Familiar Verbs Are Not Always Easier than Novel Verbs: How German Pre-School Children Comprehend Active and Passive Sentences

Autor/inn/en	Dittmar, Miriam; Abbot-Smith, Kirsten; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael
Titel	Familiar Verbs Are Not Always Easier than Novel Verbs: How German Pre-School Children Comprehend Active and Passive Sentences
Quelle	In: Cognitive Science, 38 (2014) 1, S.128-151 (24 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0364-0213
DOI	10.1111/cogs.12066
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Familiarity; Verbs; Novelty (Stimulus Dimension); Hypothesis Testing; Age Differences; Syntax; Comprehension; Preschool Children; Germany + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Hypothesenprüfung; Hypothesentest; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Verstehen; Verständnis; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Deutschland
Abstract	Many studies show a developmental advantage for transitive sentences with familiar verbs over those with novel verbs. It might be that once familiar verbs become entrenched in particular constructions, they would be more difficult to understand (than would novel verbs) in non-prototypical constructions. We provide support for this hypothesis investigating German children using a forced-choice pointing paradigm with reversed agent-patient roles. We tested active transitive verbs in study 1. The 2-year olds were better with familiar than novel verbs, while the 2½-year olds pointed correctly for both. In study 2, we tested passives: 2½-year olds were significantly below chance for familiar verbs and at chance for novel verbs, supporting the hypothesis that the entrenchment of the familiar verbs in the active transitive voice was interfering with interpreting them in the passive voice construction. The 3½-year olds were also at chance for novel verbs but above chance with familiar verbs. We interpret this as reflecting a lessening of the verb-in-construction entrenchment as the child develops knowledge that particular verbs can occur in a range of constructions. The 4½-year olds were above chance for both familiar and novel verbs. We discuss our findings in terms of the relative entrenchment of lexical and syntactic information and to interference between them. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10