Acquisition of Turkish demonstrative pronouns in children

Abstract

Joint focus of attention is one of the most crucial elements in effective communication. Demonstrative pronouns (DPs) have an important role in providing this joint focus of attention. Although demonstratives are a prevalent topic, not many studies are conducted to find out the developmental stages of them. Therefore, the current study attempts to find out children’s comprehension of DPs in Turkish. Based on the results of the study, children’s developmental stages in different age groups are provided. Turkish has a three-way distinction in its demonstrative pronoun system: bu (this), su (this/that) and o (that). The subjects of the study were 12 children of ages 3,4 and 5. The results of the study were intriguing and they showed that learning the demonstrative system in Turkish might follow U-shaped learning pattern. Also, the results seem to support egocentrism hypothesis that children under the age of six had difficulty in shifting the deictic center when they and the experimenter have a different perspective. The use of su at the age of 4 also showed surprising results.