Pratt, Headteacher, and all the teachers of the infant classes at Newnham Croft School, Cambridge, for their cooperation. Address for correspondence: Department of Psychology, Dawson College, 350 Selby St, Westmount, Quebec H3Z 1W7.

References

REFERENCES

Amidon, A. (1976). Children's understanding of sentences with contingent relations. JExpChPsychol 22. 423–37.Google Scholar
Braine, M. D. S. (1978). On the relation between the natural logic of reasoning and standard logic. PsychRev 85. 1–21.Google Scholar
Clancy, P., Jacobsen, T. & Silva, M. (1976). The acquisition of conjunction. PRCLD 12. 71–80.Google Scholar
Corrigan, R. (1975). A scalogram analysis of the development of the use and comprehension of because in children. ChDev 46. 195–201.Google Scholar
De Villiers, P. A. & De Villiers, J. G. (1972). Early judgments of semantic and syntactic acceptability by children. JPsycholingRes 1. 299–310.Google ScholarPubMed
Emerson, H. F. (1979). Children's comprehension of ‘because’in reversible and non-reversible sentences. JChLang 6. 279–300.Google ScholarPubMed
Flores d'Arcais, G. B. (1977). The comprehension of causal sentences in children. Paper presented at the 4th Salzburg International Psycholinguistics Conference.Google Scholar
Homzie, M. J. & Gravitt, C. B. (1977). Children's reproductions: effects of event order and implied vs. directly stated causation. JChLang 4. 237–46.Google Scholar
Howe, H. E. Jr & Hillman, D. (1973). The acquisition of semantic restrictions in children. JVLVB 12. 132–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, S. L. & Miller, J. F. (1973). Children's awareness of semantic constraints in sentences. ChDev 44. 69–76.Google Scholar
Johnson, H. L. & Chapman, R. S. (in press). Children's judgment and recall of causal connectives. JPsycholingResGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, D. & Phelps, H. (1976). The development of children's comprehension of causal direction. ChDev 47. 248–51.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. II & Daly, M. J. (1979). The development of hypothetical reference in the speech of young children. JChLang 6. 563–80.Google ScholarPubMed
Menyuk, P. (1969). Sentences children use. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1976). Language and perception. Cambridge: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, S. G. (1973). Comprehension of language connectives and propositional logical relationships. JExpChPsychol 16. 278–91.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1928). Judgment and reasoning in the child. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Werner, H. & Kaplan, B. (1967). Symbol formation. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar