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Observations on the role of logically constrained sentences in the comprehension of ‘before’ and ‘after’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Robert D. Kavanaugh
Robert D. Kavanaugh
Affiliation:
Williams College
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Abstract

Sentences were constructed in which the terms before and after were embedded in logically constrained and logically reversible sequences. As in French & Brown (1977), pre-school children found the constrained sentences easier to comprehend. These findings add a new dimension to Clark's (1971) original before and after study in which the effect of logically constrained sentences was not considered. The results of the two studies are consistent with a growing literature (including current formulations of semantic feature theory) which implicates contextual cues and child strategies in the comprehension process, and raises questions about the role of parental speech in the child's comprehension of temporal terms.

Type
Notes and Discussion
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 353 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

REFERENCES

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